External hard drive

[SumDay]

I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a new laptop yesterday to replace my 6+ year old model.

I was poking around and noticed that I have 14MB of photos. But am I going to get rid of any of them? Nope. I've decided to move the photos onto an external hard drive and not bog down the new laptop with all of them.

I have a WD My Passport external/back-up that I got from Costco, and find it clunky to use. Time to upgrade that one too.

In looking online, I see good review for Seagate models? Does anyone have any experience with these (ease of use, etc.) that they'd be willing to share? Or another make & model that you like?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Meadbh]

I recently bought a Seagate SRD00F1 (1TB) to complement my MacBook Air. It seems to be working just fine and backs up my computer hourly.

 

[hsv_climber]

14MB Maybe GB?

But even with 14GB, you might be better off looking at the latest USB flash drives, where 32 GB will cost you under $25.

 

[rbmrtn]

What exactly is clunky about it ? Lots of options, you can get USB flash drives up to 128GB now, solid state drives (SSD), NAS RAID storage server.

For 14MB ( is that correct ? ) I'd just us a flash drive. Also online storage is an option like google drive.

 

[timeasterday]

I don't trust Seagate at all after some past drive failures. I have several WD external drives and they have worked great for years. I have hundreds of GB's of photos & videos backed up on them. That reminds me, I need to buy another!

 

[MichaelB]

Is there another need for an external hard in addition to photos? Static storage requirements are easy to satisfy just copying things onto a dvd.

 

[Tadpole]

I have a Seagate goflex 3T USB external drive. I have had no problems at all with it. I bought it in February last year. I use it just for backups so it is attached to my router where access is slow. I don't know how good it is on a direct USB to computer connection.

 

[Katsmeow]

I use a WD Passport.

 

[ChiliPepr]

If the photos are important to you I would suggest something with two disks and raid between them.. that way if one drive crashes you do not lose anything.

I have been using ReadyNas products for years, even had a hard disk crash, nothing stopped running, replaced the drive and all was well in minutes.

 

[mpeirce]

14MB Maybe GB?

But even with 14GB, you might be better off looking at the latest USB flash drives, where 32 GB will cost you under $25.

This can be a very good option depending on your size requirements.

Also check out SD cards. Most(?) laptops today have SD card slots and the cards are small and pretty cheap.

 

[FinanceDude]

I use a WD Passport.

+1

 

[Bestwifeever]

I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a new laptop yesterday to replace my 6+ year old model.....

Never mind the external drive , what did you order?

My primary laptop is 7 years old this week and before I throw it through a window in frustration I'd like to get a new one too.

 

[FIREd]

I have a WD "My Book" to store multimedia files (3+ years, no problems). And I use a G-technology "G-drive" for my computer backup (2+ years, no problems). I found both pretty easy to use.

 

[REWahoo]

Feever, there are some roaring bargains out there in the laptop world these days - like this one: Dell Inspiron 15 Ivy Bridge i5 Dual 16" Laptop for $350 + free shipping

If that one doesn't do it for you, the Deal News website pops up several bargains every day.
http://dealnews.com/Dell-Inspiron-1...op-for-350-free-shipping-updated-/712224.html

 

[rbmrtn]

Feever, there are some roaring bargains out there in the laptop world these days - like this one: Dell Inspiron 15 Ivy Bridge i5 Dual 16" Laptop for $350 + free shipping

If that one doesn't do it for you, the Deal News website pops up several bargains every day.

Some nice deals out there. I bought this for someone a few weeks ago

Newegg.com - lenovo G780 (59359270) Notebook Intel Pentium 2020M(2.40GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW Intel HD Graphics

Was going to get a used one but this one was less than $100 more for a brand new 17".

 

[SumDay]

Never mind the external drive , what did you order?

I got a Dell, similar to the one Wahoo posted. I have a 17" now, but find traveling with it to be less than ideal, so I went with a 15". I'll probably regret it when I'm not traveling. We'll see!!

 

[zinger1457]

Assuming your new laptop has a USB 3.0 port make sure any external hard drive you buy get also supports USB 3.0, it's up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0.

 

[meierlde]

One other item is to be aware that if you are on windows and go bigger than 2tb and want to partition the drive you need to change the partition table type, to a gpt partition table. It turns out the old scheme breaks down a bit above 2 tb.

 

[bUU]

Top 3 Reasons Why DVDs Suck For Long Term Image Storage | Mosaic

 

[donheff]

If those photos are critical, external storage in your house still puts them at risk of fire or flood. How about thumb drives at home and a cloud backup via any of a number of cheap accounts? I use Flickr pro for $25/yr. You could probably divide 14G of images amoung a few free accounts (skydrive, dropbox, drive, etc) if you don't want to spend anything.

 

[marko]

After way too many wipeouts of both computers and hard drives, I went to the cloud on Jan 4 of this year. Haven't looked back.

Google holds everything I have. I can use any computer, anywhere, and get my stuff. Google Drive and Google Plus for photos and documents. Everything backs up automatically.

There is a minor lag as everything is uploaded/downloaded via internet but the peace of mind is worth the half second wait. My laptop boots up in less than a minute because there is nothing much on it now.

 

[target2019]

If those photos are critical, external storage in your house still puts them at risk of fire or flood. How about thumb drives at home and a cloud backup via any of a number of cheap accounts? I use Flickr pro for $25/yr. You could probably divide 14G of images amoung a few free accounts (skydrive, dropbox, drive, etc) if you don't want to spend anything.

You are on the right track, IMO, by suggesting redundancy. If your data is in one place, there is a single point of failure. Even with RAID or external backups, the computer can be taken from you due to theft or disaster. An external drive or thumb device can be misplaced, go bad, or "walk away."

None of us can predict 10 years into the future, but cloud services will continue to develop to meet demand. My own situation is too complex for a single cloud backup solution. But I use cloud to exchange files with those I work with (not confidential or sensitive).

I use backup to internal secondary drive(s), and also copy that backup drive to external drive which is removed and placed elsewhere.

 

[meierlde]

You are on the right track, IMO, by suggesting redundancy. If your data is in one place, there is a single point of failure. Even with RAID or external backups, the computer can be taken from you due to theft or disaster. An external drive or thumb device can be misplaced, go bad, or "walk away."

None of us can predict 10 years into the future, but cloud services will continue to develop to meet demand. My own situation is too complex for a single cloud backup solution. But I use cloud to exchange files with those I work with (not confidential or sensitive).

I use backup to internal secondary drive(s), and also copy that backup drive to external drive which is removed and placed elsewhere.

Depending on how concerned, one could either leave a thumb drive with the data with a friend or in a safe deposit box. (Ideally a few miles at least from home). At up to 138 gb per drive they would not take up a lot of space.