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hard drive advice

B

boyd88

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 4, 2016
14
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It does not really matter. There are fans and haters of every brand, but the reality is they are all pretty much the same. Just grab whichever of those three you can get the best price on. Once you get the drive, just attach it and use OS X Disk Utility to format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format for your Mac.
 
In portable drives, I've only used Seagate and WD, both have been reliable. I'd go with the Seagate because if the enclosure fails (or the connector breaks/plays up) you can pull the drive out and put it into another enclosure without hassle.
 
i got four near mint wd enclosures, but sadly, not the functioning inside parts from them...
My experience is that one company can do a line that never dies and then the line they do after it can suck.
I have only had crashes on wd and lacie hd's
Some Verbatim hd's almost never goes to sleep if you dont start by formatting it to something other than FAT32 (you can format it back)
Maxell hd's is quite durable in my experience (my clumsyness have dropped/flung the same one on the floor 10+times)

This is what i found out the hard way, by putting my faith in one brand; wait for your local stores next catalouge; you will find something on sale or with a discount, that meets your requirements; buy two of them; make your planned copy and a backup. Do this every time, HDDs get bigger and cheaper all the time - a portable becomes a dedicated...

Remember to drop a hd with copies of your important pictures, your id, licences and other important papers in a bank or at a trusted family members home - in case of fire or (sigh)... thieves got all pictures of all my party years and my wedding....
 
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boyd88 said:
hey people,

i am in need of a new hard drive, i need a 2tb one as its what i will put my downloaded movies onto then i plug in tv then watch. which one of the following should i purchase? does the make/brand matter? toshiba/wd/sedagate? just want a hard waring/long lasting good make

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4835123.htm

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4368683.htm

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2685117.htm

thanks people
Click to expand...
Hi Boyd88
I done a lot of research on this recently.
Avoid portable bus powered drives as there are no on/off switches, this means ejecting the drive before you can take out the cable, also as soon as you connect the cable its running!

Always go for a drive with 7200rpm, they can handle audio and video much better.

Get a drive which is already formatted for Mac, this means you can plug in and play.

I have two G Technology drives, excellent, but there are plenty out there.
USB 3 is fine, I have these.
Good luck
 
kerochan said:
I done a lot of research on this recently.
Click to expand...
Apparently you didn't read his post properly...

kerochan said:
Avoid portable bus powered drives as there are no on/off switches, this means ejecting the drive before you can take out the cable, also as soon as you connect the cable its running!
Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with portable bus powered drives, you just have to take care with them. In fact, a portable drive is ideal for the OP's actual use case - copying movie files onto the HDD and watching them on his TV

kerochan said:
Get a drive which is already formatted for Mac, this means you can plug in and play.
Click to expand...

Don't bother with this noob suggestion - you can take any hard drive and FORMAT it like you want. Since this HDD is going to be connected to a TV, it will most likely need to be formatted in either FAT32 or NTFS.
 
matreya said:
Apparently you didn't read his post properly...



There's nothing wrong with portable bus powered drives, you just have to take care with them. In fact, a portable drive is ideal for the OP's actual use case - copying movie files onto the HDD and watching them on his TV



Don't bother with this noob suggestion - you can take any hard drive and FORMAT it like you want. Since this HDD is going to be connected to a TV, it will most likely need to be formatted in either FAT32 or NTFS.
Click to expand...

I disagree about bus powered drives, as soon as the computer is turned on the drive comes on, then even if you spend all day working on the computer without using the drive it has been spinning all day long for no reason!
A powered drive can be turned on and off when need be.

As for fomatting a drive, its so much easier if the drive is already formatted for the system you use.
 
boyd88 said:
So hard to know which one to get as they all have good and negative reviews
Click to expand...
Here is the thing... all you are going to get for brand recommendations is these anecdotal stories from people that owned various brands and either liked that brand or did not. Reviews are all over the place for any brand. There really is no clear stand out as far as any one being better than the rest. Like I said, just go grab whatever is on sale and be done with it.
[doublepost=1457565348][/doublepost]
kerochan said:
I disagree about bus powered drives, as soon as the computer is turned on the drive comes on, then even if you spend all day working on the computer without using the drive it has been spinning all day long for no reason!
A powered drive can be turned on and off when need be.

