[SOLVED] Which external hard drive should I buy?

[leodomitrovic]

Hi,

I want to buy an external hard drive which I'm not planning to have always plugged in in my computer. It will be connected when I am transferring something to/from it and most of the time it will be unplugged. Does it matter which external hard drive I buy when it't not going to be always plugged in? Should reliability have a major role in my decision which external hard drive I buy?
Thanks in advance!

Best regards,

Leo

 

[RealBeast]

Any of the major brands are equally reliable. I would opt for a CMR drive over an SMR though. The real key is to always secure eject the drive prior to disconnecting it so that the drive is not disconnected during a write, which will corrupt its MBR.

 

[mdd1963]

I've purchased a few Toshiba external drives over the past 4-5 years for a similar light usage scenario (I use them for 1-2 hours every 3-4 months at best) and have had no issues thus far...

Go with Toshiba or WD, or some brand you've heard of...

(Truth be told, as Toshiba's 1 -2 TB Canvio drives are but $40-$50 these days, I'd feel better with two of them, vice a single larger drive, as putting too much faith or trust in any single drive is risky at best)

 

[leodomitrovic]

Any of the major brands are equally reliable. I would opt for a CMR drive over an SMR though. The real key is to always secure eject the drive prior to disconnecting it so that the drive is not disconnected during a write, which will corrupt its MBR.

Hi,

Thank you for your answer.
I found this drives:

• WD My Passport
• Seagate Basic 1TB Portable
• 1TB StoreJet 25M3 Transcend
• Seagate Expansion Portable 1TB
• Seagate Backup Plus 1000 GB
• 1000 GB WESTERN DIGITAL Elements Portable

I have also seen some of the drives from ADATA and VERBATIM.
I don't know if they are CMR or SMR.
Can you please reccommend some of them or some I haven’t come across?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,

Leo

 

[leodomitrovic]

I've purchased a few Toshiba external drives over the past 4-5 years for a similar light usage scenario (I use them for 1-2 hours every 3-4 months at best) and have had no issues thus far...

Go with Toshiba or WD, or some brand you've heard of...

(Truth be told, as Toshiba's 1 -2 TB Canvio drives are but $40-$50 these days, I'd feel better with two of them, vice a single larger drive, as putting too much faith or trust in any single drive is risky at best)

Hi,

Thank you for sharing your experience and for advice. That's probably the same scenario in which I would use it too.

Best regards,

Leo

 

[RealBeast]

Hi,

Thank you for your answer.
I found this drives:

• WD My Passport
• Seagate Basic 1TB Portable
• 1TB StoreJet 25M3 Transcend
• Seagate Expansion Portable 1TB
• Seagate Backup Plus 1000 GB
• 1000 GB WESTERN DIGITAL Elements Portable

I have also seen some of the drives from ADATA and VERBATIM.
I don't know if they are CMR or SMR.
Can you please recommend some of them or some I haven’t come across?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,

Leo

Unfortunately, you will need to search each specific model number for the drive(s) that are inside. It takes some work but worth the effort. And yeah I agree that, Toshiba are also fine drives.

The list of SMR (best to avoid, shingled) drives are here for SEAGATE, WD, and TOSHIBA.

 

[leodomitrovic]

Unfortunately, you will need to search each specific model number for the drive(s) that are inside. It takes some work but worth the effort. And yeah I agree that, Toshiba are also fine drives.

The list of SMR (best to avoid, shingled) drives are here for SEAGATE, WD, and TOSHIBA.

Hi,

thank you for the lists of SMR drives. Is it worth buying SSD external drive for my light usage scenario? Will it make any difference other than transfer speed?

 

[RealBeast]

Hi,

thank you for the lists of SMR drives. Is it worth buying SSD external drive for my light usage scenario? Will it make any difference other than transfer speed?

Not really, you will just get less space for the money spent.