External Hard Drive

[annr]

One of my external hard drives (Iomega) "died," and I would like to replace it. Any suggestions, recommendations? I see there is a wide range of sizes and prices and am having trouble sorting through the pros and cons of the various options. Does higher price equate with better, larger, or both, etc?

Note: Currently, I have a second external hard drive (Iomega 1T) that does ongoing back up, and use I Carbonite. The computer is an iMac. I'm looking for something to store at least 200 GB of files that I can not afford to lose.

 

[Bob W]

In my experience...

The most reliable and cost-efficient way to keep an external hard drive is to buy an enclosure separately, and slip in hard drives purchased separately.
Rosewill enclosures are good, under $30 for a 3.5" enclosure with fan.

If the data is critical, get a dual-bay enclosure ($35) that holds two hard drives and can be configured for RAID storage.

 

[Bob W]

If it's a security type situation, you don't even need an enclosure. Just buy a hard drive - USB adapter kit. Plug the hard drive into USB slot, copy files, unplug and lock drive back in the safe.

These are also great if you need to grab files off of old computers that no longer boot up.

 

[annr]

If it's a security type situation, you don't even need an enclosure. Just buy a hard drive - USB adapter kit. Plug the hard drive into USB slot, copy files, unplug and lock drive back in the safe.

These are also great if you need to grab files off of old computers that no longer boot up.

This is exactly what I'm trying to prepare for. Evidently, my logic board is failing, and from what I've heard, Carbonite and the other back-up are not 100% reliable. I have made CD/DVD back-up copies of important files, but it's hard to know if they are 100% up to date.

So one would purchase something like this drive?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/HF4F2VC/A/g-tech-1tb-g-drive-mobile-usb-30-hard-drive-5400-rpm-special-edition?fnode=5f

with something like this enclosure?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182155#top

 

[swonut]

I just did this a few days ago with my old Mac-Mini Hard drive after the computer failed.

I got an Insignia USB 3.0 Laptop hard drive enclosure from best Buy and then put the laptop drive into it and used it as a USB hard drive for my other computer to recover photos.

If I knew my computer was failing, I'd buy a stand alone hard drive in the 1 to 2 TB range (probably a Toshiba from Walmart- since it's cheap and close) or the G-Tech one from the Apple store and back up the files.

Going with the enclosure would give you a way to get into the hard drive after the logic board failed. However, you run the risk of damage or data corruption to the hard drive during the logic failure.

Bottom line, grab an external USB hard drive for 60-80 bucks and back it up then test the recovery. Between that, carbonite, and DVDs you will likely not lose much.


Next thing I'd do is try to recover the backup onto another computer, just to make sure it works. Lots of people back things up only to find out that they can't recover it later.

For the most cost effective backups, I'd then keep that drive at work or somewhere else so it doesn't get destroyed or stolen if something were to happen to your house. Bring it home every payday or whatever and update the backup. Another way would be to get two drives and keep one at home and one at the remote location and switch them out every so often. This would give you a more secure backup since you would never inadvertently forget to bring the drive back to work or have it stolen or lost.

 

[annr]

I just did this a few days ago with my old Mac-Mini Hard drive after the computer failed.

I got an Insignia USB 3.0 Laptop hard drive enclosure from best Buy and then put the laptop drive into it and used it as a USB hard drive for my other computer to recover photos.

If I knew my computer was failing, I'd buy a stand alone hard drive in the 1 to 2 TB range (probably a Toshiba from Walmart- since it's cheap and close) or the G-Tech one from the Apple store and back up the files.

Going with the enclosure would give you a way to get into the hard drive after the logic board failed. However, you run the risk of damage or data corruption to the hard drive during the logic failure.

Bottom line, grab an external USB hard drive for 60-80 bucks and back it up then test the recovery. Between that, carbonite, and DVDs you will likely not lose much.


Next thing I'd do is try to recover the backup onto another computer, just to make sure it works. Lots of people back things up only to find out that they can't recover it later.

