External Hard Drive (recommendations?)

More info from you is needed to make a good recommendation.

When you say "bigger," you mean gigabytes or terabytes of storage capacity, not physical size of the drive case... correct?

How much storage does she have on her current external hard drive? If it doesn't say how much capacity it has on the hard drive label, you can easily tell by opening Windows Explorer and clicking on "This PC" where you will see each drive listed separately with two numbers, the bigger one being total capacity.

What does she want to store on there? Media fiiles like photos or videos? Back-ups?

What kind of ports does this laptop have for connection of external hard drives? It matters because different hard drives use different connection cables and you will want to match the connector the external hard drive needs to this laptop. It can be a little tricky to tell for sure, because, for example, there are different speeds of USB. Buying a drive that doesn't use all the speed available to it may frustrate her, depending what she's trying to do. Buying one that's too fast either won't connect at all or will connect but will waste some money because she can't use the extra speed. Try this webpage for more info: https://www.dignited.com/36804/laptop-ports-how-to-identify-...

I would look into an sata SSD. I added one to my computer and attached it using a USB port. They are small so they take up very little space.

I use a Seagate portable 5TB external USB hard drive for my mac. Works on Windows too.
Here's a link to it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VS8QCXC
Comes with a USB 3.0 cable.

I don't know the answer I am printing this out so she can take a good look at what she wants

Mechanical spinner external drives will offer more storage - 2 to 12 TB if not more these days. The smaller 2/4TB drives can run on usb power only while larger capacities use a power brick.

All require usb 3.0 (5 gbps) connectivity for reasonable performance. A caveat of all of these is heat. External drives don't include any active cooling so they tend to run hot. This reduces drive lifespan.

Then there's the shock concern. A running mechanical spinning drive must NOT be moved, period. Turn it off to move it. Moving it while on can lead to head crashes or other potential data failures.

External SSD drives alleviate the above concern as far as shock (no moving parts), but they too tend to run warm/hot depending on the enclosure. Also, prices are higher and capacities smaller (.5 - 2TB is a typical sweet spot). To get the best performance you should be using a usb 3 gen 2 port (10 gbps).

I have a few external ssd's, but mainly when home, everything goes on the nas - 2 12TB drives in a mirror arrangement, if one craps out, data is not lost.

…many years ago a BB manager told me how I could get a barely used Samsung SSD. Essentially the BB Geek Squad, when a client brings in a computer for repair, backs up everything to an external drive. Once these drives are used, they are sold as refurbished at quite a discount. I have had a problem with only one drive. It had been password protected by someone but when returned to my local BB they gave me a new drive. My three drives, with a drive monitoring utility, have shown about 50 to 100 hours of use, nothing compared to life of the drive.

Depending on needs I currently see a Samsung - Geek Squad Certified Refurbished T9 Portable SSD 4TB capacity at $270. New it is around $460.

You can see a list of drives at https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?_dyncharset=UTF-....

I use a 14 TB Western Digital Elements (model BWLG0140HBK-NESN), $260 on Amazon. It is USB attached. I have had it for almost 3 years and use it primarily for backup of my computers using Acronis True Image software. It has worked well for me.

@alanb

I'm curious what the smart values look like after 3 years on that drive.

I use a program called crystaldiskinfo from https://cytranet-dal.dl.sourceforge.net/project/crystaldiski... .

Here's a sample from one of my drives.

https://i.imgur.com/tWc7rsb.png

I try to keep my spinner drives under 40C at all times.

To get the values to show decimal, go to Functions/Advanced features/Raw Values/10 [dec]

I only power up the external drive when I do a backup ... 4 or 5 times a year on each of my 3 computers. So even though I have had it for almost 3 years (purchased Feb. 2022), it probably has been powered up less than 100 hours during that time.

I've gotten quite paranoid with my data. I have a scheduled task that runs syncthing on the desktop once a day. It captures any changes to my documents and below relative to what's on the nas. The nas creates daily snapshots (zfs) which are kept for 3 or 4 weeks, maybe longer (i can't remember any more). So effectively, I can still access previous day(s) syncthing sessions if need be. Once a week the nas fires up the a secondary nas to replicate all these snapshots to.

I still need to figure out an external source (not in the house) for backups.

Never thought there was so much different information about External Drives. All this reading should keep the wife busy for a while

Amazon is apparently going to have a Black Friday special on the Sandisk Extreme 4TB SSD. Pricey compared to a spinning rust HDD it's far more durable as it has no moving parts.

I use a 2TB model when I travel.

I would bet many would be fine with a 1TB but you don't give any details on need. Replacing an external drive because it's close to being full or just replacing it because of age or? Watch Amazon and other sites. Should be able to pick up a 2TB cheap. Right now you can get one for $65.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=2tb+external+hard+drive

I highly doubt 1TB would be enough for anyone. It certainly isn't enough for me. My main computer has a total of 28TB of storage split between the two NVME drives in the computer (1TB and 4TB), three external 4TB HDDs, and one 10TB HDD.

