External Hard Drives - to save my GIMP images and other content

eagertolearn · **Joined:** Feb 26, 2014 **Posts:** 248

GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

Hi All,

I have a SONY external hard drive that just died one day within it's warranty period.

SONY won't recover my drive contents so the next time I've got an extra $500 I'll have to find a data recovery firm.

I need to back up my contents - GIMP/graphic files, music, videos, data but I can't seem to find an objective, independent evaluation of which external hard drives are most reliable.

Have you found any such article?

Or have you found through experience certain brands more reliable than others?

Popular Mechanics and CNET seem to be just "reviews" gleaned from press releases.

Thanks so much!

Charles.

Wallace · **Posted:** Mon Oct 16, 2017 2:23 pm **(#2)**

eagertolearn wrote:

GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

Hi All,

I have a SONY external hard drive that just died one day within it's warranty period.

SONY won't recover my drive contents so the next time I've got an extra $500 I'll have to find a data recovery firm.

I need to back up my contents - GIMP/graphic files, music, videos, data but I can't seem to find an objective, independent evaluation of which external hard drives are most reliable.

Have you found any such article?

Or have you found through experience certain brands more reliable than others?

Popular Mechanics and CNET seem to be just "reviews" gleaned from press releases.

Thanks so much!

Charles.

I use a Western Digital 1tb internal HDD,
which is in a external hard-drive enclosure.
Both the HDD and the enclosure were bought separately.

The HDD is a:
WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive,
7200 RPM,
SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache,
3.5 Inch,
WD10EZEX.

I've been using this drive for my system backups for quite some time.

Western Digital and Seagate HDD's are very reliable.

eagertolearn · **Joined:** Feb 26, 2014 **Posts:** 248

I always liked WD for internal drives.

I need a 2 TB for all my stuff.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Wallace · **Posted:** Mon Oct 16, 2017 2:50 pm **(#4)**

eagertolearn wrote:

I always liked WD for internal drives.

I need a 2 TB for all my stuff.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

No problem!

I don't generally trust the all-in-one external HDD's,
but that's me.

WD drives are rated among some of the most reliable driver on the market.
I've never had any issues while using WD drives.

I like to use a separate enclosure,
due to their versatility and the fact that you can place a more robust internal HDD into them.
I can even swap out the HDD and use other drives,
within the enclosure if I like.

There are also some enclosure,
which support SSD's as well as HDD's.
For even greater versatility.

eagertolearn · **Joined:** Feb 26, 2014 **Posts:** 248

What are "all-in-one external HDD's"?

Thank you!

Wallace · **Posted:** Mon Oct 16, 2017 3:28 pm **(#6)**

eagertolearn wrote:

What are "all-in-one external HDD's"?

Thank you!

An all-in-one,
is an external HDD witch is self contained.
The HDD can't be removed or replaced.
If it goes bad,
the entire thing becomes unusable.

You basically just plug them in and go.
I guess it could also be called a,
plug and play external hard drive.

eagertolearn · **Joined:** Feb 26, 2014 **Posts:** 248

Thank you!

Wallace · **Posted:** Mon Oct 16, 2017 3:35 pm **(#8)**

eagertolearn wrote:

Thank you!

eagertolearn · **Joined:** Feb 26, 2014 **Posts:** 248

Besides color, what does WD mean by a Blue, Red or Black 2.5 inch external hard drive (Passport)?

Green seems to indicate energy saving which I understand shuts the drive off at times (no thanks!).

I've read that you can *not* tell which color drive you have until you open it up.

I tried emailing WD and their contact us site keeps rejecting Model #s listed for sale at Walmart, Best Buy, Office Depot.

Thank you!

Wallace · **Posted:** Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:19 pm **(#10)**

eagertolearn wrote:

Besides color, what does WD mean by a Blue, Red or Black 2.5 inch external hard drive (Passport)?

Green seems to indicate energy saving which I understand shuts the drive off at times (no thanks!).

I've read that you can *not* tell which color drive you have until you open it up.

I tried emailing WD and their contact us site keeps rejecting Model #s listed for sale at Walmart, Best Buy, Office Depot.

Thank you!

WD Blue: Best Uses (Everyday computing, mainstream)
WD Black: Best Uses (Gaming, creative professionals, power users)
WD Red: Best Uses (Network Attached Storage)
WD Purple: Best Uses (Surveillance, DVR, NVR)

This is what I know abour Green drives.

The WD Green HDDs have had a shaky history.
In concept,
WD Greens were an attempt at affordable archival storage with variable RPM,
theoretically allowing boosted speed during higher load times and an overall lower power consumption.
The RPM for WD Green drives isn't advertised,
but it is generally understood to rotate between 5400 – 5900 revolutions per minute.

I would go with either a Blue or a Black drive,
with RPM of 7200.
I personally only use Black WD drives.
A Blue WD drive would be a good choice for a backup drive.

Unless you have any plans on going with a Solid State Drive.
Then RPM is not even an issue.

I would only recommend using a Samsung SSD.
If that is something you're looking at.
However,
a 2tb SSD would fall out of most peoples budget.

ofnuts · **Joined:** Oct 25, 2010 **Posts:** 4739

I use a 2TB USB3 Samsung external drive that survived a few drops on hard floor. That one and its predecessor a 1TB disk from same series (now used for archive instead of backup) have always worked flawlessly.

If you do backups you don't lose anything if the disk breaks, since you have copies on your "live" disk. Your only problem is if you discover your backup disk is broken when you try to restore the "live" disk (but this is rather uncommon if you do regular backups, you will discover the problem while your "live" disk is still good). Your backups aren't good enough if you haven't got a second copy stored outside of your house (fire, flood, burglar...)(*)(**).