For the most cost effective backups, I'd then keep that drive at work or somewhere else so it doesn't get destroyed or stolen if something were to happen to your house. Bring it home every payday or whatever and update the backup. Another way would be to get two drives and keep one at home and one at the remote location and switch them out every so often. This would give you a more secure backup since you would never inadvertently forget to bring the drive back to work or have it stolen or lost.

Thanks. Yes, I think the sooner the better, and agree that I have to test out the degree of corruption (or not) of the files. Two things that surprised me were: 1. the short life span of the external hard drive that "died"-- that had been my primary back-up for a while, and I'm glad that I was using two.
2. The wide range in price of the external hard drives. If cost equates with reliability or longevity, I would spend more, but I can't tell that it does.

I have 3 books I authored (incl. layout and design) on the computer, some 400+ illustrations and photos done in Illustrator and Photoshop that took about 4 years to make, so price is not my main concern, but I don't want to overspend. Sounds like you aren't worried about the "cheaper" ones.

I think I should replace the computer before it dies too....Oy. I hear $ signs.

 

[Piso Mojado]

Use the fastest data connection you have. If you have Firewire 800, use it.

Real data transfer speeds, megabits per second:

USB 2, non-Intel logic board: 200 mbps
USB 2, Intel logic board: 300 mbps
Firewire 400: 400 mbps
Firewire 800: 800 mbps

USB 2 theoretical speed is 480 mbps, but it will not assign more than 2/3 bandwidth to one device. Real USB 3 transfer speed is twice Firewire 800, but I'm guessing you don't have USB 3.

If you are looking for an external Firewire 800 drive, I've had good luck with Other World Computing's Mercury Elite Pro. You can buy it with or without a hard drive installed.

For 3.5" SATA drives, when longevity is a concern I buy Hitachi.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

Hitachi hard drives are now branded HGST. Western Digital bought HGST, Inc. (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) from Hitachi in March 2012. Originally it was IBM's hard drive division, bought by Hitachi in 2003. Still the same factories and engineers.

 

[sir_mike]

This is exactly what I'm trying to prepare for. Evidently, my logic board is failing, and from what I've heard, Carbonite and the other back-up are not 100% reliable. I have made CD/DVD back-up copies of important files, but it's hard to know if they are 100% up to date.

So one would purchase something like this drive?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/HF4F2VC/A/g-tech-1tb-g-drive-mobile-usb-30-hard-drive-5400-rpm-special-edition?fnode=5f

with something like this enclosure?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182155#top

Actually neither. I would go with one that handles the laptop size drives as they are easier to lug around. I just picked up an enclosure for one and added my own hard drive to it that I had here.

I also have this one for home use. This one handles both size drives and you just plug the bare drive into it. Works well if you have more than one drive to use for backing up and also doesn't require you screwing the drive into the enclosure to use it. Very simple to use.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17-182-237

 

[22-rimfire]

I have been using Seagate external hard drives for maybe 15 years. Never had a failure. The last two have been the small laptop size that I can easily carry with me traveling if I need to to access all of my files (work stuff). I tend to buy a new one when I get a new computer and pretty much move what needs to be on the new computer over from the external and then archive the old external drive. I reference them by year and computer that they were "linked" to for automatic backups.

With Seagates, I learned the hard way that if you delete a bunch of files off your computer to free up space (often photos), the automatic backups see that the files are gone (assumed you deleted them.... aka unwanted) and will delete them from your external harddrive after a couple backups. Move them to a separate directory that is not used for the backup on the external.

 

[roughedges]

In my experience...

The most reliable and cost-efficient way to keep an external hard drive is to buy an enclosure separately, and slip in hard drives purchased separately.
Rosewill enclosures are good, under $30 for a 3.5" enclosure with fan.

If the data is critical, get a dual-bay enclosure ($35) that holds two hard drives and can be configured for RAID storage.

