In need of a Recommendation

techtitan100 · 09 Dec 2015

I don't normally post stuff here in the General Discussion Website, but I need some opinions about a new external hard drive, I want to ask is what is cheap, but yet has at least 1 TB of space on it, I had bought a brand new one off amazon about a few years back and about a month ago when I was transferring files off of it onto my computer I accidentally dropped it and broke it, luckily all of my data was on the cloud, the one that broke was a Toshiba Canvio with 500 GB of space, any recommendations would be helpful thanks

ignatzatsonic · 09 Dec 2015

Must it be a standard, fully enclosed, external drive?

I use a drive dock that is connected to a USB 3.0 port on the PC, rather than an "external drive" per se.

Advantage is that you can buy any drive you want and insert it into the dock when and as needed. Most docks will accommodate any drive up to 3 TB and sometimes larger. You aren't restricted to the slow 5400 rpm drives of unknown pedigree that you might find in a typical external.

Is this just a backup drive?

Do you intend to keep it on your desk, in a running state, constantly? Or to keep it in a closet and break it out for some purpose weekly or monthly? Or?

There's a strong commodity flavor to all of them. At gunpoint, I'd probably choose Western Digital if I insisted on a traditional external drive.

AddRAM · 09 Dec 2015

It`s all about how much you want to spend ??

WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0 External Desktop Storage WDBWLG0020HBK-NESN Black - Newegg.com

WD 4TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBFJK0040HBK-NESN - Newegg.com

Desktop External Hard Drive & Portable Storage - Newegg.com

I would stick with Western Digital or Seagate.

Ztruker · 10 Dec 2015

I bought a Toshiba Canvio 1TB external USB 3.0 for $59 about a year ago. I think they are still selling around that price. I've used it a lot, never a problem.

whs · 10 Dec 2015

Ignatz has the right idea. Get a USB3 dock and then use cheaper internal disks. That's what I do and use all the HDDs that I recovered from my 5 laptops when I installed the SSDs.