I got a few drives in mine too - this is the desktop.

https://i.imgur.com/3L1zME1.png
https://i.imgur.com/7IsngvJ.png

~66TB according to my math.

An actual internal hard drive, and enclosure, and this is what I use.

My thing was reading about failures of portable drives, and thinking well I'm going to be saving "important" and useless stuff to it, so I figure "real" hard drives have much much lower failure rates (in my lifetime I've never had one crash and that's what 35 years).

It's bulkier but I only use it at home.

enclosure

https://a.co/d/f4IPWEN

Drive

https://a.co/d/8mpXxHS

hello

All she wants is to use it as an external back-up and all the ones she has are full or getting old. After all the input and recommendations, I think she has almost decided what to get. Never know with her.

Thanks again for all the information that everyone has provided,

You might want to look at the Samsung FIT Plus USB 3.2 Flash Drive in either a 256GB or 512GB version. This is a peanut sized USB drive. Although I have three external drives for “major” backups, I use a Samsung Fit drive for incremental backups that occur daily. These FIT drives aren’t speedy when compared to some of the external drives but when used for incremental drive they are more than adequate.

She's looking for backup drives, and unless it's a very small system, I doubt a 256 or 512 MB flash drive will be enough. I personally would want at least a 2TB SSD, preferably more. We still don't know what size is "almost full" for her. She obviously will want something bigger than she has, probably at least twice as big.

You'll notice, if you read customer reviews, that the bigger the storage capacity and the smaller the drive, the more problems people have with drives failing. 2TB portable SSDs seem to be more reliable than 4TB portable SSDs, and so on.(Portable SSDs are about the size of a stack of five credit cards, by the way.)

It was for this reason that though I've always had great success with SanDisk SSDs for backup, when I needed to step up from 2TB to 4TB drives, I switched to Samsung T7 SSDs, because the failure rate, based on online reviews (which, granted, are not reliable data) seemed higher for SanDisk.

BUT... I personally regretted my decision for several months. Not because my Samsung drives failed, but because I was having trouble rotating my backup drives. Windows Explorer would only show 32MB of capacity for swapped-in 4TB drives (32MB was Samsung's own partition), and I would have a terrible time trying to get Magician to unlock the drive so Windows would recognize the full rated capacity I'd paid for. Eventually I could get the drive unlocked, but it would take me an hour or more, Every Time I swapped backup drives.

I contacted Tech Support, which for Samsung is outsourced. They seemed very responsive at first but ultimately were not able to fund a solution.

The problem was I had installed Samsung Magician, a proprietary drive management app that promises extra security in the event your drives fall into the wrong hands. Oh it's secure all right, but it was locking me out of my own drives. I don't recommend using Samsung Magician to password-protect drives. Personally I'm sorry I installed it. It's been far more trouble than it's worth to me.

But on my own I stumbled on the fix, and now I'm happy with the Samsung T7s. While I knew I had to run Samsung Magician in Windows' Administrative mode, by right-clicking on Magician's icon and entering my Windows Administrator password, that wasn't enough to unlock the security lock Samsung Magician applied to the T7 (and it couldn't be removed--unlocking and other options were grayed out in Magician).

The fix was that before swapping a drive, it was essential for me on my Windows system to Switch User (in Windows 10, you can do this as an additional option in the Shut Down menu) and enter the Administrator account with the Administrator password. Why it's essential to Samsung Magician to go from the Administrator account, when running in Administrative mode in a user account doesn't work, and why no one at Samsung seems to be offering this as a solution, I have no idea, but as long as I switched user first, no problem unlocking swapped-in Samsung T7 drives in Samsung Magician.

I know I said I'm not in the market for another drive, but I really should be building out a NAS for myself, simply to be able to stream my music and videos anywhere I want.

Do you keep this PC on 24/7 and use it to stream files?

I have two T7’s and use Magician without issue. One drive is numbered “1” and is used for a full backup of the Documents folder on the start of odd numbered months. The other drive, “2” is used for even numbered months. Neither drive is encrypted and they are disconnected except when a backup is being performed.

No, this is my desktop. It used to be where I streamed stuff from and what not. Now it's mainly just a bunch of drives in a case. This pc is only on ~12 hrs a day, sometimes more, sometimes less.

The server box performs several functions

* hypervisor
* firewall
* dns server
* mail server
* nas
* voip/fax server
* syncthing server
* nextcloud server
* other minor tasks I can't remember

This box is on 24/7. Of the above, syncthing and nextcloud both make use of the nas internally. This is a lot faster than going through a lan. Lan was recently upgraded to 2.5gbps and a number of devices on the wired network support that as well.

