External HDD recommendation?

martinlest · 18 Oct 2017

Thanks for the ideas. I really don't want to put a HDD into the case: for various reasons I want to keep it SSD. I'd love an SSD but for the size I need I can't justify the cost. Finally, I have bought a LaCie Porsche Design 5TB USB-C + USB 3.0, which will take the data I have and seems to be well reviewed for performance and reliability (I've had a LaCie Firewire drive for 10 years+ and it's lasted just fine. I think it's the luck of the draw how long a drive lasts - I have a lot of various makes and I've only had two or three fail on me.

So fingers crossed with this one... £159.99 sterling, good price for the UK.

ThrashZone · 18 Oct 2017

Hi,
With built in hdd enclosures it's the enclosure that fails
But if the enclosure fails the hdd is useless because of the encryption the enclosure uses is now borked
Good luck
Cheers.

Lady Fitzgerald · 18 Oct 2017

For continuous operation, I would recommend a WD Black up to 4TB (HDDs larger than 4TB are starting to show higher failure rates) and put it in a USB 3.0 external enclosure. if heat is a concern, try to find an external enclosure that also has a cooling fan.

The new WD Blues have started to show an increasing failure rate, especially for the 4TB ones. I would steer clear of them for now.