Quote from: Farabomb on February 28, 2018, 12:56:45 PMIt's not a formatting issue, it's if the drive will wake up after it goes to sleep. Some drives won't wake when attached to a mac.

That is why I always change my energy settings to never let the HD sleep. Not sure if that includes external USB drives though. That may be controlled by the USD drive firmware I suppose.

Quote from: Farabomb on February 28, 2018, 12:56:45 PMIt's not a formatting issue, it's if the drive will wake up after it goes to sleep. Some drives won't wake when attached to a mac.

Okay, something to watch out for.

Picked up the 4TB WD drive at costco. Wow, its not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes!  The old Lacie is the size of a small toaster and weighs about 7lbs.

Big size difference between the 2.5 and 3.5 drives. Probably runs off USB power as well.

I prefer external hard drive enclosures that let me swap out hard drives easily. Have a toaster style one on one iMac and my personal one has 4 bays for easy swap hard drives. Hard drives can be cheap if you are not always paying for the enclosure. Hard drive goes, just replace the drive itself and not the whole unit.

Mine has a fan that runs which I can adjust. Silent and has never let me down. I would be looking at something like this if I was shopping right now (mine is no longer for sale)
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=14_203&item_id=032450

Or something like that for real ease of use swapping or adding multiple drives.
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=14_679&item_id=045343

Quote from: Farabomb on March 01, 2018, 07:16:18 AMBig size difference between the 2.5 and 3.5 drives. Probably runs off USB power as well.

And usually 2.5" drives are slower (unless of course you are talking SSD but that is whole other story)

Speaking of SSD's...newegg.com has a special on a 480 GB SSD right now for $99.99 with a promo code. Heck of a deal. I just bought 2 a few weeks ago and thought I got a good deal on a 500 GB SSD for $134.00.

That sounds a bit pricey - I got a Western Digital 1Tb SSD external for £45 - they are now selling at £37

https://www.wdc.com/en-gb/products/wd-recertified/my-passport-ultra.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_ovquaLV2QIVaL7tCh3ErgK9EAQYAyABEgIDIvD_BwE#RWDBZFP0010BRD-EESN

Obviously these are UK prices but Western Digital are an American company. 

Well, that's a reman drive and I'm not sure it's a SSD. Pretty sure that's a laptop HDD in an enclosure. That's why it's so cheap.

Quote from: Farabomb on March 05, 2018, 08:43:47 AMWell, that's a reman drive and I'm not sure it's a SSD. Pretty sure that's a laptop HDD in an enclosure. That's why it's so cheap.

Even if that is an SSD, which I don't think it is, using an SSD as an external is not ideal as it will only be as fast as its slowest component which in this case is USB so you lose the actual speed advantage an SSD has over a traditional hard drive. Plus one thing I won't buy used, recertified, or refurbished is a hard drive.

That same drive here in the USA at Amazon is $53.86. And it is NOT an SSD.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backup-Portable-External-STDR2000100/dp/B00H4XH5FY/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1520264682&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=my%2Bpassport%2Bultra&th=1

Yeah, drives are cheap enough. Buying refurbished is just asking for trouble.

I remember when IBM had their issue with the deskstar deathstar drives that EVERYONE used because they were the fastest out there. Then they started dying on everyone. It was so bad IBM sold off their HDD division. 

Quote from: Farabomb on March 05, 2018, 12:34:50 PMYeah, drives are cheap enough. Buying refurbished is just asking for trouble.

Yeah and it is hard enough to get a new one that lasts these days.

Quote from: Joe on March 05, 2018, 09:47:00 AM

Quote from: Farabomb on March 05, 2018, 08:43:47 AMWell, that's a reman drive and I'm not sure it's a SSD. Pretty sure that's a laptop HDD in an enclosure. That's why it's so cheap.

Even if that is an SSD, which I don't think it is, using an SSD as an external is not ideal as it will only be as fast as its slowest component which in this case is USB so you lose the actual speed advantage an SSD has over a traditional hard drive. Plus one thing I won't buy used, recertified, or refurbished is a hard drive.

That same drive here in the USA at Amazon is $53.86. And it is NOT an SSD.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backup-Portable-External-STDR2000100/dp/B00H4XH5FY/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1520264682&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=my%2Bpassport%2Bultra&th=1

Wouldn't buy one used either, or underwear for that matter.

Personally, I think most name brand drives are fairly similar in life expectancy, but it can also depend on usage. I've had two DVR HDDs go bad (one Dish, one Directv) and both were Western Digital. I've also had several Seagate HDDs go belly up, including a 1TB external that was only a few years old. On the other hand, I currently have several Hitachis that are approaching 10 years without issue, so I may be biased. I have one 8TB NAS that's Western Digital (slow as shit) and one 8TB NAS that's Seagate. I used to say WD and Seagate were crap, based on experience, but I may amend that.