Recommended external drive?

[redcoatd]

Hi,

Looking for an external drive - probably 4TB and driven off USB.

However, it seems like everything I look at has reliability issues - are there any that are head and shoulders above the rest, or is just bad luck if you get one that fails in the first few months?

 

[Barty1884]

Strictly off of USB? Most of the 4TB options are AC power.

I think most of the USB power only options are actually RAID0 of 2x 2TB drives, opposed to actual 4TB drives.

 

[redcoatd]

Ideally USB, yes, but if there's one that's highly recommended that requires AC I'd consider that.

Was looking at something like this, which looks full 4TB? https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Portable-External-Storage-STDA4000100/dp/B00ZTRXFBA?th=1

 

[redcoatd]

bump - anyone have any recommendations?

 

[Barty1884]

Your suggestion appears to review pretty well: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9489/seagate-backup-plus-portable-4tb-usb-30-drive-review/3

Not specific to external HDDs, but a worthy read: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016/

HGST (formerly Hitachi) seem to have pretty consistently low failure rates, so I'd look to them if possible.
HGST are now owned by Western Digital, and don't have many (any?) external HDD's on offer themselves, but they do have their "Touro" line:
http://www.touropro.com/en/product/touro-mobile/index.html

Touro mobile will let you have 3TB....... their "Desk Pro" is the only one to offer a 4TB version.

I don't see any 'purchase' links on the site, so you may have to shop around if those interest you.