Need External HDD reccommendations.

Right now I'm looking for some large capacity storage. Heres the deal. I am currently deployed overseas. I have my X7200 which holds about 2.5 TB of HDD space. One of the 1TB drives is a data drive, and the other 1TB drive is a drive where I put my image backups on. (OS Drive Image, Gaming SSD Image, Data Drive Image)

Well I'm running out of room. Back home I have a 3TB Mybook which I didn't bring with me.

Here at my base we have a morale drive on the network, which I'd like to grab copies of a lot of the movies and tv shows. So I need some suggestions on hard drives. I'm looking in the 3-4 TB range. Ideally i'd love to have more. However, when I get home, I plany to build a server, and a desktop computer (or new monster laptop, though my X7200 hasnt really shown its age yet ). So I don't want to go too overboard. I also want something that should be reliable.

Are there any good drives out there for a good price in the 3-4+ TB Range?

All suggestions and ideas are welcome. Thanks guys!

Dan

 

Hope this isn't overkill:

See:
Backblaze Blog » 180TB of Good Vibrations – Storage Pod 3.0

 

I recently used this for a few weeks. It was pretty good and I got transfer speeds of over 100MBps consistently. I don't know why newegg advertises it as a "desktop expansion drive". I mean it is just a standard external storage drive.

 

Okay, nobody even chuckled at my suggestion (from the king of overkill)?

maverick1989, not even you! lol...

Seriously; I would be looking at at least a dual drive (RAID1) setup (I'm assuming you need to get your notebook's data backed up there too).

Since the 4TB WD Duo is $550,

See:
WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo 4TB External Dual-Drive Storage w/ RAID at Memory Express

And will only give you effectively 2GB capacity when in RAID1...

The better option is 2x 3TB WD My Book drives for $280...

See:
WD My Book 3TB External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 at Memory Express


Which is even cheaper than an external enclosure and two bare drives for a diy approach.


Either way: whichever way you decide; I highly recommend you have at least two copies of your (important) data at all times - trusting a new/unknown storage enclosure with your data is NOT RECOMMENDED.


Hope this time, I helped?

Good luck.

 

Thanks guys. I'm seriously thinking about 2x3TB. However The most important stuff I have (Pics, documents) Will be backed up on the external. And it will be for a lot of movies.

That seagate was a lot like the one I was looking at. @ maverick1989 Did you notice any heat issues? From reading reviews it sounds like heat was the number one complaint on those seagate drives. This is the one I was looking at. 4TB Newegg.com - Seagate 4TB Black External Hard Drive STBV4000100

This was the Western Digital I was looking at. Western Digital My Book Essential 3TB Desktop External Hard Drive - Newegg.com

The one thing I hate with both hard drives I was looking at...They come with a free pair of nose and ear hair trimmers. I mean...Really? :rolleyes lol Stupid Newegg gifts lol.
Actually if I buy them on Amazon, I don't have to pay shipping so that's probably where I'm going to buy from when I make a decision.

The prices on both are really close in terms of $/TB $39.xx/TB on both drives. $39.66/TB for the WD 3TB, $39.75/TB for the Seagate 4TB

Really wish I could do the Storage Pod 3.0 though lol. The WD Thunderbolt looks great. 4TB at RAID 1 (I think) So there's good redundancy there and good capacity, however It's more than I'd like to spend at this point. Mostly because I'd rather save money to build a large capacity home server when I get home.

When I get home I plan to spend about $4K building a desktop and a server. Hopefully I can put together something good with that budget.

 

I did not have any heat troubles. However, I was using it in our lab where the ambient is 68 degrees (20 C). That could be a contributing factor. The Seagate you linked is the same one, I believe. Just a denser platter.

I have no experience with that particular series of WD so can't really comment on that. However, these people probably source the platters from the same people so I think simply looking at who ahs higher positive reviews and purchasing should give you the better product.

 

Thanks man, I think I'm going to suck it up and since it's not a permanant solution, I'm going for the 4TB. As long as it lasts me a year I should be good. And ambient temps here won't be an issue. It gets to -30°C in the winter and I work the night shift so I'm not out during the heat of the day.

 

That's no problem. Stay warm!

 

I'm in need of a large capacity storage as well. I have a pair of HGST in external enclosure but I expect my data will increase rather rapidly so I need at least a 4TB source. My greatest requirement though is to have a variety of ports. USB 3.0 is the current king for me so as long as I have that and eSATA I'm good. Keep us informed on what you decide OP. I'll be looking for reviews.

 

Sounds good. Will do. I an going to be ordering the 4TB today. Probably a few weeks to make it out to our APO, but I'll definitely let you know how it works out.