Agree with Bob W 100%. Though I do believe you'd still need to buy a raid card, or a more expensive enclosure with it built in, in order to run a Raid 1 (2 drives mirroring each other) array. I'm not sure as it has been awhile since I set one up and know next to nothing about macs. But, that is really your best bet if the data is truly critical.

Internal drives generally are better quality. This seems especially true with today's huge drives with low platter counts. In my opinion, it is well worth the few extra dollars. I believe you can also still buy hot-swappable enclosures if your case has an empty 5.25" bay. Oh, just realized you said Imac. Forget the hot swappable thing

I've never liked and don't use any hard drive manufacturer's auto-backup software.

 

[orixa]

One of my external hard drives (Iomega) "died," and I would like to replace it. Any suggestions, recommendations? I see there is a wide range of sizes and prices and am having trouble sorting through the pros and cons of the various options. Does higher price equate with better, larger, or both, etc?

Note: Currently, I have a second external hard drive (Iomega 1T) that does ongoing back up, and use I Carbonite. The computer is an iMac. I'm looking for something to store at least 200 GB of files that I can not afford to lose.

Since you have Carbonite already, this is what I do for your reference:

Get yourself a portable 2.5" enclosure, I put a 500G SSD (yes, it's expensive, but data is priceless), partitioned it as "boot" and "files". On the boot side I clone my system and applications and on the files side my files storage. The advantage of this set up is such that I can use this harddrive and boot ANY other compatible Mac and work on it as if it was my own computer. eg. If you totalled your iMac just boot from the portable you're good to go. Time Machine works along the same principle but if you are in a jam Time Machine takes a few hours (more or less) to restore a new computer.

Everything else is redundancy, have back up of your backups. I use a 2-Bay Synology RAID.

 

[bdmicarta]

I'm looking for something to store at least 200 GB of files that I can not afford to lose.

Think about this and decide how badly you want to keep the files. If you really want to keep the files as much as you imply with "can not afford" then you need multiple backups. I would suggest 3 external copies at least, and at least one of them stored in a different geographical location. There are other online backups besides Carbonite so maybe have a few of those as well.

I have been working on upgrading my own backups even though I already have a lot of redundancy. Hard drive prices do and do no relate to reliability. There is so much competition in hard drives that overall reliability has really gone downhill. For the most part Western Digital and Hitachi (now HGST) are the best, although the more recent big WD's are not nearly as good as their popular drives from 3 or 4 years ago. Also one of the single most reliable drives available now is a Seagate even though most of their other models are very bad. Study user ratings on newegg.com and amazon.com for whatever you are considering.

SSD's are generally more reliable, and Intel drives are very reliable, but there are some other companies that make bad products. You can buy a 256GB SSD for a fairly reasonable price now, a little over $100. Two or 3 of those would be a pretty reliable backup system. You can also buy 128GB USB flash drives for fairly low prices, maybe $40 on sale this season. Some of those could supplement your mechanical hard drives.

Decide what you want to spend and maybe buy a couple of mechanical drives, maybe an SSD, and a couple of flash drives. Buy the cheapest drives that appear to be reliable enough for you, so you can buy more of them with the same amount of money. Every manufacturer makes products that can fail, except that Intel SSD's appear to be very reliable. Copy your files to them yourself rather than using a backup program then spread the backup drives around so if something happens to your house you don't lose everything. Look into online backups such as outlook.com, google, and backblaze in addition to carbonite.

 

[Bob W]

Though I do believe you'd still need to buy a raid card, or a more expensive enclosure with it built in, in order to run a Raid 1 (2 drives mirroring each other) array. I'm not sure as it has been awhile since I set one up and know next to nothing about macs. But, that is really your best bet if the data is truly critical.

I have no idea how that stuff would interact with a Mac either, but you're correct about needing a more expensive enclosure for RAID.

I've never liked and don't use any hard drive manufacturer's auto-backup software.

That just fills up the drive with crap that most people don't even want or need. Plus for the auto-backup stuff to work, the hard drive has to be connected and powered on all the time, and there's no need for that.

 

[Steel_Addiction]

+1 on the SSD.

