Another External HDD Thread? No!

[MacOG728893]

Hey guys, I did my searching and simply did find a question asked that was as specific as mine.

I need to replace my external HDD and looking through the various options on amazon, almost everything seems to be rated fairly low due to failure to read or mount. I have experienced this very thing (less than a year) with my current Combo 4 Buffalo drive and will pay extra for something with reliability.

Even the new LaCie drives seem to have a lot of complaints, which I found weird for a premium external.

Can someone please point in the direction of the "most" reliable preferably 2TB FW800/USB 3.0 external HDD. It would really help with my nervousness! Thank you.

Here are the two I was thinking of:

- http://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-...UTF8&coliid=IW6YA5TKKQS1C&colid=2QC1RA1BJ41Q6

- http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-FireWir...UTF8&coliid=ICMMD50LI2LLR&colid=2QC1RA1BJ41Q6

 

[philipma1957]

well this is a bad time to buy due to the hdd shortage. I really don't like eight pick as my preference is buying an empty case that I can load with my drives. if you really want my choices here are a few.

these are all rock solid pieces of gear add your own drives


http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEQMH0GBK/


http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/GMM8QKIT0GB/

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AKiTio-Taur...e_Internal&hash=item336f25fe56#ht_5119wt_1137


if you really want 3.5 inch drives buy this one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Taurus-SATA...e_Internal&hash=item336f26318e#ht_4569wt_1137


it allows for raid 1 raid0 and JBOD .

Huge is the jbod most cases like this only allow raid1 or raid2.



using the jbod option this means 1 drive can hold only movies and be fully independent of the second drive.

it also means you can have different drives size wise.

----------

well this is a bad time to buy due to the hdd shortage. I really don't like eight pick as my preference is buying an empty case that I can load with my drives. if you really want my choices here are a few.

these are all rock solid pieces of gear add your own drives


http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEQMH0GBK/


http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/GMM8QKIT0GB/

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AKiTio-Taur...e_Internal&hash=item336f25fe56#ht_5119wt_1137


if you really want 3.5 inch drives buy this one


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Taurus-2-Ba...e_Internal&hash=item27c13db84b#ht_3335wt_1371

 

[MacOG728893]

I know prices are going up, but my data is more important than prices right now.

What do you think about adding a server grade HDD into my Buffalo enclosure?
Would that work, or do you think the enclosure itself is causing problems as well?

 

[philipma1957]

very hard to tell when an hdd dies as to whom is to blame.

I own a promise pegasus r6 I run it with thunderbolt to a 2011 mac mini server. If you own 2011 iMac or 2011 mac mini the promise pegasus is hi end but pretty trouble free.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...p?ie=UTF8&qid=1325388581&sr=8-3&condition=new

http://www.amazon.com/PROMISE-Pegas...E076/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325388581&sr=8-1

I have done a lot of mac upgrades more then 100 more like 200. I had really bad luck with sea gates 500gb 2.5 inch 7200rpm hdd when it was first built 2008 to 2009 I install 14 in minis and 8 went bad in under a year. the drive was a dog. Seagate put out the first 1.5tb 3.5 inch hdd and is was bad but for a shorter period of time.


I learned a lot about picking setups that can handle a doa or fast to become dead hdd. I like the promise pegasus because you can run each and every drive as stand alone. This means a lot for data safety. I also run a ssd in one of the bays as my boot drive. I clone it to the internal as a backup and use the other bays for storage .

getting a re4 type western digital hdd(server grade costly) is a pretty good option for safety but I have own a few of them that went dead. Nothing beats a clone for instant recovery well a mirror raid is also good. the prom pegasus would let you run a raid1 for two drives and Jbod for the others.

 

[sarge]

very hard to tell when an hdd dies as to whom is to blame.

I own a promise pegasus r6 I run it with thunderbolt to a 2011 mac mini server. If you own 2011 iMac or 2011 mac mini the promise pegasus is hi end but pretty trouble free.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...p?ie=UTF8&qid=1325388581&sr=8-3&condition=new

http://www.amazon.com/PROMISE-Pegas...E076/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325388581&sr=8-1

I have done a lot of mac upgrades more then 100 more like 200. I had really bad luck with sea gates 500gb 2.5 inch 7200rpm hdd when it was first built 2008 to 2009 I install 14 in minis and 8 went bad in under a year. the drive was a dog. Seagate put out the first 1.5tb 3.5 inch hdd and is was bad but for a shorter period of time.


