newbie needs advice on external HD

[Appletise]

l do not do any advanced video or photoshop work, simple transfer of 'important' personal videos and pictures filmed on iphone. which of the following should be purchased. l already have 4GB wd my passport usb3.0 bought ~ 3-4 years ago (they typically last decade of very casual once a fortnight use? ~ 100MB upload and video or pic read use). its storage is easily full. I do notice a delay for device of even being recognised when plugging into my mac either the mac recognising it or reading or writing to it. l suppose this can be tolerable, l am a basic newbie user. l am biased towards the WD Elements and my passport 5TB.

1. I remember converting the drive years ago to ExFat so compatible with my Mac. So no need to buy for the more expensive Mac specific one right?
2. is there a difference between elements and my passport for the same 5TB storage?
3. How about the my passport ultra vs elements and my passport of the same size. Transfer speeds seem same, and only USB 3.0
4. for > 3TB storage which would you buy if you were in my shoes
   
   

I do like to buy locally, mongkok computer centre has been checked, shum sha po GCC or other places if better value. am open minded to all other drives, please give me your advice. Thanks

 

[herbert7265]

Just from my point of view:

Yes, HDDs today offer large storage capacities for low cost, but I am not sure I still would go for such a solution in these days. The overall slow(er) speed of a HDD compared to a SSD, plus the fact that the drives you mentioned only use USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) make them quite slow.

What about you have a look into a USB 3.1 SSD, for example a Samsung T7. Yes, they are more expensive, but still in a reasonable range, while they offer speeds that are a good compromise in between cost and performance?

Herbert