Help me purchase a 3-5TB External hard drive

Since it's a backup, reliability isn't really that much of a factor.

Not that I'd trust any reliability numbers anyway as ALL drives will fail.

As long as you test your backups regularly you'll notice a failure LONG before you actually have to recover.

I got a WD My Book 5TB drive a couple of months back for backups, and it's working fine so far and gets around 120MB/second when backing up big files. Of course, who knows whether it still will be in a few years?

Thanks guys

i never had any issues with WD. Got a ton lying around in my house.

death_hawk wrote: ↑Since it's a backup, reliability isn't really that much of a factor.

What's the point of a back up if it's not reliable?

While we're on the subject, what software are you using for backups lately?

I figure most of my hard drive space is consumed by stuff downloaded from Steam that can easily be re-downloaded; it would be nice if I had something that automagically recognized that.

Gee wrote: ↑What's the point of a back up if it's not reliable?

It's not the only copy of his data so the medium itself doesn't have to be 100% foolproof.
As long as the backups are tested (ie the drive is tested) a dead drive won't mean squat.
RMA and replace. Done and done.

if the data is important, thus the reason for backing it up, then do it right and buy a drive that has a solid reputation and should last several years. Otherwise, just admit you don't care about the data and ignore having a backup.

It's totally bogus to say buy a backup drive that might flake out on you at any time.

If you do lose your only copy of valued family photos, then it's your fking bad for cheaping out a hundred bux.

rageking wrote: ↑if the data is important, thus the reason for backing it up, then do it right and buy a drive that has a solid reputation and should last several years. Otherwise, just admit you don't care about the data and ignore having a backup.

It's totally bogus to say buy a backup drive that might flake out on you at any time.

If you do lose your only copy of valued family photos, then it's your fking bad for cheaping out a hundred bux.

For any meaningful reputation, you're looking at enterprise drives which are several times more than consumer and not available as externals.

Also this isn't the only copy of valued family photos it's a backup of valued family photos.

If they're that important, buy 2x consumer drives for double the redundancy.

rageking wrote: ↑If you do lose your only copy of valued family photos, then it's your fking bad for cheaping out a hundred bux.

If it's your only copy, then it ain't a backup, is it?

Jorpho wrote: ↑While we're on the subject, what software are you using for backups lately?

I figure most of my hard drive space is consumed by stuff downloaded from Steam that can easily be re-downloaded; it would be nice if I had something that automagically recognized that.

I personally don't use any back-up software. I cut and paste into the external hard drive as silly as that sounds.

Thanks

I have a 1.5TB seagate external working fine for 2 years. I back up my important files in this drive and in a Nas drive for backup backup.

realg123 wrote: ↑I personally don't use any back-up software. I cut and paste into the external hard drive as silly as that sounds.

Thanks

Yeah but you can use a program like FreeFileSync which you can setup so that anytime you plug in the USB drive, the files in the directory(ies) you specify are automatically synced in the way you set it up. That way it avoids you missing files yourself, allows you to automatically copy over files that exist but have been updated (if that's the way you choose to do it), etc.

Just makes it a lot easier. Plug in the drive look at the arrows in the icon, they both go green and you know it's all done syncing. Just remove the drive and done. Don't have to do much on you part, after you have it setup.

Anyway that all said, this is also a recommendation for FreeFileSync--it's pretty versatile and you can set it up exactly the way you want it (lots of options). It does take a little time to setup everything but thereafter it's a breeze. IMO it's better than a lot of dedicated "backup" software, including the paid kind.

realg123 wrote: ↑I personally don't use any back-up software. I cut and paste into the external hard drive as silly as that sounds.

Think of it this way: It's not the best way of doing things, but considering that you're actually DOING it you're already miles ahead of others.

realg123 wrote: ↑Hi guys,
I recently got a best buy gift card. I would like to purchase an External hard drive 3 - 5 TB. Which external hard drive would you guys recommend? Is Seagate really as bad as they say it is?

The hard drive will be used for backup purposes not daily use

best-buy-169-99-wd-my-book-5tb-3-5-a-1966525/