Power wise, the above box draws ~90-100 watts at idle, more depending on load. Considering what we've saved over the years in phone service costs by going to voip,it's a small price to pay. Based on some recent electrical costs, ~$13/month to run that box.

Of external SSD’s. See https://www.xda-developers.com/4-great-uses-for-your-externa...

Things to consider:
1. How much storage do you need?
2. Budget - what is your $$$ limit?
3. How rugged must it be?

HDDs are available in larger storage sizes
SSDs are more expensive than HDDs for the same storage.
Budget may be your limiting factor.

SSDs usually have much faster transfer rate than HDDs.
SSDs don't break if you drop them - no moving parts, but plastic may break.
Both are available in 2.5" formats
External drives will benefit with a USB3 interface. Of course, the computer must also have a USB3 port.

Modern external drives don't care about the PC computer OS, only the interface. Any modern PC will support any USB2 or USB3 interface. Of course, if the PC only has USB2 ports, a USB3 drive will only run at USB2 speeds.

I've been a full-time IT manager for over a decade. Here's my tips:

Costco has SanDisk 2Tb SSD's on sale for $120. I bought one but I don't rely on it, it's just for a 2nd backup.

About a year ago, Costco and Amazon had Samsung 2Tb T7 drives on sale for $70. Not since.

If you buy a spinner, get 7,200 RPM drives. It makes a huge difference. Manufacturers don't advertise this number for backup drives 'cuz it's cheaper to use 5,400 RPM drives, so you have to ask Ms. Google by inputting the model number, and even then it's sometimes hard to find.

Whatever you get, you MUST get two. One backup is not enough as far as I'm concerned. I have 3 complete backups, two at home and one offsite (see below).

Don't ever rely on the cloud for backup. I saw a media company lose everything when their server crashed and their online backup was useless. The IT manager disappeared when he realized there was nothing to be done to get their data back - 10 years of video they created.

Don't ever use proprietary security software to guard your drives. First question you need to answer, "Is my data that valuable if it falls into the wrong hands?" If not, forget drive security. I've got a server and and about 20 drives in my home and nothing is encrypted or locked. I don't trust anything Windows. I don't trust anything not in my home. On that note, my security is at my point of entry, the internet. I have an appliance firewall (Sonicwall) and a high-security router (Peplink). Routers you buy at BB or Costco are a hacker's dream. The biggest names are usually the most worthless at protecting you.

I saw a media pro lose everything 'cuz he was using Drobo drives, they claim a perfect solution. His drive array crashed (12Tb) and Drobo tech worked with him for an hour then said, "Sorry, nothing more we can do." It was all gone 'cuz they use a proprietary file system and there's no way for a third-party recovery company to recover the files. Drobo says they can but they can't, as my client found out.

I have a backup of my most important files (including terabytes of photos) and keep that drive (one of 3) at my sisters house on the other side of town.

My motto: "No one cares about your money or your data like you do."

Hope this helps.

This is one key reason I had a major issue with T7 drives that wasted hours of my time, and you didn't. I let Samsung Magician encrypt and password protect my T7's.

My suggestion for other Samsung backup-drive buyers: either don't install Magician at all (it's not required to use the drives), or if you do, at least *don't* let Samsung Magician encrypt and/or password-protect your Samsung drives. For one thing, if it goes south, you're going to have trouble getting good support from Samsung, because they have outsourced it, and their outsourced tech support proved ineffective with my problem.

If I had it to do over again, I'd pass on Samsung Magician entirely.

I agree with everything in mrbiker's post right above this one, FWIW.

I have three SSD Portable drives; and the fastest, by far, is a Lexar 1TB SSD. I transfer large VeraCrypt files (one being 117.5 GB) to it for backup at a speed of 1000MB/s (1GB per second). I've had it over a year with no problem.

I recently bought one of the SanDisk 2TB SSD Portable drives from Costco and returned it. Its speed didn't come close to the Lexar.

In my opinion, backing up 4 or 5 times a year isn't enough. I back up the operating system and the VeraCrypt files at least once a week. When you have a computer failure, get hacked, or installed a program that doesn't run correctly, you'll wish you did. I also make two backups.

Good luck.

RT

@mrbiker

I'm mostly in agreement with what you said (3 decades in IT). My only remark is wre to 7200 vs 5400 rpm. For external, with poor cooling, i'll take the 5400. I'd only choose 7200 if drive is going into a chassis with sort of fan.

Multiple backups are a must.

Me too. It's the megapixel conundrum, where man wants a single number, to determine goodness. Here, 7200 > 5400, so it must be better.

It works very effectively in marketing. 6.2 > 5.3, so 6.2 must be better. But fleets and cops use the 5.3.

jmoymmv it all goes back to stats which has been mysterious in the USA for a century. But I walked away from class feeling that reliable and valid were two of the most important concepts

net net I'd go with 5400

Another funny concept is taking a backup of a backup, the belt and suspenders. A person can do that, an enterprise doesn't.

