Recommend an external 3TB HDD...........for back up

[ziggy47]

Hi and festive greetings to all forumites,

I've now got the majority of my music collection stored onto a Synology NAS, saved to 2 X 3TB WD Red drives, set up in hybrid RAID, ie mirroring each other.

But from reading various posts, backing up these drives is still recommended.

Therefore I have been looking at a suitable 3TB external HDD, to plug into the back of the Synology.

My options are : WD 3TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive @ £93, USB 2.0

Buffalo 3TB DriveStation Desktop Hard Drive @ £93, USB2.0 or

Toshiba 3TB Stor.E Canvio External Hard Drive - Black @ £112, USB 3.0.

As I don't require the faster transfer speeds of USB 3.0, this is not a factor in choosing. However I chose the above purely on value and known brands, I have had previous experience with.

I am just wondering if people on the forum have any better suggestions or personal experiences, good or bad with the suggested drives/makes ?

Thanks for any help, Richard....

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

I've used a Buffalo NAS (1TB) for a couple of years now, and it seems to work fine (i.e. no complaints). Like you, I back up (quarterly) to an external HDD that I keep at work - in order to mitigate fire / theft risk. Fundamentally, I just care about my digital photos. i think that is the critical point for you to do as well - as it (touch wood) should be unusual for both your drives to fail at once.

Pricing on your suggestions is much of a muchness, so I wouldn't focus on that.

 

[bigboss]

Bear in mind that only 3 manufacturers in the world make hard drives: Western Digital, Seagate & Toshiba. Whatever HDD you choose, it will be one of the 3 in it. WD & Seagate are more reputed than Toshiba.

Approximate market shares in 2012:

WD - 40%

Seagate - 40%

Toshiba - 15-20%

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tommywilhelm/how-three-hard-drive-companies-gobbled-up-the-indu

 

[ziggy47]

Thanks to you both, for your comments...WD it is then...cheers...Richard....

 

[dangalf]

Hi ziggy47,

Not sure if you're still looking/yet to purchase but I can recommend the 3tb WD Elements. I have two that I use to back up my pictures, music and video and haven't had any problems with them. I also connect one of them to a WD live TV hub which, in turn, is connected to my TV. This allows me to browse the files and view them on my TV