Are 2 TB HD's worth it?

I have a 500 GB WD MyBook Pro. It does the job, its a bit noisy, not the speediest driver (connected via USB 2.0), but its been reliable. I use this as a backup to all my files. I'm a musician and have a good deal of data and music on there I cannot afford to lose. I would like to get a 2 TB HD so I don't have to worry about upgrading again in the future, but I have heard a 2TB HD is generally slower, noisy, and has a larger chance of failing (given there is 2 drives in there). Is there any 2TB HD's you would suggest?

If not, I would settle for a 1TB, but I would like it to be only one drive (can't have anything fail on me)

Thanks in advance for your help

 

Isn't the safest bet if RAID 1 (mirroring), where you have to 2HDs with the same content...that way if one drive fails, you have a copy in the other.

 

If you don't need it now,forget it.It will be cheaper and more reliable I future when you need it.

 

I don't know about Raid Mirroring, and don't really want a huge RAID setup, don't think its necessary at the moment.

But I do need an external HD with at least 1TB of space. Thats why I asked Sly!! I know everything will be cheaper in the future, but for now I need an HD.
Any suggestions?

 

Here you go:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=466

I don't know this for a fact, but considering the largest WD HDs are 1TB, I don't see how they get 2TB of storage AND mirroring with only 2 drives. However, 1TB storage is enough. The WD GP drives run quiet and cool, and wouldn't be slower than your current drive since it is more recent and technology has improved. Since you cannot afford to lose data, you want 2 drives minimum. RAID1 is safer than any single drive configuration and is known as mirroring. RAID0 is less safe but faster than the single drive since it effectively doubles speed but if one fails the whole array fails - you aren't getting this though!

 

If your worried about disk failure than a raid1 setup is your best friend. Also, the speed of your external drives is bottlenecked by the USB speed; if this is bothering you as well, your best bet would be E-sata if you have access to it.
I have the Mybook 320GB which is very quiet but maxes out around 21mbs transfer speed.

If you read near the bottom, it says "You're up and running in a few simple steps. WD's intuitive RAID wizard software lets you easily modify your RAID settings." which i think means you can use whichever you pick.

 

In my opinion also, RAID 1 is def what you need........

it's not that hard to set up- software will walk you thru it.

 

1Tb drives can be had for 150$. I`d get 2 of those and RAID 1 them .