External Hard Drive Advice

Hi, i just ordered a new clevo p170sm and while i wait for it to get built / shipped etc, i'm looking to buy myself a external hard drive or two. I prefer 6 TB total whether it be 2 x 3 TB or 1 x 4 TB and 1 x 2 TB or any other variations that work. It is mainly going to be for storing excess media files that i want to archive so my laptop hard drive doesn't fill up. I currently have a 1 TB and a 1.5 TB (both are WDs) that are completely full and a few years old and i want to transfer over everything to a new drive and leave myself 3 TB + for future use. I am current looking at the Buffalo DriveStation DDR as i have heard great reviews, but at 175$ and upwards for a 3 TB drive i want to know if better options are out there for me. I don't mind if it needs external power, as long as it is sturdy and reliable enough to be moved every once in a while and can handle shaking if i need to put it in a suitcase. I am open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks.

 

That drive is for people that are constantly transferring data back and forth. Is that your purpose or are you simply going to store media onto it every so often and use it like a sink for all your stuff? If that is what you plan on doing, purchasing that drive is imo a waste of money. The only difference in technology is that it is faster because of the DDR3 memory buffer. Finally, I am assuming you have a SSD in your laptop because if you don't, you are not going to see any speed jumps.

I would go with a Samsung D3 or a Seagate or WD since you already have WD and seem to not have any qualms about their performance.

 

It also depends on what kind of storage are you looking for. Do you want a portable external drive that you can take with you? Or an external NAS setup? Will you need all the USB ports on your new notebook for other thing? If yes, you may want to consider getting an external drive that has an eSATA connector. If not, you will be fine with USB 3.0. One thing I seriously recommend is if you are going for a standalone or NAS external drive, get the enclosure and then buy the hard drives separate. That will save you in two ways. First, you aren't paying a premium for the manufacturer's hard drives. Two, you can use whatever hard drive sizes you want, and whatever brand you want. All external enclosures will accept any standard 2.5" or 3.5" SATA hard drives. If you're looking to have at least 6TB, you will need an enclosure that holds at two 3.5" drives.

Here are two examples off of Newegg. One connect via eSATA or USB 3.0 (hot swappable), and the other via USB 3.0 only.

SilverStone DS322B Black External Enclosure - Newegg.com

AMS DS-DS3RPRO2 Black External Enclosure - Newegg.com

 

Thanks for the reply's. @maverick, its mostly going to be a sink for my media files i will access every once in a while, certainly not an everyday use drive. @radji, i prefer usb 3.0 as i will be transferring anywhere from 10-100 GB at a time to the drive for storage and i would like faster transfer rates. I haven't looked into a NAS external drive but i will check those out, and i have no experience setting up an enclosure but with the forums and google i'd learn. However it doesn't seem like either of those are easily transferable if i need to stick em in a suitcase etc.

 

For the record, USB3.0 and eSATA are close in terms of transfer speeds. Both are fast enough to give the maximum transfer speeds on a HDD. If you were using a SSD as an external, then, yes it would make a difference, in favour of eSATA due to better randoms in my opinion. However, USB3.0 still gets more points because it is backwards compatible with USB2.0 making it pretty much universal.

tl;dr: Get a USB3.0 drive, eSATA is nice, but USB3.0 is way more convenient.

 

For simple media /backup just get something cheap, usb 3.0 and perferably with 2 year or more warranty.

Getting drive and enclosure separately is fine as well, but it will cost little more.

 

So i'm looking at the Seagate Expansion 3 TB and the WD My Book 3 TB. Both are around 120-130; does anyone have an opinion on one vs. the other?

And thanks all for the help. My first forum thread and you all have helped me out a lot + saved me from buying something expensive that i didn't need.

 

Go with the Seagate. While I praise WD drives, the larger capacity My Books (3TB, 4TB) use a WD Caviar Green drive inside...you want to avoid the Caviar Green drives like the plague.