Recommended External drive or brand?

[Adonis4000]

Hello there.

Just looking for a good External Hard Drive or SSD. I'm looking for recommendations for either specific models or brands and perhaps what to stay away from.

Thanks

[Slottr]

I've had a WD passport kicking around for like 4 years and it still runs good

[Crunchy Dragon]

WD and Seagate both make good external drives.

[Guest]

WD makes good drives, I have 2. Depending on how much storage you need, you might want a SSD instead.(SSD for 500gb or lower I personally think).

If an SSD is what you want, look at Samsung drives with USB 3 or USB c. Samsung seems to be a good brand for ssd's to my experience.

[wONKEyeYEs]

6 minutes ago, Adonis4000 said:

good External Hard Drive or SSD.

I just bought a 2.5" enclosure and threw in an SSD.

They have USB enclosures for M.2 now too.

[Velcade]

I have both a Samsung T5 Portable SSD and a Western Digital Passport.  Both are great drives.

[Adonis4000]

5 minutes ago, timl132 said:

Depending on how much storage you need

I was considering more like 2 TB

[Guest]

Just now, Adonis4000 said:

I was considering more like 2 TB

Then a HDD is what you want unless you are rich.

Look at WD kinda things(Passport or something), I have one running for 3 years straight now.

[Adonis4000]

1 minute ago, timl132 said:

Then a HDD is what you want unless you are rich

Yep. Just checked the general prices a bit.

Holy fuck, are they expensive

[Adonis4000]

I am confused as to what some Hard Drives use as a connection.

For example, this hard drive

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00TKFEE5S/ref=sxnav_sxwds-bovbp-i_m_2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_p=42635de0-01bc-4eee-8442-f1d8718d081a&pd_rd_wg=yCIqQ&pf_rd_r=PX30ENJNA4DXY7YX2H77&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-nav&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B00TKFEE5S&pd_rd_w=M0vj8&pf_rd_i=external%2Bhard%2Bdrives&pd_rd_r=8a8f8294-24c7-49c1-9202-09fb5bde9111&ie=UTF8&qid=1535388420&sr=2&th=1

says it is usb 3.0, although in the image it very clearly has a usb micro b port.

[Guest]

Just now, Adonis4000 said:

I am confused as to what some Hard Drives use as a connection.

For example, this hard drive

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00TKFEE5S/ref=sxnav_sxwds-bovbp-i_m_2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_p=42635de0-01bc-4eee-8442-f1d8718d081a&pd_rd_wg=yCIqQ&pf_rd_r=PX30ENJNA4DXY7YX2H77&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-nav&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B00TKFEE5S&pd_rd_w=M0vj8&pf_rd_i=external%2Bhard%2Bdrives&pd_rd_r=8a8f8294-24c7-49c1-9202-09fb5bde9111&ie=UTF8&qid=1535388420&sr=2&th=1

says it is usb 3.0, although in the image it very clearly has a usb micro b port.

It's micro USB 3, hence the additional pins on the side. There will be a USB 3 cable with it.

It's compatible with normal micro USB(will run at USB 2 speed), and the USB 3 cable with it.(will run at fast 3.0 speed)

[Adonis4000]

2 minutes ago, timl132 said:

It's micro USB 3, hence the additional pins on the side. There will be a USB 3 cable with it.

It's compatible with normal micro USB(will run at USB 2 speed), and the USB 3 cable with it.(will run at fast 3.0 speed)

What I am concerned is that on none of the hard drives does it state anywhere that a cable is included.

Also, really looking into a hard drive with usb 3.1 cababilities but having trouble finding one.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Adonis4000 said:

What I am concerned is that on none of the hard drives does it state anywhere that a cable is included.

Also, really looking into a hard drive with usb 3.1 cababilities but having trouble finding one.

Yes it does, from the amazon page you linked:

Quote

Box Contains

 

• 1 x Seagate expansion portable external hard drive
• 1 x 46 cm (18 inch) USB cable
• 1 x Quick start guide

Most sellers have a list of package contents.

[Adonis4000]

5 minutes ago, timl132 said:

Yes it does

Well, this is embarrassing, considering how long I looked for it...

Anyway, thanks

[seagate_surfer]

Hi Adonis4000

 

We have some external drives options for back up, some other ones for gaming and some other for mobile devices website and please let me know if you are interested in one of those, feel free to ask questions I come here everyday so I will be replaying at any moment:

• https://www.seagate.com/consumer/empower/

[Adonis4000]

@seagate_surfer

Actually, there is one thing I'd like to ask.

Do you have any hard drives that are capable of fully utilizing a usb type c connection at a 10 Mbps speed?

[seagate_surfer]

I know that there is this one that operates over type C USB: https://www.seagate.com/consumer/backup/fast-ssd/#specs

 

But when I check in the specs it says 3.0 and backwards compatible, however when I check the transfer rates for SATA and USB I noticed the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#Comparison_to_other_interfaces

 

If you compare the speeds of USB 3.0 to SATA 3 you will see this:

SATA revision 3.0	6 Gbit/s	600 MB/s[72]
USB 3.0 (USB 3.1, Generation 1)	5 Gbit/s	400 MB/s or more (excl. protocol overhead, flow control, and framing)[78]

It tells that the speeds of 3.1 (Generation 2) exceeds the standards of SATA 3.0, in other words it could be a waste to install a hard drive in an external case to be used with USB 3.1 (Generation 2) because you won't get to 10Gbit/s with a SATA 3.0 drive. I'm just being logical and trying to sound smart looking for a logical reason that explains why USB 3.1 Gen 2 is not being used on SATA 3.0 external drives but of course I could be wrong. Anyways the difference between USB 3.0 (USB 3.1, Generation 1) and SATA 3.0 is very low, almost unnoticeable.

 

Then we have this other one also, the LaCie Rugged Portable Hard Drives that runs on USB-C (USB 3.1 5 Gb/s) and the same thing applies than the one I just posted above: https://www.lacie.com/products/rugged/#specs