External HDD

[developer]

I need an external HDD - some are USB powered - are they as reliable as those with an AC adaptor?

What other differences are there as they a quite a bit cheaper for the same capacity?

Thanks.

 

[whitenemesis]

I have a 4TB drive, USB3 connection and power. Fast transfers and quiet. Seagate, recommended...

 

[developer]

Do you leave it permanently connected Peter?

 

[Tombola]

I have a 1tb external usb drive. Only usb powered an has lasted 3 years or so, so far. Works absolutely fine, but only use it for 3/4 hrs a week.

Also seagate. Highly recommended.

 

[whitenemesis]

Yes, in that it's permanently connected to the laptop dock. So constantly powered, instantly recognised by the laptop when docked.

 

[grober]

Brief summary here from amateur photography :- General rule of thumb but not always , the powered ones are 3.5 inch discs, mostly 7200rpm and basically a 'desktop' PC hard drive in a external case [ possibly with a fan] and the 'unpowered' one is a 2.5 inch disc, 5400rpm and basically a 'laptop' hard drive in an external case.
The powered ones are therefore likely to be faster than the 'unpowered' ones. The unpowered ones may also be more rugged than the powered ones (I've read about certain Samsung hard drives with built-in accelerometers that can detect when they are falling so that by the time they hit the ground the heads have been safely 'parked' on unused sectors of the disc, thus preventing damage). I like the Freecom tough drives for their portability- their neat but short USB cable but not their price!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/External...id=1482690483&sr=8-1&keywords=1tb+tough+drive

It really depends how you intend to use the drive- the access speed required- the capacity [ although data archive programmes often give you the option to compress data] portability etc.

 

[LTD]

John What are you going be using it for ? Is there any backup plan for it yet in place already or is it just for daily replay duties ?

 

[developer]

John What are you going be using it for ? Is there any backup plan for it yet in place already or is it just for daily replay duties ?

I have an SSD based PC with lots of RAM (64gb) so it's a super quick start up etc. but not much storage space left after the programmes are loaded.

I want to be able to store stuff elsewhere and 1TB will be more than sufficient.

 

[markjay]

As a general rule the 3.5" HDDs will be faster than 2.5" (even when both are 7200 rpm), cheaper per gb, and available in higher capacities (currently up to 10tb). Additionally, some 3.5" cases support more than one HDD and offer RAID options (NAS).

Said that..... overall the 2.5" USB units are more practical, because they take less desk space, do not require AC adaptor, and are quiet i.e. no fan.

 

[doctorpaul]

Another vote here for the Freecom Toughdrives ... I've run a 250GB for about 8 years and it has rattled around in my brief case daily. Updated to a 1TB last year but the 250 is still going strong.
Extremely tough little buggers.

 

[hotrodder]

They're as reliable as any hdd IME, rarely used these days but plenty of hours on an ancient usb powered WD passport that's still healthy...

I wouldn't have thought 5400 vs 7200rpm would make much of a difference as any 'bottleneck' is usually the USB - SATA thing? Might be wrong as my laptop just predates usb3 and has eSATAp instead which (on paper at least) isn't as fast as usb3 but FWIW transfer speeds via the esata are about the same whether it's a 7200 or 5400rpm hdd in a dock or eSATAp enclosure. Put the same hdd in a caddy that replaces the dvd drive and they appear to get a bit 'faster'

 

[LTD]

I have an SSD based PC with lots of RAM (64gb) so it's a super quick start up etc. but not much storage space left after the programmes are loaded. I want to be able to store stuff elsewhere and 1TB will be more than sufficient.

I'd get a wee NAS unit with multiple drives in a RAID setup and store it there.

Then you have some form of data redundancy

 

[400ixl]

How vital is the data? If its important stuff you may want to look at a NAS drive connected to your home network.

This type of device has multiple drives and is resilient to the failure of one.

Another way would be to have a single USB drive and a cloud backup solution.

 

[whitenemesis]

I use the Seagate Backup Plus (4TB) to backup my entire Surface Book every month, automatically.

http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/consumer/backup/backup-plus/

I also have a 4TB raid array NAS to store critical data. The NAS isn't fast enough for the routine backups. A cloud account completes what I hope is a reliable, secure data backup solution.

 

[grober]

Another shockproof drive
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005MNGQ6C/?tag=amazon0e9db-21

 

[alzieboy]

Purchased a couple of 350gb USB HDD for our smart TVs , to record some programs on to, they have worked very well indeed. They were only £25 each from Mymemory.

 

[developer]

I finally got round to sorting this and have a 3TB 3.5" external HDD.

I've connected it up and the computer says software successfully installed, and device working properly, but it isn't appearing on my list of drives in Computer.

Does it need to be configured in some way - partitioned perhaps (whatever that is)?

OS is Windows 7 Professional, Service Pack 1.

Thanks.

 

[daveenty]

If it's brand new then it may need formatting (NTFS ideally), though they usually come this way nowadays.

Does it show in Disk Management? (Windows Key + R, type diskmgmt.msc into the Run box, and press Enter) If so, you can format it from there just by right clicking on it and selecting format.

If it doesn't show there then you have either a USB issue (try another port) or a bad disk (try on another PC/Lappy)

 

[developer]

I get this when I connect the new drive via USB. The disk 1 disappears when I remove the new drive.




The only options I get if I right click on the Disc 1 part is "convert to dynamic disk" or "convert to gpt disc"

 

[markmifsud]

Convert to GPT, then create a filesystem (teamviewer)