If you do archives (so, no live copies), the more media, the better... And it isn't a bad idea to move data to new media from time to time.

(*) Cue my significant other discovering that my pockets were full of hard disks the day we had to vacate our flat due to a fire in our neighbor's.
(**) My personal hero is that (French) manager of a small company in the WTC who, on 9/11, finished the backups and left the tower with all the company's data. Unlike many of its neighbors, his company survived.

Wallace · **Posted:** Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:12 pm **(#12)**

ofnuts wrote:

I use a 2TB USB3 Samsung external drive that survived a few drops on hard floor. That one and its predecessor a 1TB disk from same series (now used for archive instead of backup) have always worked flawlessly.

If you do backups you don't lose anything if the disk breaks, since you have copies on your "live" disk. Your only problem is if you discover your backup disk is broken when you try to restore the "live" disk (but this is rather uncommon if you do regular backups, you will discover the problem while your "live" disk is still good). Your backups aren't good enough if you haven't got a second copy stored outside of your house (fire, flood, burglar...)(*)(**).

If you do archives (so, no live copies), the more media, the better... And it isn't a bad idea to move data to new media from time to time.

(*) Cue my significant other discovering that my pockets were full of hard disks the day we had to vacate our flat due to a fire in our neighbor's.
(**) My personal hero is that (French) manager of a small company in the WTC who, on 9/11, finished the backups and left the tower with all the company's data. Unlike many of its neighbors, his company survived.

Samsung is also a reputable manufacture of external drives.
As for internal drive,
I would only consider WD or Seagate HDD's and for SSD Samsung.

If I were to go with an external drive.
I would most likely use a WD, Seagate or Samsung drive.

david · **Joined:** Nov 15, 2014 **Posts:** 866

I made a conscious decision to limit my backups to items that I consider essential - all my photographs in RAW format, my websites and certain personal data.
I have two external USB drives, a BUFFALO 320GB and an old Cypress 160GB drive I took from my old computer and put in an enclosure. I use FreeFileSync to back up data to both drives. The chances of losing both drives simultaneously must be extremely low.
(My websites are also backed up to two drives on my antique laptop as well as the master versions uploaded to the server.)

I hope that I am reasonably secure.

david.

Wallace · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:35 am **(#14)**

david wrote:

I made a conscious decision to limit my backups to items that I consider essential - all my photographs in RAW format, my websites and certain personal data.
I have two external USB drives, a BUFFALO 320GB and an old Cypress 160GB drive I took from my old computer and put in an enclosure. I use FreeFileSync to back up data to both drives. The chances of losing both drives simultaneously must be extremely low.
(My websites are also backed up to two drives on my antique laptop as well as the master versions uploaded to the server.)

I hope that I am reasonably secure.

david.

Sounds like you've got all your bases covered david.

ofnuts · **Joined:** Oct 25, 2010 **Posts:** 4739

david wrote:

The chances of losing both drives simultaneously must be extremely low.

As low as the chances of a house fire, if they are both kept at home.

Wallace · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 11:23 am **(#16)**

ofnuts wrote:

david wrote:

The chances of losing both drives simultaneously must be extremely low.

As low as the chances of a house fire, if they are both kept at home.

Ofnuts' makes a good point,
about off-site backups.

Having a backup,
which isn't physically in one's own home.
Would ensure you have a backup,
in the event of something catastrophic happening to/in your home.

Cloud backups is one solution,
but I'm not a big fan of "cloud" backups,
however they're better then having nothing at all.

Keeping a drive in a lock-box,
or some other sort of fire-proof box/container,
could also be a solution.
Even so,
this wouldn't prevent someone from walking off with said box.

2-ton · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:07 pm **(#17)**

I have a Seagate back up 2TB drive that I picked up on a big sale at Cosco. My macbook is quite old, so I felt it would be a good idea for a just in case my dinosaur of a laptop died, but to be honest, I'm not even sure how to use it if I even need to get a new computer...I figure that I can probably find out when the time comes. It's just peace of mind to know that my computer's contents are saved.

Wallace · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:18 pm **(#18)**

2-ton wrote:

I have a Seagate back up 2TB drive that I picked up on a big sale at Cosco. My macbook is quite old, so I felt it would be a good idea for a just in case my dinosaur of a laptop died, but to be honest, I'm not even sure how to use it if I even need to get a new computer...I figure that I can probably find out when the time comes. It's just peace of mind to know that my computer's contents are saved.

It's always a good idea to have some sort of backup.

Having what's called a System Image of your computers data,
is often one of the best ways to backup your data,
as well as your operating system.

Knowing how to create a System Image.
Can be of great benefit and addition to your "peace of mind".

The advantage of having a System Image is,
that it can be used on another computer.

2-ton · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:23 pm **(#19)**

On a mac, they have an app called Time Machine. It takes snapshots all during the day, as well as daily and weekly backups. When the drive is full, it just eliminates the oldest stuff to make room for the newer stuff, so you really never run out of space.

Wallace · **Posted:** Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:27 pm **(#20)**

2-ton wrote:

On a mac, they have an app called Time Machine. It takes snapshots all during the day, as well as daily and weekly backups. When the drive is full, it just eliminates the oldest stuff to make room for the newer stuff, so you really never run out of space.

I'm not a Mac user,
but that's not a bad plan.

I'm wondering how recourse hungry this kind of app would be.

However,
having a large drive for this,
might solve this,
if any "memory hungry" app.

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