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Which external drive is best to use with the rMBP?

L

letsudo

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 19, 2012
56
0
I have been using WD My Cloud 4TB but it just stopped working all of a sudden. I bought it this year.

I am thinking of maybe buying another one and a normal one instead of the WiFi My Cloud but the My Cloud really was convenient in that you don't have to connect to the external HDD every time you want to watch a movie.

I've never tried having iTunes on it though with the iPhone backup. Has anyone tried that?
 
I would say pretty much any. I picked up a WD Essential 1TB for $59. I don't think any brand is better the other. Get something small and portable. All drives will fail at some point. I'm happy with the drive I have it backs up everything not something I put to much thought into. Amazon ratings was good so pretty much a no brainer.
 
letsudo said:
I have been using WD My Cloud 4TB but it just stopped working all of a sudden. I bought it this year.

I am thinking of maybe buying another one and a normal one instead of the WiFi My Cloud but the My Cloud really was convenient in that you don't have to connect to the external HDD every time you want to watch a movie.

I've never tried having iTunes on it though with the iPhone backup. Has anyone tried that?
Click to expand...

I use an external SSD.

A Transcend 960GB SSD. It's pricey, but totally worth the speed and reliability.
 
nerowolfe said:
One been using (2+ years) is Seagate Backup Plus.
Click to expand...
Just purchased a Seagate 1TB External Drive yesterday and so far it works as expected. Read/write speeds are reasonable and it seems coming from USB 2.0 (old drive) to 3.0 does make a slight difference. (Have been using a 500GB G Drive 2.0 USB).

I purchased a Seagate drive because I've heard great things about their external devices. Unlike I heard their internal drives suck. Not sure what to make of such.

yjchua95 said:
I use an external SSD.

A Transcend 960GB SSD. It's pricey, but totally worth the speed and reliability.
Click to expand...
Transcend = 1+.

Side Note: I'm using a Transcend SD Expanded Memory card on my 2014 rMBP. Read/Write speeds aren't quite what they advertised but I'm happy. Also have a few DSLR SD cards and like those also. As a brand they're something I would recommend.

How much did you pay for your 960GB SSD?
 
xMacFeinx said:
Just purchased a Seagate 1TB External Drive yesterday and so far it works as expected. Read/write speeds are reasonable and it seems coming from USB 2.0 (old drive) to 3.0 does make a slight difference. (Have been using a 500GB G Drive 2.0 USB).

I purchased a Seagate drive because I've heard great things about their external devices. Unlike I heard their internal drives suck. Not sure what to make of such.


Transcend = 1+.

Side Note: I'm using a Transcend SD Expanded Memory card on my 2014 rMBP. Read/Write speeds aren't quite what they advertised but I'm happy. Also have a few DSLR SD cards and like those also. As a brand they're something I would recommend.

How much did you pay for your 960GB SSD?
Click to expand...

USD 550.

I get 410MB/s in writes and 430MB/s in reads.

Meanwhile, the only memory cards I have are CFast cards used for 4K recording. Three Lexar 3400x 256GB cards. Those were bloody pricey, but crucial in 4K recording.
 
I have a La Cie Porsche 500, a WD Transport 1TB, and a Kingston 500 HyperX SSD in an old Kingston external case. I bought the Transport about a year ago, and it wouldn't really work well in anything. However, when I started using it with my rMBP it has been an amazing drive. All of my past laptops have been USB 2, so performance with the WD was marginal at best. In a native USB 3 laptop, it has been great and very fast.
 
yjchua95 said:
USD 550.

I get 410MB/s in writes and 430MB/s in reads.

Meanwhile, the only memory cards I have are CFast cards used for 4K recording. Three Lexar 3400x 256GB cards. Those were bloody pricey, but crucial in 4K recording.
Click to expand...

Wow the price definitely wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Pretty much a steal of a deal. Nice grab
 
There's never been as many good choices of inexpensive high quality models. Watch the sales at Amazon.
 
letsudo said:
I have been using WD My Cloud 4TB but it just stopped working all of a sudden. I bought it this year.

I am thinking of maybe buying another one and a normal one instead of the WiFi My Cloud but the My Cloud really was convenient in that you don't have to connect to the external HDD every time you want to watch a movie.

I've never tried having iTunes on it though with the iPhone backup. Has anyone tried that?
Click to expand...

