Question about Best HDD Storage Device

I would not harp too much on the quality aspects. Most major companies get their drives from the same shops in Thailand. So there is really no distinction.

I personally prefer to work with an external open enclosure like thios one.

Aluratek External 2.5" & 3.5" Black SuperSpeed USB 3.0 SATA Hard Drive Docking Station Enclosure AUDDU200F - Newegg.com

That allows me to work with bare bone HDDs (are cheaper) in 2.5" and 3.5" size. And I can easily swap the disks. Most of my 2.5" disks are recovered from my laptops when I replaced the HDDs with SSDs.

I would rather buy a few smaller HDDs like this one which costs $60 with Promo Code: EMCYTZT4867. That spreads the risk of failure over 1 big HDD.

I seen quite a few posts on forums that say the spinners they put in external drives are lower quality. Just because products have the same source doesn't necessarily mean they will be built with the same quality. WD Blacks are better than the Greens, for example. That said, I did have a 120GB WD external drive I used off and on for seven or eight years without a problem and I retired it mostly because it was too small to be of much use to me

I don't really believe that. A statistical sample of 1 is not really convincing me.

MilesAhead said:

The largest available drives tend to cost more than twice the cost of drives with half the capacity. Just my way of putting it. I haven't done statistical analysis or anything. But if cost is an issue you may be well served by a USB 3.0 (if the machine has USG 3.0 ports already) docking station, several 2 tb internal drives, and a plastic stack of drawers from Walmart. Just glancing at egg I saw WD 2 tb 6 Gb/s drives for around $90. These days you can probably get a USB 3.0 dock for around $20. Using external drives they make you pay through the nose for the fact it's enclosed and you just plug them in. It's just as easy to slide an internal drive into a dock. Just make sure to drain the static electricity from your body before picking up the drive.

I got the plastic stack of drawyers at Walmart for $8 I think. I forget if it was 5 or 6 drawers. Just save the anti-static bags the internal drives come in. But even if you have to buy some it's only a few dollars for all you are ever likely to need. Slide the internal drive into the anti-static bag and store in a drawer. Unless you are saving BluRay images like 50 GB a shot, even 1 TB drives will store plenty of video.

If it's going to be a huge Drive Internal then Cost shouldn't matter I assume he is spending 80 to 100 for just 128gb of space when he can cough up 160.00 for much more


Lady what I was saying is USB3.0 is still slower then Sata 6 Correct I just want to make sure we are clear

I think by most of the suggestions Internal would be a better choice he fill these other drives up in less then a month so I am assuming 3TB should suffice he doesn't want to erase them either but he does have everything backed up

This would be all Media and editing that is all he does

whs said:

I seen quite a few posts on forums that say the spinners they put in external drives are lower quality. Just because products have the same source doesn't necessarily mean they will be built with the same quality. WD Blacks are better than the Greens, for example. That said, I did have a 120GB WD external drive I used off and on for seven or eight years without a problem and I retired it mostly because it was too small to be of much use to me

I don't really believe that. A statistical sample of 1 is not really convincing me.

This is what I was told as well even though it's a spinner it was proclaimed lot of them break down and become garbage but I figure that was with abuse I have had the same 500gb Barracuda for at least 5 years still going strong

I have at least 20 spinners and only 1 broke down in years - that was a Seagate external drive.

Couple choices at the local store Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST31000524AS - Bare Drive st31000524as - Micro Center should I get one of these to cover now or

get two if these Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7,200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive STBD2000101 STBD2000101 - Micro Center

or just get with this one Seagate Desktop EP 3TB 7,200RPM SATA 6.0Gbps 3.5" Internal Hard Drive STBD3000100 STBD3000100 - Micro Center

Be about 200.tottal for two of the 2TB

whs said:

I have at least 20 spinners and only 1 broke down in years - that was a Seagate external drive.

I actually like Seagate too I have a couple of there drives

LF is right. I happen to have USB3 and eSata ports on this system. I made the exact same Macrium images with both ports to exactly the same disk. The eSata port was faster than the USB3 port although the specifications would suggest otherwise. There must be a lot of overhead with USB3.