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by OntPhoto on Fri Aug 07, 2020 5:57 pm
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They sell Seagate Portable HDD and Seagate Portable SSD.  How reliable are Seagate external HDD and SSD for backups?

I am looking at this one.  They are about $200 CAD.  Worth the money? 
[font="Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif]Seagate Expansion SSD 1TB Solid State Drive – USB 3.0 for PC Laptop[/font]

What is your recommendation for reliable external backup drives? 
 

by DChan on Fri Aug 07, 2020 6:49 pm
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For backup/storage, HDD is more cost effective.
 

by Mark L on Fri Aug 07, 2020 9:42 pm
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I have always used Western Digital drives (mybook) in sizes from 2 - 10 TB.  Most of the Seagate drives are also fine.  You should buy a drive that uses the fastest interface that your computer(s) have on them (e.g. USB 3 is the fastest that my machines have).  SSDs are much more expensive and are not available in capacities as large as hard disc drives and are therefore generally not used as backup drives.

Recognize that having a single copy on an external drive is only part of a robust and complete backup strategy.  I have all of my files backed up on external drives.  In addition I have a drive that has image copies of the system discs of my computers that is separate from the backup files.  A truly complete backup strategy would have a copy that was stored in a different location (so that you would have a backup if your house burned down).  

Good luck
 

by Bill Chambers on Fri Aug 07, 2020 10:36 pm
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I have Seagate Internal drives, but use Western Digital My Book 12 TB for an external drive.  I believe this is my eighth WD My Book external , and I haven't any issues yet.

At Newegg, the drive you listed has a rating of 4 Eggs and sells for $140 US (Don't know the CAD conversion).
Please visit my web site, simply nature - Photographic Art by Bill Chambers
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by OntPhoto on Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:24 pm
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Bill Chambers wrote:I have Seagate Internal drives, but use Western Digital My Book 12 TB for an external drive.  I believe this is my eighth WD My Book external , and I haven't any issues yet.

At Newegg, the drive you listed has a rating of 4 Eggs and sells for $140 US (Don't know the CAD conversion).
Thanks Mark and Bill.  What makes these WD MyBooks so reliable?  

I had a bad experience with a WD MyBook many years ago which has painted my view on them.  Bought a brand new one from Costco in Canada and backed up a lot of data.  Turns out the external WD MyBook was DOA.  I just didn't know it.  I picked it up to shake it and heard something rattling inside.  Took it to a place called Futureshop (bought over by BestBuy and the chain was absorbed into the BestBuy brand).  They charged me $90 CAD but only recovered some files.  Think they just gave up because there were so many files on it and the recovery software was likely running on and on.  I still have the HDD and one day will need to pay to have it recovered.
 

by OntPhoto on Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:28 pm
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Mark L wrote:I have always used Western Digital drives (mybook) in sizes from 2 - 10 TB.  Most of the Seagate drives are also fine.  You should buy a drive that uses the fastest interface that your computer(s) have on them (e.g. USB 3 is the fastest that my machines have).  SSDs are much more expensive and are not available in capacities as large as hard disc drives and are therefore generally not used as backup drives.

Recognize that having a single copy on an external drive is only part of a robust and complete backup strategy.  I have all of my files backed up on external drives.  In addition I have a drive that has image copies of the system discs of my computers that is separate from the backup files.  A truly complete backup strategy would have a copy that was stored in a different location (so that you would have a backup if your house burned down).  

Good luck
Yes.  Great idea.  I will keep a copy in a Safety Deposit Box.  I am mostly concerned with family related photos and videos including voicemail messages. 
 

by Bill Chambers on Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:47 pm
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OntPhoto wrote:
Bill Chambers wrote:I have Seagate Internal drives, but use Western Digital My Book 12 TB for an external drive.  I believe this is my eighth WD My Book external , and I haven't any issues yet.

At Newegg, the drive you listed has a rating of 4 Eggs and sells for $140 US (Don't know the CAD conversion).
Thanks Mark and Bill.  What makes these WD MyBooks so reliable?  

I had a bad experience with a WD MyBook many years ago which has painted my view on them.  Bought a brand new one from Costco in Canada and backed up a lot of data.  Turns out the external WD MyBook was DOA.  I just didn't know it.  I picked it up to shake it and heard something rattling inside.  Took it to a place called Futureshop (bought over by BestBuy and the chain was absorbed into the BestBuy brand).  They charged me $90 CAD but only recovered some files.  Think they just gave up because there were so many files on it and the recovery software was likely running on and on.  I still have the HDD and one day will need to pay to have it recovered.
I don't know if the WD MyBooks are any more reliable than any other external or not.  Perhaps I've just been lucky.  I've kept buying them because they're worked fine so far; If I had a failure, my viewpoint might change. LOL.

I agree with Mark about having redundant back-ups.  My C: Drive is a 2TB SSD and 2 ea. 2TB Externals for back-ups.  My photography is on a 12TB Seagate Internal with another 12TB internal and the 12TB External.  I use Synctoy, set to Echo, to transfer data from my main 12TB to each of the other 12TBs.

I use external drives for one simple reason.  I live in Florida, on the coast, and if we have to evacuate for hurricanes, it's very easy to just grab the externals, wrap towels around then, and they're good to go.  I would love to have SSDs but you can't get them that big yet, and if you could, I probably couldn't afford them!
Please visit my web site, simply nature - Photographic Art by Bill Chambers
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by Mark L on Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:59 am
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Truth be told, I also use a Synology NAS that contains a pair of HGST NAS drives setup as a redundant RAID.  The HGST drives have historically been reviewed as being one of, if not the most reliable drive available.  The Western Digital Red and Red Pro drives are close/comparable.  

If you want the "best" drive what you should do is buy an external case and a really good NAS drive to put into it.  I would buy either an HGST or a Western Digital Red (now called Red Plus to make sure that you get the correct drive; they are shipping non-NAS drives in the smaller sizes).  The Seagate NAS quality drives are also probably fine, I have just not used them because Seagate had some notoriously bad drives years back and I stayed away after that.
 

by Scott Fairbairn on Sat Aug 08, 2020 2:54 pm
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Personally, I think the "best" hard drive is plural....as in have multiple hard drives and trust none. I've had all kinds fail over the years, including right out of the box dead ones, ones that failed way before they "should" have given the brand, etc. I have one old 4TB drive that had poor reviews(of course I read that after I bought it), and it won't die, but I don't trust it either. I find it most economical to put two drives in an inexpensive enclosure(s) and do dual backups to them every time I backup the main drive. I try to have a minimum of 4 drives backed up and one offsite too.
 

by signgrap on Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:40 pm
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Age, number of drive cycles and amount of time spinning all combine to cause failure. I replace ALL my drives on a regular basis at least every four years. The use environment also plays an important part on how long a drive lasts. Heat and dust are the major causes of drive failure. Lots of cool FILTERED air is the best way to ensure drive dependability. Tight computer and drive enclosures that restrict air flow also contribute to drive failure. A carpeted floor in the room where the computer is used should be avoided if at all possible as carpeting creates a huge amount of dust that is easily sucked into the computer case. I've run my business from home for 23 year before I retired. I had computers that were used daily located in rooms with and without carpeting. The computers used in carpeted rooms had about 10 - 15 times more dust inside the computer. And this occurred despite monthly cleaning of all filtering screens.
Dick Ludwig
 

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