Member of the Month

X_MEMESWERVE_XX
March, 2025

Online

Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post. Register to become a member today!

External Hard Drives

profile picture
Wheaty214
Posts: 1687 - Karma: 841
Anybody have any suggestions for hard drives?

I've been trying to take into consideration the average lifespan of different drives, transfer speeds (Thunderbolt seems to be the fastest available for my Macbook Pro), and storage size.

I'm fine with 1TB of space, as I'm just using them for storing my photos. Anymore would be overkill considering I typically delete the pictures I'm not too fond of.

Any help would be much appreciated!
POLL
Edit Poll
Votes:

Take care when editing a poll; Options should be similar to maintain vote integrity.

More options will be added automatically as you type. You must supply a question and at least two options. No HTML is allowed.

9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
eheath
Posts: 61862 - Karma: 125,752
You probably want a hard drive thats portable, doesn't need to plug into the wall, and thunderbolt is great but I'd go with USB 3.0 to keep it universal.

Suggestions:

I have this drive, I love it
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1009518-REG/g_technology_0g02874_1tb_7200_g_drive_mobile_usb3.html

I've used this drive before, liked it
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/ME6UM7T10G16/

"rugged" drives that are also decent. but 5400 rpm drive is a disappointment
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/813173-REG/LaCie_301558_Rugged_Mini_Portable_Hard.html

Overall, something with usb 3.0, 7200 rpm drive and about $90-100 is what you're looking at for 1tb. Feel free to ask any questions, i can probably help ya out.
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
Wheaty214
Posts: 1687 - Karma: 841
eheathYou probably want a hard drive thats portable, doesn't need to plug into the wall, and thunderbolt is great but I'd go with USB 3.0 to keep it universal.

Suggestions:

I have this drive, I love it
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1009518-REG/g_technology_0g02874_1tb_7200_g_drive_mobile_usb3.html

I've used this drive before, liked it
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/ME6UM7T10G16/

"rugged" drives that are also decent. but 5400 rpm drive is a disappointment
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/813173-REG/LaCie_301558_Rugged_Mini_Portable_Hard.html

Overall, something with usb 3.0, 7200 rpm drive and about $90-100 is what you're looking at for 1tb. Feel free to ask any questions, i can probably help ya out.


How long have you had the G-Drive? I have one and it's starting to shit out on me, might be the connection cord though, as it randomly "unplugs" from my Mac.
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
eheath
Posts: 61862 - Karma: 125,752
Wheaty214How long have you had the G-Drive? I have one and it's starting to shit out on me, might be the connection cord though, as it randomly "unplugs" from my Mac.


It's been solid for like 4 months now or so, gtech makes great stuff, but any hard drive is prone to failure. You're not going to buy a brand that will never crash, so always keep that in mind and backup your stuff!
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
arnie_grape
Posts: 3457 - Karma: 11,907
seagate can't be trusted.

I had a 2tb drive that just stopped working after 8 months. didn't drop it or anything, it was fine one day and clicking the next.
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
eheath
Posts: 61862 - Karma: 125,752
GORILLAWALLACEseagate can't be trusted.

I had a 2tb drive that just stopped working after 8 months. didn't drop it or anything, it was fine one day and clicking the next.


Seagate actually makes a TON of drives for many different companies, the odds are you just got unlucky, seagate makes great internal drives.

You can really dog a company because your hard drive crashed, that shit just happens, its impossible to prevent.
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
whiteboi
Posts: 477 - Karma: 1,228
I have two My Passport drives, one of which I've been using for over two years now. Works perfect and the My Passport drives are generally pretty affordable, would highly recommend
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
ascent_studios
Posts: 2157 - Karma: 4,581
I love Western Digital! I've had there 1 TB passport for 3 years now and it's awesome. Just recently bough a 4TB my book after my passport nearly crashed. Now I back everything up and it's been worth it. The truth is that no drive is uncrahsable but the fact that I was able to go 3.5 years with one hard drive and only have a slight problem is amazing. I put that thing through a lot to. Traveling and all I even dropped it once or twice (don't recommend it)
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
JAHpow
Posts: 7282 - Karma: 17,189
I've only ever used a Lacie drive in school but they worked great. Can't tell you about how long a life they have though. They're really rugged so that's a plus.
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
.lencon
Posts: 6753 - Karma: 17,197
I just ordered one a few days ago.

what are some tips to keep it in working order?
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
.Hugo.
Posts: 17360 - Karma: 28,488
I have a white one that works really well
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
eheath
Posts: 61862 - Karma: 125,752
.lenconI just ordered one a few days ago.

what are some tips to keep it in working order?


Don't drop it or get it wet (normal electronic stuff), don't move it while its in use, keep it packed inside a tshirt or something if you travel with it.
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
.lencon
Posts: 6753 - Karma: 17,197
eheathDon't drop it or get it wet (normal electronic stuff), don't move it while its in use, keep it packed inside a tshirt or something if you travel with it.


I did get one thats shock proof but yeah I don't plan on dropping it. I did not know that i couldn't move it while in use though.
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
ascent_studios
Posts: 2157 - Karma: 4,581
.lenconI did get one thats shock proof but yeah I don't plan on dropping it. I did not know that i couldn't move it while in use though.


It's not a huge deal if you do just try to be really really gentle and don't accidentally shake it or stuff like that
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
T-Nutcracker
Posts: 1056 - Karma: 436
honestly fuck them.
twice in my lifetime i bought a good quality drive to store my old files.
after about 2-4 years storage in a safe place, both broke and all my data was lost.
go for cloud storage, hard drives is so 2005
9 years ago
0 0
profile picture
eheath
Posts: 61862 - Karma: 125,752
T-Nutcrackerhonestly fuck them.
twice in my lifetime i bought a good quality drive to store my old files.
after about 2-4 years storage in a safe place, both broke and all my data was lost.
go for cloud storage, hard drives is so 2005


Well yeah, hard drives were never meant to last forever, even DVDs will "rot" is a sense after 10-15 years and wont work anymore. Cloud storage is great if you have less than like 50GB of files to save and you can't work on media files on a cloud.

The best way to keep important files is using multiple drives in a RAID system, replacing drives when they fail.
9 years ago
0 0
All times are Eastern (-4); Currently it's 7:46AM