External Hard Drives
I have never really had a look into them as i stored my stuff on several interal hard drives. Maybe it is better to have a backup at some other place just in case.
enlighten me with your insights. it seems that a lot of ext. hdd have some kind of backup software on them which does not seem very appealing.
are there any brands to avoid?
pic related seems quite solid
Just get an external case with USB 3.0
Then you decide what brand, amount of storage or if the thing inside is an SSD or HDD, also replaceable if it fails.
they all work just fine really
just be ready to replace in 3 to 5 years
i have a toshiba from 2011 that still works, but is slower now, and also will suddenly cease to read when the cable is even slightly bumped.
Just avoid Seagate and you'll be find. WD is good, not sure about any backup software though.
Also, you get what you pay for. Just be prepared to replace after 3+ years.
i have thought about this. my fear is that it wont be really shock proof. I will probably store it at my parents house and only god knows what it will have to endure, there. but i might research some more in this direction, thanks.
replace because of data decay/loss or because the parts wear out? i wont be using it much, honestly. I just want to have my most important stuff in a safe place. will update it maybe twice a year or so.
i can totally tell you in my own experience that it is not shock proof, be weary of that
buy two then, one you keep with you, one to store
also buy one of those hdd pouches with the zipper on ebay
seagate never again, one of the mantras
good to know. a padded pouch will probably be the best solution to withstand rough handling
>is that it wont be really shock proof
Make it shock proof then, cushion it with something.
It's the best option imo because you decide what to put inside.
Don't cheap out and buy branded external hard drives, they often have very poor ventilation and have USB adapters that will die on you within a year or so of constant use. Do what I did and buy yourself a decently priced multi-bay external hard drive enclosure with a fan built in. Some even have RAID or automatic mirroring built in, but those will cost about $50 more than the JBOD or non-RAID enclosures. Nearly all of them come with USB3.0 connectivity, but you might also want to take a look at eSATA or Thunderbolt enclosures if you have those ports on your laptop/desktop. They're usually higher quality and eSATA enclosures don't have to mess about with converting SATA signal to USB's protocol.
I've downsized my torrent seedbox to a Pentium J2900 ITX board and case and have a Mediasonic hard drive RAID enclosure hooked up to an eSATA port using a PCIe x1 adapter card that has port multiplier capability (that way a single eSATA/SATA port can recognize multiple drives).
mediasonic.ca
newegg.com
The only drive inside my case is a 120GB A-Data SSD while I have 4 6TB WD Red Pros in the enclosure running 24/7. I probably still use less power than my older pre-built i3-2130 set-up with all the drives located inside a massive Dell case.
Would it be a great idea to buy 2 externals (like 6-8TB) and mirror RAID?