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External Hard Drive Recommendations?
Hey guys,
I’ve been shooting quite a bit of 4K footage lately (I don’t do this professionally, just for personal use e.g. vacations, etc) and I really need something to archive old footage as my 1TB HD on my desktop is full.
The amount of options out there is a bit overwhelming. I do like the Lacie Rugged HDs, but you do pay a bit of a premium for them. The other option is to go with normal HDs and then buy a docking station for them. I originally thought about going with an NAS system like Synology, but that gets expensive quick.
What do you guys recommend?
Thanks!
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5 Replies
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FYI – several folks have recommended the Seagate Expansion HD 8TB: https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STEB8000100/dp/B01HAPGEIE/?tag=linus21-20
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The Expansion drive is consumer-oriented in a plastic housing. I’d look at something a bit more professional such as LaCie d2, G-Tech G-Drive, or Glyph Black Box Pro for better performance and longevity. Will cost a bit more, but worth the extra.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Thanks. For now I am going to buy a two bay dock (toaster oven style) and some WD Reds or Blues and keep archived video on that.
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Couple things to keep in mind.
1. Don’t trust any single drive to keep your data if you want to keep it – minimum 2 drives. Keep your video on one, backup to the other.
2. I wouldn’t try copying from one drive to the other in your toaster. I’ve seen toaster appliances either not be able to handle that or end up with corrupt data somehow. Maybe yours will handle it fine, maybe not.
3. Get hard storage cases for your HDDs when you take them out of the docking station for storage.
Good Luck!
TC -
Yeah, I have a toaster but don’t trust it for cloning. I just use it for dual mounting. On Mac OS SuperDuper is good for doing smart backups and cloning. If you’re going bare drives, HGST are good–they come in vanilla, NAS, and Enterprise ratings. I use the NAS rated drives at home since they’re very affordable and middle of the road. You can also get a bare drive and an external case cheaper than a pre-built. If your motherboard supports USB 3.1 you should be able to power a 3.5″ 7200rpm drive through the usb cable just fine without requiring a transformer or brick.
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