WD MyCloud comes with a 2 year warranty. I would contact Western Digital asap and get a replacement.

I just bought 2 WD MyCloud 3TB a month ago, and they are working well. Took a little bit of work to get Time Machine going correctly. Now, it zooms along with 1GB ethernet. I use the second one to back up the first one. Got them for $160.00 each.

The other route (if not WD MyCloud replacement etc) is to get an external drive as others have said. Very good prices right now. I use my external drive with Clear Copy Cloner on my MBP. It too works great. Highly recommend it. It sees the WD MyCloud and can backup to it faster than Time Machine.
 
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WD has been great about replacing their HDs in my experience. +1 for checking the warranty first.
 
iososx said:
There's never been as many good choices of inexpensive high quality models. Watch the sales at Amazon.
Click to expand...

That too I have noticed. I buy most all my electronic products from Amazon. Great prices most of the time, fast shipping and great warranties. Pretty much hassle free buying.

brentmore said:
WD has been great about replacing their HDs in my experience. +1 for checking the warranty first.
Click to expand...

It's odd. Years ago when I was a wee-little-lad (10-14 or so years old) WD hard drives were horrible. I would burn through about one a year. Now, I've heard they changed their act and are some of the best HD's available today. It's quite interesting. What are your thoughts about their old-school drives?
 
xMacFeinx said:
It's odd. Years ago when I was a wee-little-lad (10-14 or so years old) WD hard drives were horrible. I would burn through about one a year. Now, I've heard they changed their act and are some of the best HD's available today. It's quite interesting. What are your thoughts about their old-school drives?
Click to expand...

I can definitely remember a time when I avoided WD (before 2005, I'd say). I've had a few Passports and My Books and while some have failed, but I've been impressed in a noted improvement in quality and customer service.
 
xMacFeinx said:
That too I have noticed. I buy most all my electronic products from Amazon. Great prices most of the time, fast shipping and great warranties. Pretty much hassle free buying.



It's odd. Years ago when I was a wee-little-lad (10-14 or so years old) WD hard drives were horrible. I would burn through about one a year. Now, I've heard they changed their act and are some of the best HD's available today. It's quite interesting. What are your thoughts about their old-school drives?
Click to expand...

WD has great drives now. Amongst the best even as inexpensive as they are.
 
brentmore said:
I can definitely remember a time when I avoided WD (before 2005, I'd say). I've had a few Passports and My Books and while some have failed, but I've been impressed in a noted improvement in quality and customer service.
Click to expand...

iososx said:
WD has great drives now. Amongst the best even as inexpensive as they are.
Click to expand...

Great to know. I have stayed away from them in recent years due to the unreliability they use to have. Im glad to hear they've turned things around.

Now Im regularly hearing that Seagate drives have an abnormally high failure rate. Ive had nothing but good luck with the two Seagate externals Ive had, but some of their internal drives Ive read suck.

+1 for knowing WD's warranty is right in line with their Customer Service as well.
 
yjchua95 said:
USD 550.

I get 410MB/s in writes and 430MB/s in reads.

Meanwhile, the only memory cards I have are CFast cards used for 4K recording. Three Lexar 3400x 256GB cards. Those were bloody pricey, but crucial in 4K recording.
Click to expand...

What device did you use for 4k recording?
 
I've been using a Western Digital 1TB drive for a couple of years now. I have it partitioned so 300GB is dedicated to Time Machine and the rest is a neutral format so I can use it with both my Mac and Windows computers. No issues for me so far *knocks on wood*

But I think I'm going to save up for a ~1TB external SSD and wait for them to drop in price a little. I want the piece of mind from flash storage and faster transfer speeds (I move files around a lot on the external).
 
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bobcan said:
I suspect this will 'become a new favorite', for a while at least ~ esp once the availability increases, and price decreases.. Perhaps..

http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...e/SSD/global/html/portablessdt1/overview.html

http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-portable-ssd-t1/
Click to expand...

The Samsung T1 is phenomenal, my workplace has 25 of them (one for each person in the software dev team) and so far we're all really stoked about it.

Myself, I use a Samsung T1 500GB along with a Transcend 960GB JetDrive.

There's one thing worth noting though about USB-based external SSDs - random performance is really far off when compared to the same drive connected over SATA3 or PCIe, but it's fast enough for most needs.
 
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