Best external drive for relatively safe backups for less than $150?

Geeku · February 8, 2017

So last month's dead hard drive has me paranoid about losing any more data, so I've decided to just get an external hard drive to put in a nice cushioned lead lined box (Only half joking) and take it out every month to back everything up again.

What are my choices for a 2-4tB external hard drive that's got good data loss prevention? As in a reasonably low failure rate. I don't need it to be fast to read off of - it's purely a "just in case" sort of thing, but I do need a not-crap write speed. I'll probably build a NAS with a fancy pants RAID in the future for proper backups, but for now I just want to backup some harder to replace files and have them somewhere safe in case something happens.

Also as far as software - what are my choices? I need to be able to backup certain folders on certain drives and maintain a list of what's been backed up, when, what's been changed, etc. so I know when to plug the drive in again. Being able to export a list of files would also be nice for files that I can replace but may not remember the names or sizes.

An added bonus feature for the software would be backing up to AWS Glacial storage every once in awhile.

ProjectBox153 · February 8, 2017

Just buy a nice, big drive (internal) and a SATA to USB adapter (cheap) and you're off.

Schubaltz · February 8, 2017

From my experience, Seagate drives have caused nothing but trouble. I've had multiple drives of different types including a SSHD and it still died.

I'd recommend Western Digital, but to each their own.

Geeku · February 8, 2017

So get a nice-ish WD (HGST?) internal drive and an enclosure? I say enclosure rather than an adapter because I kind want that extra bit of protection even if it does cost me $20-30 more than a cable.

Schubaltz · February 9, 2017

Yes, that should be fine. I'm planning on getting a new WD soon, I can hear my 3TB Seagate's last breathes.

Geeku · February 9, 2017

It looks like external hard drives are cheaper than internal for 2+ TB on amazon... Should I still get an internal + enclosure?

ProjectBox153 · February 9, 2017

19 minutes ago, Geeku said:

It looks like external hard drives are cheaper than internal for 2+ TB on amazon... Should I still get an internal + enclosure?

Really? I find that 3tb drives (internal) are cheaper than a lot of 2tb external drives.

Mighty_Miro_WD · February 9, 2017

Hi @Geeku!

Are you looking for a portable or desktop external drive?

For a portable external drive I can recommend WD Elements and WD My Passport Ultra. They both are very good and reliable drives, and the only difference between them is that the second one is hardware encrypted and password protected while the first one is not. As for the maximum capacity, WD Elements comes with maximum available storage space of 2TB while WD My Passport is up to 4TB. Here's a link you if want to take a look:

WD Elements - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=dhOJDN
WD My Passport Ultra - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=astczY

On the other hand, in case you're after a desktop external drives you can take a look at WD My Book which is also hardware encrypted and password protected and comes with capacity up to 8TB. You can check it out here:

WD My Book - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=vPhck5

Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have.