I like Sandisk better than Seagate. I have had problems with Seagate external drives and have lost data using them.

Over the last decade (maybe a bit more), I've been mostly a western digital fan. Used to use seagate before (and maxtor's, etc.) My failure rate with wd has been pretty low - knock on wood. I do make sure to keep temps <40C and don't move device while powered on. ymmv

I was going to say I stopped using Seagate drives a very long time ago 'cuz the failure rate was so high it was almost guaranteed.

I didn't mention it because I didn't want to start a flame war.

Locked out of NAS drive. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/11/qnap-firmware-update...

Hopefully most of us know that Sandisk has been owned by Western Digital for years now.

I bought this one on Amazon and plan to back up many hard drives, flash drives, and old Mac computers. I comes formatted for windows, but I reformatted and it works great for Mac too.

Western Digital 22TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 external hard drive for plug-and-play storage - WDBWLG0220HBK-NESN

I've noticed that most routers these days have a usb3 socket that an external drive can be plugged into. Is there any benefit, or risk, to this setup? Would the router-connected drive function like a nas, where it can be accessed by any computer on the local network? Any security concerns to be aware of?

You can definitely do that and it does work. Depending on the speed of the router, software, filesystem, etc, you may not get the fastest speed drive is capable of, even if it is usb 3. Heat will be a concern if its on 24/7 without some sort of cooling solution. How will you backup the backup drive....?

Security/access is a function of your router. I would not expose this to the internet, local lan only. With my nas, if I want to access it remotely, I first have to vpn into the network.

I did exactly the above for a period of time using a flash drive to dump AIO printer scans into. That is hitting the scan button on the printer would send the pdf to the usb flash drive connected to an old router (in ap mode) on the network. Once a day a task on the pc would query the flash drive, syncing new files to the pc.

Eventually I did away with that entirely. I run truenas now. Scans get sent directly to nas. Nas handles redundancy and periodic dumping to another nas.

Depends on how much storage you need, or just get a 4 TB or larger. I have several external drives of varying sizes and they are all Seagate, no problems with any of them.

The wife got her a WD 6T and has it hooked up

Thanks everyone for all your great input.

I'm find it curious that there us no mention of RAID here.

JIC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

^^Truenas/zfs supports it's own flavor of raid. Also, raid is not a backup . A power surge can potentially take out the redundant drives.

I killed the shock proof external spinning drive: moved the laptop while it was running
got NAS sitting in the corner on UPS mirrors all registered devices
cellular phones get warm when pairing and updating, might have to check nthat

going to grab an small external ssd 1-2TB to take in pocket, trips
Thank you all for a lot of useful information

Yup. RAID is a disk configuration, not a backup. An important part of this discussion has been reliability. RAID in support of backup reliability, in a discussion where TBs are discussed seems reasonable.

"redundant drives"? That confuses me. And "power surges" don't take out non redundant drives? I must confess that I only have experience with big-boy RAID. I know remarkable little about baby machines.

I think all of the major drive manufacturers have had bad batches from time to time. That even applied to IBM. So personal experience that happens to intersect with a bad batch or two can give a highly skewed opinion of the relative reliability of manufacturers.

On the other hand it has been quite a while since I bought a new hard drive. I build my own machines, one every year or two, but in recent years I have given them a 1 TB solid-state boot drive. For the bulk drive I have bought a used helium hard drive retired from data center use. Many data centers retire their drives after three or four years of service and only a few dozen power cycles as they find it a cheap expansion to fill the slots with new higher-capacity drives. So far I've not had a failure on one of those.

…for $60 and 1 TB in a stick form factor.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2536803/this-usb-flash-drive...

What I find interesting is that the holdover disk architecture is still around. It was needed as cheap (albeit slow) memory for data, contrasted to high performance memory to feed highly expensive processors to (using a term stolen by sports announcers) execute in.

It should be noted, to get the advertised 1000MB/s write speed, two other factors need to be true.

1) Port device plugged into MUST be a 10gbps capable (ie usb 3 gen 2)
2) source must be fast enough to read at this speed

For number 2, bunch of small files not likely to reach this speed. In years past I've bought cheap sata m.2 drives and external enclosures. These top out around 400 mbps read/write over usb 3 gen 1 (5 gbps), which is still plenty fast. Have one such stick I call windows on a stick. It's a bootable win11 os drive (not installation, but actual installed windows). Useful for when I need windows but don't want to disturb the existing drive.

If getting such a drive, recommend it is a usb type A, or if type C, includes a C-A adapter, as type A ports more prevalent, especially on older hardware.

…for the most part is true for any devices that plugs into a USB port.