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Back up hard drive for MBP?
- Thread starter Tenashus1
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USB3 drive, 2.5" form factor, 1tb or 2tb in size.
I would recommend Toshiba or HGST (Hitachi).
Even more important than the drive is the backup software you use.
I suggest that you use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable clone of the internal drive.
You can then use the clone as an "emergency booter" if you get into an "I can't boot!" situation. And everything will be "there", right in front of you, exactly as it was on your internal drive (up to the last backup).
I would recommend Toshiba or HGST (Hitachi).
Even more important than the drive is the backup software you use.
I suggest that you use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable clone of the internal drive.
You can then use the clone as an "emergency booter" if you get into an "I can't boot!" situation. And everything will be "there", right in front of you, exactly as it was on your internal drive (up to the last backup).
I bought a 2GB WD external. It gets the job done and it's cheap.
The Apple Time Capsule is pretty nice. It's probably the easiest to setup and use, but kind of expensive.
A Synology or QNAP NAS would probably be the most reliable. But not as easy to setup and much more expensive.
I'm with snaky69... they are all pretty much the same. Just go out and get whatever size USB3 external drive you can find on sale and run with it.
There are only 3 HDD manufacturers remaining - Seagate, WD and Toshiba. Some people have strong preferences for one or another based on past experience. If you get an external drive, the drive itself may not remain the same over the lifetime of the external drive model. One person may buy the same model and have a drive that lasts for years, another person buying the same model may get a drive that's DOA. You should probably look for drives to avoid rather than the "best" one. Warranties also vary and I usually have to search on the manufacturer site to find that.
I have a 3 TB Western Digital and it works great. Also have other WD drives on various machines and network. You couldn't give me a Seagate. Too many bad experiences with them over the years. If you have one near you (or can shop online) Fry's has them on sale quite often. Sign up with them and you can get daily promo codes for even more off (online and in store).
I dislike any externals that can't be taken apart to get to the bare drive with its SATA connector. Some use proprietary hardware that can't be separated from the drive itself which means if those electronics fail inside the enclosure, your drive has essentially failed.
Other than that, get whatever fits your wallet. I've used a LaCie d2 Quadra for 5 years and it's served me well; not sure which brand the actual drive is.
I find the most prudent course when dealing with hard drives is to always assume they're going to fail, never relying on any one drive to be functional. That's what we have backups for anyway.
Other than that, get whatever fits your wallet. I've used a LaCie d2 Quadra for 5 years and it's served me well; not sure which brand the actual drive is.
I find the most prudent course when dealing with hard drives is to always assume they're going to fail, never relying on any one drive to be functional. That's what we have backups for anyway.
All drives have a certain level of infant mortality. (Read the Backblaze blog on drive failure statistics!) I suggest getting something inexpensive and just large enough for a few months worth of backup. Then, toss it in a drawer and start another one. If you want to be extra careful, get a second drive and back up to it occasionally. I wouldn't worry about the manufacturer -- for any brand X you can find someone who has had bad experiences with their drives. I've had WD and Seagate drives fail in a month, and I have other drives from both brands running for 10 years and counting.
I suggest a tool-free enclosure, they are cheap as chips and awfully convenient. I have one with a 240GB ssd inserted as my emergency Mac boot drive, cloning to it regularly with Carbon Copy. Here's hoping I never really need it, but I have tried it and it worked ok if very slow except for needing to redefine my Google Drive directory. I also have another enclosure with a 500GB ssd that I keep TimeMachine backups on, and once in a while I update a NAS TimeMachine backup, which is a much slower and more tedious process. You just can't have too many backups, but you can easily not have enough, as bitter experience taught me when I used True Image to backup a PC and wound up losing everything including the photos from 3 trips to Egypt.
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Seagate rules all! I am happy with Seagate GoFlex Ultraportable HDD (they replaced with new BackUp Plus).