As for fomatting a drive, its so much easier if the drive is already formatted for the system you use.
Click to expand...

I guess I get your point about the drive running, but these things run years on end anyway, so who really cares. You can just unplug the drive if you are worried about that.

Most of these "Mac drives" cost more than the equivalent standard drive. It takes all of five seconds to format the drive to HFS+. I can't see spending more money to safe five seconds of work. Even if the drive is already formatted for a Mac, I would still format it out of the box just to make sure it is formatted properly and that the manufacturer has not installed any junk ware on there.
 
Everyone has a preference, but my record so far with hard drives is

Functioning WD drives purchased in the last 4 years: 5/6
Functioning Seagate drives purchased in the last 4 years: 1/3
 
kerochan said:
I disagree about bus powered drives, as soon as the computer is turned on the drive comes on, then even if you spend all day working on the computer without using the drive it has been spinning all day long for no reason!
A powered drive can be turned on and off when need be.
Click to expand...

Most portable bus-powered drives sleep when they're not being used....
 
I find it takes just as long to copy 2TB to/from a portable 5400rpm 2.5" bus powered drive as it does with a 7200rpm desktop drive at either or both ends.

If you set your Mac's Energy Saver preferences to put hard drives to sleep where possible, you won't have to worry about them spinning all day. This will affect SSD trim so uncheck this option and let your Mac idle overnight now and then.

I have one rogue Seagate desktop drive that often refuses to spin down. It also disconnects itself reasonably often - which happens with all brands but so far this is the only drive that does it.

I've only ever had one drive crash - my daughter pulled it to the floor when it was running.

I just got an 8TB LaCie Porsche Design desktop drive which is my Time Machine backup of all my family photos and videos. I find you can back up each original drive one by one with Time Machine until you have them all copied to the consolidated drive.
 
I'm not worried as the originals are on multiple drives stored away offsite.

The best files are also saved again.
 
kerochan said:
Hi Boyd88
I done a lot of research on this recently.
Avoid portable bus powered drives as there are no on/off switches, this means ejecting the drive before you can take out the cable, also as soon as you connect the cable its running!

Always go for a drive with 7200rpm, they can handle audio and video much better.

Get a drive which is already formatted for Mac, this means you can plug in and play.

I have two G Technology drives, excellent, but there are plenty out there.
USB 3 is fine, I have these.
Good luck
Click to expand...
You need to do more research. Just because the drive has an on/off switch you still have to eject first. What if it's in the middle of a read/write when you decide to flip the switch? Other than transcoding, which the OP is not talking about, 7200rpm for even BluRay video is totally unnecessary. Not to mention I don't know if any 2tb, 7,200 rpm, 2.5" drives even exist.
 
Ray2 said:
You need to do more research. Just because the drive has an on/off switch you still have to eject first. What if it's in the middle of a read/write when you decide to flip the switch? Other than transcoding, which the OP is not talking about, 7200rpm for even BluRay video is totally unnecessary. Not to mention I don't know if any 2tb, 7,200 rpm, 2.5" drives even exist.
Click to expand...
You wouldnt turn it of when in operation! I agree! When its done you can turn off the computer and disconnect the cable, no problem.
I have a G tech 7200rpm 2.5 portable drive.
 
I just purchase Hitachi HGST 4gb 7200rpm Deskstar Bas drives to go in my Thunderbay 4 enclosure, based on the advice and reviews from many in this forum. I have 2 drives running in raid 0, being backed up to another external drive.

The HGST drives have the lowest failure rate according to Backblaze, they were $159 at Fry's in the east bay. I have 2 Thunderbays, one at home and one at my office, with the exact same setup.
 
I suggest going with whatever The Wirecutter (no affiliation) recommends after some Amazon reviews due dilligence, or better yet: Have a look at Backblaze's quarterly/yearly reports on fails (they have thousands of HDDs from several brands).

For the record, I have a 2TB WD and 2TB Seagate* that have been working flawslessly for 2 years. I can give you the models if you want.


* one is a mirror of the other because "two is one and one is none"

EDIT: But if you just want something for movies that you would just shrug if it went dead, go with something affordable and formidable. It doesn't matter which brand you have if you only have one HD anyway.
 
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