I learned a lot about picking setups that can handle a doa or fast to become dead hdd. I like the promise pegasus because you can run each and every drive as stand alone. This means a lot for data safety. I also run a ssd in one of the bays as my boot drive. I clone it to the internal as a backup and use the other bays for storage .

.

Hey Philipma1957 -I've been considering the Pegasus unit myself. I have a fairly large archive of original content that I'm trying to manage -mostly photo but more and more video.

I currently have about 3TB of original content and I like to keep video and photo on separate drives (althought now that I shoot DSLR video that's less of an issue). I like the idea of using each drive as a standalone so I can creat clones for off-site backup - also love the idea of the SSD for the boot drive. You think I would be alright w/the r4?

 

[danny_w]

I have the 3TB version of that G-Tech drive and I love it. Instant mounts, no failures, fast transfers (FW800). And a perfect match for the iMac! I keep my iTunes library and all ripped movies on this external (about 2TB currently).

 

[philipma1957]

Hey Philipma1957 -I've been considering the Pegasus unit myself. I have a fairly large archive of original content that I'm trying to manage -mostly photo but more and more video.

I currently have about 3TB of original content and I like to keep video and photo on separate drives (althought now that I shoot DSLR video that's less of an issue). I like the idea of using each drive as a standalone so I can creat clones for off-site backup - also love the idea of the SSD for the boot drive. You think I would be alright w/the r4?

well they max at 2tb drives. so 3 at 2 tb drives is 6tb and a nice ssd . all as stand alone volumes. the 2tb drives will run at 130 to 160MB/s .

the ssd will run at sata III speeds.

A good ssd would be a samsung series 830

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/828447-REG/Samsung_MZ_7PC128N_AM_830_Series_SSD_with.html


I run them a lot. as for 2tb drives well as we all know the flood has prices high.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834

these are decent.


http://www.provantage.com/promise-technology-hdsata2tb~7PROM1L7.htm

you can order extra trays with 2tb drives in them. or order extra trays with 1tb in them see below


http://www.provantage.com/~7PROM1L6.htm So far i am running this with a mac mini server pretty much flawless ,

but setup is automatically raid5 and you need to go into the promise utility to delete the promise raid5.

you then get the drives as stand alone disks and can use your mac raid utility I set them as 1 ssd osx stand alone and a 4 drive time machine raid.

along with 1 drive as a spare cloning work disk. I also grabbed 2 extra modules sold the 1tb hdds and loaded ssds in them I swap them in and out when I do testing. the empty trays will hold 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch hdds with no adapters! very nice touch.

 

[sarge]

well they max at 2tb drives. so 3 at 2 tb drives is 6tb and a nice ssd . all as stand alone volumes. the 2tb drives will run at 130 to 160MB/s .

the ssd will run at sata III speeds.

A good ssd would be a samsung series 830

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/828447-REG/Samsung_MZ_7PC128N_AM_830_Series_SSD_with.html


I run them a lot. as for 2tb drives well as we all know the flood has prices high.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834

these are decent.


http://www.provantage.com/promise-technology-hdsata2tb~7PROM1L7.htm

you can order extra trays with 2tb drives in them. or order extra trays with 1tb in them see below


http://www.provantage.com/~7PROM1L6.htm So far i am running this with a mac mini server pretty much flawless ,

but setup is automatically raid5 and you need to go into the promise utility to delete the promise raid5.

you then get the drives as stand alone disks and can use your mac raid utility I set them as 1 ssd osx stand alone and a 4 drive time machine raid.

along with 1 drive as a spare cloning work disk. I also grabbed 2 extra modules sold the 1tb hdds and loaded ssds in them I swap them in and out when I do testing. the empty trays will hold 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch hdds with no adapters! very nice touch.

Cool - thanks!

 

[MacOG728893]

I was mainly looking to backup a collection of old miniDV tapes, but I found the most reliable solution.

Double layer Blu-Rays, my best!