3TB External Hard Drive

I guess it's this one.

The price is OK and the unit itself is, too.

Or you could buy Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive (STCA3000101) which as of this moment is $142.

I'm using a WD 3TB external for my time machine backup. Works great, I got it for $150 at Best Buy.

Bear said:

Or you could buy Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive (STCA3000101) which as of this moment is $142.

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I would NOT get a Seagate to save myself $50. My data is worth more than that to me!

ezramoore said:

I would NOT get a Seagate to save myself $50. My data is worth more than that to me!

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Everyone has had a different experience with disks. I wouldn't buy a Western Digital drive.

As for LaCie, do they say what brand drive is inside? If not it could very well be a Seagate drive.

WilliamDu said:

During visit to local Apple Store, I was shown a La Cie PS 9233 3TB Hard Drive with USB 3.0 interface, selling for $190.
I find no listing on Amazon or the La Cie web site for this drive.
I'm awaiting delivery of my BTO 27" with 3TB FD, ordered on 12/18, and will need a drive of this nature with 3.0, or Thunderbolt.
Unable to find another article to match this capability/price as yet.
Does anyone know anything about the PS 9233?

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Other World Computing offers this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ME3QH7T3.0/
More expensive, but it has Firewire 800 and eSATA as well as USB 3.0. The 3 TB version uses a 7200 RPM Toshiba disk.

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Bear said:

Everyone has had a different experience with disks. I wouldn't buy a Western Digital drive.

As for LaCie, do they say what brand drive is inside? If not it could very well be a Seagate drive.

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I did a quick scan of the LaCie page, and I couldn't find any specs about the disk inside the enclosure. Maybe I missed them.

MeFromHere said:

...
I did a quick scan of the LaCie page, and I couldn't find any specs about the disk inside the enclosure. Maybe I missed them.

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I didn't see it either which is why I said may be a Seagate drive. Or it could be Western Digital or Hitachi or ...

Bear said:

Everyone has had a different experience with disks. I wouldn't buy a Western Digital drive.

As for LaCie, do they say what brand drive is inside? If not it could very well be a Seagate drive.

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LaCie is likely a Samsun or Hitachi.

Everyone may have different experiences, but I have probably see 15-30 failed hard disks a week.

Technology and manufacturing practices change all the time, Western Digital used to have a bad reputation for bearing failure, but that has been 6 or more years now.

Bear said:

I didn't see it either which is why I said may be a Seagate drive. Or it could be Western Digital or Hitachi or ...

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The reason you didn't see it is that Ext. HDD manufacturers who do not manufacture their own internal drive usually cycle through a couple of HDD manufacturers for various reasons.

I bought a 3TB seagate backup+ yesterday - so far I'm very impressed. Quick and quiet, what more could you ask for!

The external Western Digital drives encrypt the data, so if the drive/case components fail, its impossible to recover your files. Many stories on the web regarding this - that's why I bought Seagate.

I have had very good luck with Hitachi drives. And very poor experience with Samsung and Seagate. I am not impressed with La Cie, you are paying extra for cosmetics and windoze software, not reliablility or performance.

a lot of the LaCie drives ive had to open up were primarily Seagate and Samsung.
Seeing as LaCie was bought by Seagate (who also owns samsung hdd)

myuserid08 said:

I bought a 3TB seagate backup+ yesterday - so far I'm very impressed. Quick and quiet, what more could you ask for!

The external Western Digital drives encrypt the data, so if the drive/case components fail, its impossible to recover your files. Many stories on the web regarding this - that's why I bought Seagate.

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What kind of speed are you getting on usb3? I got the same drive but in FW800 version to use in thunderbolt adaptor, I get about 160 write and 160 read...with FW800 get about 69 write and 83 read. I bought the FW version and thunderbolt adaptor separate because was less $ and figure could use the FW adaptor with another bare drive...my 2011 imac does not have usb3. What do you guys think of the thunderbolt speed on this drive 160/160? Worth it to have TB adaptor or not?