Recommend an external drive, please!

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

09/22/2010 09:22:54 AM · #1

So my computer is full (I have 20 Gb left). 300 Gb. I'm amazed, though I guess I shouldn't be. The bulk of it is pictures. I had a 160 Gb passbook, but for the life of me can't find it. I think it's full too though. Anyway, I decided to buy a 1 Tb (or maybe even a 2 TB) external and move my pictures there. I've been looking on Amazon, but it seems they ALL have bad reviews. Anyone have any good ones to recommend. Just to mention, I usually back up to DVD as well but I've been a touch lax lately. I probably have about 8 months of photos to back up to DVD. I did just buy a new 50 pack of DVD's.

fotomann_forever

09/22/2010 09:39:15 AM · #2

When you realize that ALL hard drives WILL eventually fail... Your decision becomes much easier. IMO, two cheaper drives is a wiser decision than one more expensive one.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

09/22/2010 09:42:22 AM · #3

I have one of these 750Gb Seagate Freeagent drives. It's been working just great for about 1 1/2 years. USB, Firewire and ESATA make it convenient to connect. I paid less for it 18 months ago at Fry's than Amazon is asking for it now, however.

09/22/2010 09:47:05 AM · #4

I kind of had a weird experience with my external hard drives when I first got them...I have a My Book from Western Digital...works good never had any trouble...then I wanted a portable HD to take with me when I traveled, so I could download my pictures right away to protect them...I got a LaCie because they have a very nice casing that protects the HD...well the two HD's didn't play nicely (crashed my compter multiple times...black screen of death)...so I returned the LaCie and got a passport (made by WD)...haven't had any problems since then....I did get both of mine at Costco...and since then we got one for our daughter and that was when I discovered that you need to look at the speed of the device...they vary and I'm sure someone else can give you a better guideline that I on that....

09/22/2010 09:51:13 AM · #5

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

When you realize that ALL hard drives WILL eventually fail... Your decision becomes much easier. IMO, two cheaper drives is a wiser decision than one more expensive one.

I understand that. But some seem to fail faster than others. I was looking at a 2TB from Seagate for $120. Then I read the reviews, it seems they fail within a few months. Iomega seems to be the brand with the least amount of bad reviews (so far). I'm just looking to see if anyone has had one for a couple years that's still working.

09/22/2010 09:52:48 AM · #6

Originally posted by Kelli:

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
When you realize that ALL hard drives WILL eventually fail... Your decision becomes much easier. IMO, two cheaper drives is a wiser decision than one more expensive one.

I understand that. But some seem to fail faster than others. I was looking at a 2TB from Seagate for $120. Then I read the reviews, it seems they fail within a few months. Iomega seems to be the brand with the least amount of bad reviews (so far). I'm just looking to see if anyone has had one for a couple years that's still working.

I've probably had my WD (Western Digitals) for a couple of years...so far they are reliable

09/22/2010 09:54:29 AM · #7

Originally posted by Ja-9:

My passbook is a WD. I was never really happy with it (though it has never failed), it just always seemed to want to do it's own thing.

09/22/2010 09:57:12 AM · #8

Originally posted by Kelli:

Originally posted by Ja-9:
I kind of had a weird experience with my external hard drives when I first got them...I have a My Book from Western Digital...works good never had any trouble...then I wanted a portable HD to take with me when I traveled, so I could download my pictures right away to protect them...I got a LaCie because they have a very nice casing that protects the HD...well the two HD's didn't play nicely (crashed my compter multiple times...black screen of death)...so I returned the LaCie and got a passport (made by WD)...haven't had any problems since then....I did get both of mine at Costco...and since then we got one for our daughter and that was when I discovered that you need to look at the speed of the device...they vary and I'm sure someone else can give you a better guideline that I on that....

My passbook is a WD. I was never really happy with it (though it has never failed), it just always seemed to want to do it's own thing.

I use my passport to store my "virgin" files only...that is the only thing that is on there...nothing else...I had automatic updates on My Book...but I quickly turned that off...so I only download manually...

09/22/2010 09:57:51 AM · #9

from what I've been seeing at Costco the prices have been dropping and the storage is going up....

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

09/22/2010 10:03:20 AM · #10

Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive is $78 with free shipping on Amazon. It has 4 1/2 star rating. I think I might just go with it.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

09/22/2010 10:04:17 AM · #11

BTW, Maxtor and Seagate are the same manufacturer these days. I built my current computer with a 1Tb Maxtor. When it failed 10 months out, they replaced it with a Seagate. (Which also failed in a few months). Fortunately, I had a recent backup the first time, and the second time it was not a complete failure, so I had a chance to back it all up. I've got another replacement from them, but I have a 2Tb Hitachi in the computer now.