You can throw those around and drop them while transferring and they won't fail.

If they are files you can not lose I would invest in an SSD and put it in a 2.5" external enclosure.

About $265 bux will get you a 500gb ssd setup which should last you a few lifetimes.

The Zon Cheap Enclosure

The Zon Top of the Line SSD

 

[Bufford]

If it is something very valuable, put the files on disc and store the discs in a safe. HD drives do fail, trust me on that one. Otherwise keep your other files on two separate drives.

 

[annr]

Everyone: Thanks for all of the good information and advice. I have backed up the files I need onto a buddy's external HD and transferred them to his computer's HD. His computer is backed up regularly to an external HD and Carbonite--so now the data is in 3-4 more places. So, until I can sort through and implement some of your more advanced (for me) suggestions and see what/ how they are Mac compatible, at least I have another few layers of protection. My buddy will probably be willing to download some Adobe software to allow me to test the files.

USB 2, Intel logic board: 300 mbps

Firewire 800: 800 mbps

USB 2 theoretical speed is 480 mbps, but it will not assign more than 2/3 bandwidth to one device. Real USB 3 transfer speed is twice Firewire 800, but I'm guessing you don't have USB 3.

If you are looking for an external Firewire 800 drive, I've had good luck with Other World Computing's Mercury Elite Pro. You can buy it with or without a hard drive installed.

For 3.5" SATA drives, when longevity is a concern I buy Hitachi.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

Hitachi hard drives are now branded HGST. Western Digital bought HGST, Inc. (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) from Hitachi in March 2012. Originally it was IBM's hard drive division, bought by Hitachi in 2003. Still the same factories and engineers.

Very helpful info I did not know. Turns out I have the USB 2 with Intel logic board and Firewire 800. The blog was interesting re: the HDs. I guess my expectations were unrealistic, and probably both of my back-up HDs need replacement.

I have been using Seagate external hard drives for maybe 15 years. Never had a failure. The last two have been the small laptop size that I can easily carry with me traveling if I need to to access all of my files (work stuff). I tend to buy a new one when I get a new computer and pretty much move what needs to be on the new computer over from the external and then archive the old external drive. I reference them by year and computer that they were "linked" to for automatic backups.

With Seagates, I learned the hard way that if you delete a bunch of files off your computer to free up space (often photos), the automatic backups see that the files are gone (assumed you deleted them.... aka unwanted) and will delete them from your external harddrive after a couple backups. Move them to a separate directory that is not used for the backup on the external.

It seems you have system for rotating you computers and external HDs? How do you know when it is time to make a change? This seems like a never ending process with all the computer and software advances. (Sometimes I'm very content with what I have and don't need/want anything new.) After reading the blog that Piso linked, I curious what is the longest time you have had a Seagate (since one has never failed) and computer? My Seagate lasted a long time too--only died after I dropped it and the on/off switch stopped working. Are there any warning signs of failure?

 

[Bob W]

All of my internal hard drives are Seagate. The one(s) on the computer I'm using right now are at least eight years old.
For SSD drives, which I've installed on newer computers, I've only used Samsung so far. No problems yet.

On my newest-built computer, I used SSD for the main drive for the operating system and applications. All of the files and "My Documents" are on old fashioned Seagate drives.

Are there any warning signs of failure?

Hard drive failures are often preceded by noises. Grinding, whining, skipping. Or during drive scans "bad sectors" are detected. In the short term, the operating system can work around bad sectors, but in the long term those bad sectors will spread and data loss is inevitable. In either case, replace the hard drive soon.

With solid state drives (SSD), I expect there's little warning.

 

[annr]

In either case, replace the hard drive soon.

Bob, I'm clearly no authority on this topic, maybe you or someone else can give an opinion.

You are referring to replacing the internal hard on the computer? If so, I am wondering if it is worth replacing or if I should replace the computer. It was built in March 2009 and put in operation August 2009--so 5+ years old. The Apple store doesn't even carry the parts. I could go to a local authorized repair person for diagnostics and possible repair, etc., but I'm wondering if I would just be putting good money on bad.

