Which 1 TB external HDD to buy?

[Saket]

Hello Folks,

I am looking to buy a 1TB external HDD which should be USB 2.0 compatible, since my laptop is old and does not have 3.0 connectivity. The purpose of the purchase is to back up another 500 GBs of data that I have on my older HDD, which is now 4 years old (so just in case...).
I am looking into WD - My passport & Sony HD-E1 (with metal case finish). Both in the range of 4.5K to 5K. Are they good enough or should I look at other brands, specifically Transcend, as I have had a good experience with it? Is Sony or WD as good as (or better) than Transcend in making HDDs?

Help me get a good one here by sharing your experiences and information. The HDD will be used mainly to store video files and photographs.

Thanks,
Saket

 

[technobhatt]

I would suggest you to buy "Seagate Backup Plus - 1 TB - Slim External HDD".
I have this and it's both USB 2.0 & 3.0 compatible. There is only one slot for cable which is for actually USB 3.0 cable, but the same cable has backward compatibility for USB 2.0 without any issues.
I have been using this for almost 1 year now and there hasn't been any problem with this.
Lightweight, slim, easy to carry and no external power required.

Here is the listing on Flipkart.
Seagate Backup Plus 1 TB External Hard Disk - Seagate: Flipkart.com
Check with other retailers for better pricing.

 

[Saket]

Thanks Techno for sharing it. Also, I am finding good things written about Hitachi HDDs. Is Hitachi Touro 2.5 a good & reliable product? Or should I go for the personally tried & tested Transcend Storejet 2.5?

 

[GeorgeO]

Hi Saket

Namaskar. I think any good brand with warranty is ok,you wont go wrong.Ive got three WD PP units they are good. Technobhatt is right-you might as well get the USB 3.0 drives for future use, the speed is much faster.

Also be aware that HDD mfrs are only a few, many brand theirs,like Sony and possibly Transcend. Hitachi,WD, Seagate are mfrs.

 

[Saket]

Hi Saket

Namaskar. I think any good brand with warranty is ok,you wont go wrong.Ive got three WD PP units they are good. Technobhatt is right-you might as well get the USB 3.0 drives for future use, the speed is much faster.

Also be aware that HDD mfrs are only a few, many brand theirs,like Sony and possibly Transcend. Hitachi,WD, Seagate are mfrs.

Namaskara George! And thanks for sharing your wisdom. I am leaning a bit towards Transcend due to my earlier experience. This one with 3.0 + backward compatibility to 2.0 (Transcend StoreJet 25M3 2.5 inch 1 TB External Hard Disk - Transcend: Flipkart.com)

Should I go for it?

 

[apk]

I've owned both Transcend (3 of them) and WD-PP (2 of them) in the past. Two of the transcends have failed on me (one was quite old - around 5 years, and the other around 2 years). Am currently using 2 WD-PP of 1 TB each. Have no issues with the WD yet.

Best,
APK

 

[technobhatt]

Thanks Techno for sharing it. Also, I am finding good things written about Hitachi HDDs. Is Hitachi Touro 2.5 a good & reliable product? Or should I go for the personally tried & tested Transcend Storejet 2.5?

Personally, I have never used or tested any other brand than Seagate. So I just can't tell how are other brand HDDs.
I have 4 Seagate 1 Tb external HDDs, out of which 3 HDDs are Seagate GoFlex and 1 HDD is Seagate Backup Plus.
All the Seagate HDDs come with 3 years warranty. 2 of my Seagate GoFlex are almost 3 years old and haven't faced any problem so far.

Also, 2 years ago, I had bought a 2 TB internal Seagate drive for inserting into my Airtel HD-DVR, which is also working very fine so far.

However, I would recommend one thing that before you start using a new HDD to store data into it; don't forget to format it initially in NTFS format (NTFS is anyways by default now a days). I don't know why I do it, but it's just a safe step from my end, because I had a problem once while using e-Sata port cable (for faster transfer) in GoFlkex drive, It threw a popup for formatting the drive before using. Anyways, I just stopped using e-sata port since then and safely using USB 2.0 only.

 

[IndianEars]

Hello sakeet,

Advice based on personal experience :

1. DO NOT BUY A SEA GATE HDD. Do not even use it if given free ! You will soon loose ALL yr data on that HDD.

Over the past 3 years I have been re-iterating that Sea Gate HDDs Fail more than any others, and I have completely stopped buying SeaGate Hard Disk Drives.

Infact, I have personally experienced a 100% SeaGate HDD failure rate

Even worse, when returned under Warranty, Seagate does NOT Replace with a New HDD but dishes out someone elses refurbished HDD after 3 weeks, during which time your PC is obviously unusable.

My personal experience again ..... Every Single SeaGate Replacement HDD has failed.

After loosing lots of Data / music I swore Never to buy SeaGate HDDs again.

2. Many friends have scoffed at my anti Seagate opinion.

Now cloud storage provider Backblaze has released results of an extensive +27,000 HDD study. Results .... SeaGate is the Worst (Least reliable ) HDD.

http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

Many SeaGate HDDs have a 25% Failure rate. LOL !

Ofcourse the King Of The S#*t Heap is the 1.5 TB Sea gate : 120% Failure rate in less than 10 months !!!


SAD ... A friend lost All His last 10 years family pics when his 1 TB Sea Gate HDD crashed last month.... BEWARE !