Since large hard drives are so cheap now, I build my computers with 2 drives. One for the OS and apps, the other for data files. If the data drive fails I can still boot my computer and attempt recovery. If the boot drive fails, my data files are not lost. Probably will to do a RAID setup sometime in the future.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED

09/22/2010 10:11:54 AM · #12

Thanks guys! It's ordered. And at least I know it will play nice with my passbook once I find it.

fotomann_forever

09/22/2010 10:19:46 AM · #13

Originally posted by Ja-9:

I've probably had my WD (Western Digitals) for a couple of years...so far they are reliable

I've had many hard drives for years (including WDs that I tend to like)... but the only reassurance you get from even the most expensive hard drives is to have backups of anything you deem valuable.

dswann

Nikon D7000

09/22/2010 10:30:01 AM · #14

I use two WD 600Gb My Books for my photos. One is the primary drive and one is a real time mirror image. Been running these for about a year now. I have used WD drives for over 20 years and have never had a failure (knock on wood).

Mambe

Canon EOS-1000D Rebel XS

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

09/22/2010 10:43:07 AM · #15

I have Iomega HDD, some are more than 4 years old and I never have had a problem with them, I use them to store photos, documents and also to copy my original music cds but not an intensive use (just the time to copy the files, and always switch them off correctly). Maybe the design is not so "uptodate" as other brands but ...

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

09/22/2010 10:43:11 AM · #16

Something else to consider, for others, or for the future...

Buy a SATA drive dock... these are small units that plug into the wall for power and your USB port (or eSata or firewire port, depending on the specific dock). Then you basically insert a bare SATA (OEM style) hard drive in it, and you have an external drive. When that's full, or to do a separate backup, just hot swap that one for another drive. It's not much different than buying a lot of complete drives, EXCEPT: 1) the bare drives are smaller and easier to store, and self contained, so all you are storing is the drive and no power supplies; and 2) bare drives are cheaper because you are not paying for the case each time.

Of course, you have to be somewhat careful while handling the bare drives...the electronics are exposed on one side. Just keep the anti-static sleeve they come in and use that for storage.

I do this--I use the bare drives as backup media-cheaper and more storage than buying a bunch of WD Passport drives (which are nice because they are small and self contained--better for travel, but not for backup).

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

09/22/2010 11:14:26 AM · #17

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Originally posted by Ja-9:

I've probably had my WD (Western Digitals) for a couple of years...so far they are reliable

I've had many hard drives for years (including WDs that I tend to like)... but the only reassurance you get from even the most expensive hard drives is to have backups of anything you deem valuable.

for me it's the pictures that I have and DO NOT want to loose... all the rest can be recreated or found later...we usually run our computers until they are beyond dead so I don't usually store anything of value on them and I have very little of value to store

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

09/22/2010 01:45:32 PM · #18

I'm going back to Seagate drives -- I've had problems over the past few years with WD, LaCie, Maxstor ... my 500GB WD drive is in the process of failing; I'm trying to back it up to a 1.5TB Seagate USBII drive I got at Costco for about $120. It's hard to find FireWire dives these days ... :-(

Seagate has a relatively new line of NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives in 1 and 2TB sizes -- these hook directly into a router and don't have to be attached to any particular computer. You can set up sharing permissions if you have multiple computers on a LAN -- it's kind of like its own mini-server. I just saw the 1TB drive at Fry's for $140, and there was a recent review in the New York Times tech section. To make these practical you need a fast Ethernet network, which I think can be either wired or wireless.

Mostly I prefer getting two smaller drives to one larger one, but it's getting harder to manage.

Personally, I don't trust any drives any more since they started taking out the fans -- I'm going to get one of those clip-on the shelf fans to cool them.

For my photo originals, I always keep them on two forms of media; I don't erase them from the card until they've been copied to both a hard drive and CD/DVD. I'm not so careful about backing up other stuff ...

Message edited by author 2010-09-22 13:47:39.

gwsallen

Nikon D300

Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 Di II LD Aspherical (IF) for Nikon

09/23/2010 10:46:30 AM · #19

Originally posted by Kelli:

Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive is $78 with free shipping on Amazon. It has 4 1/2 star rating. I think I might just go with it.

I am looking for an external hard drive too. is this the one you ordered? -> Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAU0010HBK-NESN