 

[22-rimfire]

It seems you have system for rotating you computers and external HDs? How do you know when it is time to make a change? This seems like a never ending process with all the computer and software advances. (Sometimes I'm very content with what I have and don't need/want anything new.) After reading the blog that Piso linked, I curious what is the longest time you have had a Seagate (since one has never failed) and computer? My Seagate lasted a long time too--only died after I dropped it and the on/off switch stopped working. Are there any warning signs of failure?

It is not really rotating computers and backups per se. My oldest Seagate external hard drive is fairly large (size wise, not storage capacity) and dates back to the mid 1990's. It has a lot of old stuff on it that I really don't need anymore, but there have been times when I was digging around for something that I found it there. Resumes are an example.

These small sized external hard drives are very small and not very expensive anymore. I carry one when I am out of town on jobs and it is probably the single most valuable piece of equipment to me I have with me. As a result, I do lot let it out of my sight as in I do not leave it in hotel rooms during the day ever. I label the hard drive with the computer that it was linked to and approximate date range. The price is such that you can easily buy two and do two full backups routinely simply by plugging them in. If the scheduled time is past, usually they start backing up immediately or you can manually do it (aka "backup now").

I also use CD's to make additional copies of my important stuff. I read that they are more reliable long term than the zip drives which you can get up to about 64 gigs now. What's important? My work files mostly along with my picture library, but I keep everything in "My Documents". I just pulled some stuff up from a 2006 job. Back then I was using Wordperfect a lot and can't open them anymore with MS Word. But I still have an old computer with WP on it that I can fire up if I have to. Consistancy is the key as far as I'm concerned.

My computer replacement has happened at about a 7-10 year frequency. My first computer that I owned was in 1989-1990. This is back in the 286/386 days and pre-internet and for the most part pre-virus. So, it is not that hard to keep track as to which computer the backup drive was linked to and of course I label the drive on the outside so I can tell at a glance. When I get a new computer, I set up a new automatic backup on the external drive. A lot of the old stuff gets moved to the new computer if it is a desktop; it tends to be the "mother ship". The current desktop has Vista as the operating system and I will probably replace it in the coming months; debating about getting a Windows 7 machine now or waiting for the new Windows 10. It has some minor issues right now but works. Basically it has a heating up problem and it goes out of service for a few hours if I leave it running. I decided it is not worth fixing it any more.

I try not to keep a lot of original stuff/important stuff on laptops as they seem to fail more quickly. If I were depending on a laptop, I would do an external backup daily.

Many here are much more computer literate than I am. So, I try to keep it simple.

 

[Bob W]

Bob, I'm clearly no authority on this topic, maybe you or someone else can give an opinion.

You are referring to replacing the internal hard on the computer? If so, I am wondering if it is worth replacing or if I should replace the computer. It was built in March 2009 and put in operation August 2009--so 5+ years old. The Apple store doesn't even carry the parts. I could go to a local authorized repair person for diagnostics and possible repair, etc., but I'm wondering if I would just be putting good money on bad.

Macs are such a PITA, you might even call them a rip-off (especially if dealing with OEM replacements through an Apple store), as the hardware is expensive, difficult to replace, and most off-the-shelf components are not interchangeable. Someone with more recent Mac experience will have to answer your question (I have many Mac computers, but they're all older). Can you list your computer model name? Some Macs are relatively easy to work on, while others aren't worth the hassle.

If you had a standard computer that you snapped together yourself, it would take five minutes and a small screwdriver to replace the hard drive. Then add an hour or two for re-installing the operating system and software.

From a cost standpoint, replacing the hard drive compared vs. replacing the entire computer is a no-brainer. My computers, the two most recent, cost $1700 and $2000. One is eight years old and the other is 2 or 3 years old. Both are still perfectly capable machines. A brand new hard drive (Seagate, non-SSD, 250GB) costs $50.