best 1tb external drive?

[sabbyp]

i'm looking to buy a 1tb external drive for my new rmbp, it looks like the options for an ssd drive are still both sparse and expensive, so it looks like i'll have to go for a hdd

what are the options I should be looking at? I've had lacie rugged and wd passport's fail on me in previous years.

what's the point of thunderbolt on hdd externals? surely their speed limit negates any benefits?

thanks in advance!

 

[Giuly]

All hard drives fail. That's pretty much a law - and one of the main reasons why you should backup.

You could try a Seagate Backup Plus, but LaCie uses Seagate hard drives as well. Or a HGST Touro, but HGST is a subsidiary of Western Digital and it's a slower 5400RPM drive.

Or a WD MyPassport Ultra.

Your call, all fail sooner or later. Just skip 5400RPM for the 1TB drives as 7200RPM ones are available and faster.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Or build your own with a raw hard drive of your choice and a well-tested (reviewed) external housing.

 

[Giuly]

Or build your own with a raw hard drive of your choice and a well-tested (reviewed) external housing.

Which would then also use a Seagate, HGST or WD drive - and be more expensive.

 

[g4cube]

You make it sound as if an external enclosure and its power supply can't fail.

They too can fail, and could be more expensive.

 

[Giuly]

What I was trying to say is that i.e. WD's external hard drives are less expensive than their bare 2.5" hard drives while being the exact same thing.

And should the enclosure fail, then you can still get another one, install the drive in it and it would still be less expensive then buying the bare drive and an enclosure from the start.

 

[dtexan]

Anyone know any good Raid 0 2-bay enclosures?

 

[MCAsan]

LaCie 2Big can be set up as RAID 0, 1, or JBOD. Both the wife and I have 6TB units set up for RAID 1 (3TB mirrored).

 

[sabbyp]

so essentially the consensus is to buy any of the standard 7200rpm usb 3.0 drives?

could anyone answer the question re: thunderbolt on a platter drive?

 

[Ifti]

Ive used several WD My Passport USB3.0 drives without any issues.
At the moment I use the Buffalo MiniStation ThunderBolt (also has USB3.0) which I love!! Its also easy enough to open and change drives should you ever want a larger drive in there.
I have a review of it on my YouTube channel - link in sig.

 

[Weaselboy]

could anyone answer the question re: thunderbolt on a platter drive?

Your intuition is correct... TB with a platter drive is a complete waste of money. No HDD is going to get anywhere near taking advantage of that connection speed. Here is a good test with the different interfaces.

 

[Jesla]

LaCie 1T usb 3.0 one for each laptop and iMac. Way fast enough for everyday use/backup and less trouble than some WD's that I've had.