2. FWIW, I have NEVER had a Western Digital (WD) HDD Failure.

I use 2 seperate WD HDDs for storing my Pics. Also copy them on internal HDDs so that there are multiple copies.....

3. Another tip .... Do NOT Move External HDDs around. My experience .... they fail if moved, because the HDD Inside the External HDD with power supply, are actually Internal HDDs that are not built to withstand shock.

4. Its only the External HDDs with NO External PSU that usually are of lower capacity and more expensive, that use Laptop HDDs, which are more robust against External bumps.

However, my computer assembler tell me that they have had a higher failure rate than the larger internal HDDs, mounted inside computers.

5. I have 1 Transend HDD ( 400 GB ) that has worked well for the past 4 years. However, at Lamington Road, Mumbai, the hub for Computer hardware retauils.... Most shop keepers have stopped sellinf Transend since they received too many complaints that Transend did not replace failed HDDs, and therefore did not honour their warranty. I would therefore advice purchasing any Transend Product.


The above is my personal experience, and ofcourse there is a survey on the failure rate of 27,000 HDDs.

Your Mileage May Vary !

 

[skul82]

+1 for Seagate, I have 3 of them, one 250GB and two 1 TB. 250 GB is about 6 yrs old and still going good.

 

[IndianEars]

My experience has been that most HDDs ( Even Seagate) were reliable upto 500 GB.

The 1 TB mark and beyond, reliablity becomes an issue.

My computer assembler still mis-trusts all HDDs above 1 TB.

FWIW

 

[Saket]

Thanks to all my HFV friends who advised. I have gone for a Transcend (USB 3.0) 1 TB HDD. Selected Transcend finally going by my good ownership experience of last 4 years. The device had actually taken the falls & drops very well.

Just ordered, lets see when do I receive it.

Thanks,
Saket

 

[ranjeetrain]

I started with Seagate, then moved to Samsung then to Hitachi. Most new HDDs I have bought (both external and internal) are all Hitachi.

My best experience has so far been Hitachi (no failures yet) but Seagate has been equally good. Out of a big number of Seagate drives I have used, only one has died on me that too not suddenly and after serving me for quite a long time.

I will advise Seagate/Hitachi.

PS: All HDDs have good and bad stories. Only complaint I have heard very common with Seagate these days is - increased DOA %age. Once you are through the first month and it hasn't died, it probably won't.

Edit: Oops! Just saw the last post that you already made the purchase decision. All the best with the new drive.

 

[Santy]

I fortunately had no problem with my 2TB Seagate which was originally an external drive now using internally. It is the oldest of all. I also have a 1TB WD black and 2 x 2TB Green drives also and a 750 GB Iomega (seagate again). WD is good in warranty / customer service AFAIK. But I had good experience with seagate also. I got a 500 GB drive that I dropped on the floor replaced by Iomega. Actually they sent me a 250 GB drive first and when I complained, they sent me another 500 GB without taking it back. I am sure Transcend also is good... But as ranjeet has put it, all HDD companies have a few unfortunate customers.

 

[Saket]

I got a 500 GB drive that I dropped on the floor replaced by Iomega. Actually they sent me a 250 GB drive first and when I complained, they sent me another 500 GB without taking it back.

:clapping: Used to happen in the fairy tales!

 

[GeorgeO]

Well the bad experience that I can share is with Buffalo-highly avoidable-they will try every trick in the book to avoid warranty claims. WD is outstanding w.r.t warranty replacement.

 

[saketb]

Congratulations!! on your Transcend 1TB.

My personal experience with hard drives, so far...

From almost 17+ years I've been using internal hard drives from Seagate starting from 3.2 GB (3200 MB) to today at 4 TB's. My oldest drives, currently being used are 160GB'sx2 from past 9 years and going strong.
Till today, I have had only 1 hard drive failure with my 1TB which was under warranty and was replaced in 5 days time.

For external backups I've been using WD Passports and My Book, both USB 3.0. They are great indeed.

 

[deba]

I have several external HDD and they all are Seagate....I have faced no problem with them so far.........

 

[Saket]

My old PC had a Seagate. My experience was not too good. It failed within 2 years. Later was replaced by Barracuda Seagate, 7200 RPM as at that time, seagate was the only option by default. That failed again. Again replaced by Seagate, was probably replaced in warranty but don't remember exactly ...thankfully, my PC was decommissioned after that and the HDD is quietly sitting inside.

So, when it came to buying external HDD, I went for transcend storejet 500gb. Thankfully, its over 4 years now and its running very good. It has an 8KB bad sector as of now, but its acceptable. It has even suffered some accidental falls, but has survived well. I think, that impression made me go for the same model again, just its higher in capacity.

Edit: I am amazed by the HDD which is inside my Acer laptop which I bought in early 2006. That is only a 60GB HDD, but surprisingly, it has no bad sectors, no problems at all. Still reads & writes pretty fast and the laptop is going strong. Only upgrade I gave it was adding 2GB of RAM.

 

[Nickhill007]

One more Vote Please do not buy seagate HDD !!
I have had the same experiences for 3 Seagate HDD .
Save your money and Data!!

 

[deba]

I think the life of a HDD has more to do with luck then which company you buy.......I have seen WD HDD sometimes giving up before the Seagates........but yes we do have heart attacks when our HDD dies ......)