Please recommend a drive

[1dog]

Hi guys,

Hope I'm posting in the right forum. I'm looking for an external drive to store media. Currently I use a plethora of DVDs and I figure its good to have a backup. Looking in the 4-5 TB range. I have two desktops. I don't think their specs are relevant to the question but posting anyway.

Asus H97M-E
i3-4330
8GB RAM
WD Raptor 150 GB HD

Asus Rampage II Extreme
i5 (I forget the exact details)
6 GB RAM
Seagate 120 GB and a forgotten brand of 75 GB.

My budget is fairly relaxed. If I had to ballpark, then $500.

Again, this will sit around and be used only for storage. I don't plan to regularly access stuff off this drive.

Thanks.

 

[kanewolf]

Do you want a network attached storage or a direct attach external storage?

 

[antee]

Seagate Expansion 5TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive STBV5000100 if you want a NAS you could get a Seagate STBM4000100 4TB Business Storage 1-Bay NAS

 

[1dog]

@kanewolf - I don't mind connecting through either a router or through USB. Once I make backups of the data on my DVDs, it will sit disconnected for long periods of time.

@antee - Thanks for the recommendation. People on Amazon and Newegg have stated that the STBV5000100 was breaking down within a year. I like the price but reliability is even more important since I will use this for long term storage.

 

[kanewolf]

The reason I asked about network vs direct connect is you mentioned the two PCs. With a direct connect you have to physically move it. Network attached, you just use it.

There is a price premium on sizes above 4TB. I wouldn't look for larger than 4.

Wouldn't the point of moving DVDs to storage be so that you could access them from the network rather than just backup? What are you "protecting" them from? You will take quite a bit of your time in pulling the data off the DVDs and putting it to disk. Wouldn't you rather have that data available to your tablets and other "smart" devices?

 

[1dog]

I assumed the drive was pretty small and lightweight. Based on the STBV5000100 dimensions, it seems pretty small and light. I would like to access data from it as conveniently as possible but I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that the ease of access (frequent read/writeability) also has a premium. If I can access the data at any time I wish without significant lags, and not pay a substantial premium for a fast drive over a slow one, then I would definitely keep the drive connected to the PCs at all time. This would not affect drive life, I imagine?

Being completely honest, I do not know anything about these drives and so decided to ask for the most basic features I could think of. I have no issue with the data being accessed easily through a network - I was just trying to keep it simple. The NAS would definitely be loved by my wife. We don't have any tablets. We have iPhones but we do not use those for any computing or accessing our PCs.

But for sure, the most important feature is product lifetime. Many of the DVDs are getting old and this drive may end up being the main/only storage.