# External Hard Drives?



## 330CDT (Jun 14, 2015)

Hi chaps,

Just realised my original backup drive for all my photos over the years is full up and I need to buy another asap!

Ideally 2TB-4TB

Does anyone recommend one for longevity and anyone know of any special deals on at the moment?

Seems the going rate is about £100 for 4TB!

Cheers!


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## danwel (Feb 18, 2007)

Portable or desk top ?? £100 is a little bit over priced for a 4TB one as they can be had for around the £80 mark. The one i got form Amazon is now £104 but head on over to hotukdeals.com and have a look or search and there will be some available that will what you are after


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## GSD (Feb 6, 2011)

Lots of offers on externals at the moment they seem to be pretty cheap just now.


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## BrummyPete (Jun 10, 2010)

I've always used WD, I've currently got a 1TB passport and it's brilliant and so far very reliable 

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk


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## Petey80 (Dec 13, 2012)

Might be worth looking into getting a separate HDD and then an enclosure to fit it into. Sometimes works out cheaper.


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## cossiecol (Jun 29, 2014)

All depends if you're after HDD, SSD or hybrid drive for your storage.


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## Mikesphotaes (Jul 24, 2016)

All HDDs fail, so better to have more than one backup.

Any make of hard drive will do the job, I usually use ebuyer for my bits and pieces.


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## GSD (Feb 6, 2011)

Had an email from Ebuyer last night 1tb usb 3 external 35 quid.


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

Mikesphotaes said:


> *All HDDs fail*, so better to have more than one backup.
> 
> Any make of hard drive will do the job, I usually use ebuyer for my bits and pieces.


The first part is true. Which is why backing up in RAID would be better than multiple backups (in the same location).

Multiple backups are best done if they are off site. A RAID system will protect you from a disk failure (depending on configuration), off-site back up will protect against fire/natural disasters.

As with everything, the biggest factor is what are you willing to spend? RAID can be a bit costly (you need a RAID drive, plus at least 4 HDD/SSDs to make it worthwhile).

The cheapest home option would be as mentioned above, to simply have 2 external drives, but then you won't be protected from a fire if they are both in the same location (but what are the chance of that realistically?)


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## Stoner (Jun 25, 2010)

I tend to be a belt and braces guy so always have 3 versions of important docs - PC internal drive, external USB 3 HDD and I also use M$ OneDrive to back-up important folders.

Back to your original question, I have a WD Passport Drive, 2TB. It's quite fast and been very reliable for the last 18 months or so. I got mine from Amazon for about £95. I tend to back-up to it every two weeks and use OneDrive as my real-time backup drive.


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## pxr5 (Feb 13, 2012)

RAID is not backup solution - remember that mantra. It is for redundancy only. 

I have a 2 bay NAS - it only for photos, docs, vids and music. I don't use RAID to give me more space. I backup important things between the NAS drives. Then stuff I am bothered about is backed up externally to another room in the house. Critical stuff is then off-site.

Work out a back up philosophy, plan it and get organised. Just think of the worst case scenario. Say if your hose were to burn down, what would you lose if so.


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## Mikesphotaes (Jul 24, 2016)

pxr5 said:


> RAID is not backup solution - remember that mantra. It is for redundancy only.
> 
> I have a 2 bay NAS - it only for photos, docs, vids and music. I don't use RAID to give me more space. I backup important things between the NAS drives. Then stuff I am bothered about is backed up externally to another room in the house. Critical stuff is then off-site.
> 
> Work out a back up philosophy, plan it and get organised. Just think of the worst case scenario. Say if your hose were to burn down, what would you lose if so.


Exactly!

Remember if the RAID itself fails, it may make all its drives unreadable.


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## danwel (Feb 18, 2007)

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/8287...ww.argos.co.uk/product/8287832&referrer=COJUN

4TB portable Hard drive 89.99......go


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## mar00 (Jun 24, 2018)

Stoner said:


> I tend to be a belt and braces guy so always have 3 versions of important docs - PC internal drive, external USB 3 HDD and I also use M$ OneDrive to back-up important folders.
> 
> Back to your original question, I have a WD Passport Drive, 2TB. It's quite fast and been very reliable for the last 18 months or so. I got mine from Amazon for about £95. I tend to back-up to it every two weeks and use OneDrive as my real-time backup drive.


I wouldn't use OneDrive as the critical backup, as it isn't actually a backup service, if you delete or change files it will sync that, it will show history of the file but it's not multiple versions or if you get a hijacker virus it will encrypt the OneDrive folder too and possibly sync and overwrite the cloud stored files although Microsoft do have protection on the server side but no guarantee,

also don't leave USB drives connected hijackers will encrypt those too,

WD drives do tend to be the most reliable mechanical drive,


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## Starbuck88 (Nov 12, 2013)

I've been involved building PCs for years in Jobs and my own business. The only brand I would trust and use is Western Digital. Given everybody I know the least trouble over the years.

This looks a great deal, I use these guys a lot too.

https://www.ebuyer.com/790021-wd-elements-portable-3tb-external-hdd-wdbu6y0030bbk-wesn


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## 330CDT (Jun 14, 2015)

Brilliant thanks for all the help chaps.

Starbuck, I have gone with that 3TB one. Good price thanks!

Next question (I'm a n00b)

Do I need to 'format' the HDD when it arrives prior to putting any of my photos on? Or is it OK to use right away? 

(I'm on Windows 10)

Thanks again!


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## Starbuck88 (Nov 12, 2013)

330CDT said:


> Brilliant thanks for all the help chaps.
> 
> Starbuck, I have gone with that 3TB one. Good price thanks!
> 
> ...


It'll come pre-formatted to NTFS file system, plug it in and use it straight away :thumb:


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## Stoner (Jun 25, 2010)

mar00 said:


> I wouldn't use OneDrive as the critical backup, as it isn't actually a backup service, if you delete or change files it will sync that, it will show history of the file but it's not multiple versions or if you get a hijacker virus it will encrypt the OneDrive folder too and possibly sync and overwrite the cloud stored files although Microsoft do have protection on the server side but no guarantee,


Thank for the information and this is why I carry out a full back-up to my WE HDD every couple of weeks. I don't tend to have that many changing documents so that works well for me. If I have scanned in some important documents or uploaded lots of photos, I carry out a full replication to my portable drive at that point.

I also have an up to date clone of my system drive so if I do get a virus I can restore immediately to a clean operating system. If the virus has affected my data drive, I simply restore from my portable drive. To date, I haven't had to do that. Thankfully :thumb:


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## mar00 (Jun 24, 2018)

Stoner said:


> Thank for the information and this is why I carry out a full back-up to my WE HDD every couple of weeks. I don't tend to have that many changing documents so that works well for me. If I have scanned in some important documents or uploaded lots of photos, I carry out a full replication to my portable drive at that point.
> 
> I also have an up to date clone of my system drive so if I do get a virus I can restore immediately to a clean operating system. If the virus has affected my data drive, I simply restore from my portable drive. To date, I haven't had to do that. Thankfully :thumb:


I wish all the companies we deal with would take it as seriously,

if you don't already test your images they don't always work,

for anyone with windows 10 the included backup works quite well and is incremental,


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