View Full Version : Toshiba, WD or Seagate, what's a quiet reliable external HDD?
Going to shout myself an external HDD for Christmas and put an end to my ever expanding collection of backups on USB sticks. Between music and photography, it's amazing how quickly even a 64gig stick fills up. This looks pretty promising
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281876063732?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Haven't heard a lot about Seagate drives in recent years, the school I work at has been buying WD or Toshiba drives for some time now. Is Seagate still a top ranked player and do their external drives operatate reasonably quietly without whirring or clicking sounds?
Hal55
StanleyB
06-12-2015, 08:41
They are all quiet and reliable these days. I have several external harddisks and none of them have failed me so far. I just bought a 2TB Freecom USB3.0 external drive.
I have quite a few 2.5 HDD from different makes, mainly for storing photo and sound files, including the three brands you mention.
Most reliable of them over the last couple of years have been Toshiba - least reliable WD (I've had two fail). All are very quiet in operation. I used to like Seagate but the last 3.5 drive I had from them wouldn't spin down so don't bother now.
Tony Moore
06-12-2015, 10:24
I've had at least two Seagate Barracuda fail prematurely, so I switched to WD and have yet to have one of those fail, but I'm sure they will at some point, they all do eventually.
It seems Hitachi are good too:
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/175089-who-makes-the-most-reliable-hard-drives
Hi Hal,
I've just bought a Seagate 5TB 'Personal Cloud' NAS, see the black box here on the left:
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/633/Zs1PHj.jpg
Admittedly, I've only had it for a couple of days, so can't comment yet on reliability, but I can confirm that it's quiet :)
Marco.
Hi Hal,
I've just bought a Seagate 5TB 'Personal Cloud' NAS, see the black box here on the left:
'Personal Cloud' FFS!!!
What an industry for trumped up marketing bollox ;)
1975, 2015
Managed Service, SaaS (Software as a Service)
Managed Storage, Cloud Storage
Local Storage, Personal Cloud
Don't get me started on 'Big Data'......:steam:
Rant over....;)
Ali Tait
06-12-2015, 12:33
Bit like hi fi then... :-)
If you want quiet, an SSD would be the way to go. They are more expensive though.
Old George
06-12-2015, 12:34
I've had the lot over the years, WD was regarded as king of the drives at one time. Best bet is to research the particular model you want for reliability and performance.
I'm using a mix of Toshiba and Maxtor, and a couple of SSD drives.
Oldpinkman
06-12-2015, 13:06
For what little its worth I have a 1TB Toshiba, which I have had for at least a year, is silent as the night, and has performed faultlessly
On a related subject, I have just moved my business system to an upgraded laptop with USB3 docking station - to make it easier to be mobile (return to England) once my office is in France. As part of that I bought a couple of Crucial 500Gb SSD's - and they are a complete joy to use! :D
Light Dependant Resistor
06-12-2015, 13:21
I would back comments of Toshiba being excellent. Note most will offer USB3 which has a
blue USB connector for computer end, but a different shaped drive end connector.
Seagate also great. I found WD can be really fussy with power supplies. I temporarily
misplaced a plugpack for one and it would not work with other plugpacks despite
voltage being identical and same connector. Thankfully I relocated the original,
and it is now working well. , All three brands I would have to say have been good
and nice to use.
Cheers / Chris
As part of that I bought a couple of Crucial 500Gb SSD's - and they are a complete joy to use! :D
Completely agree ... I converted my MacMini to SSD a couple of years (two x 250gb Samsung Evo drives) An total joy indeed; reliable, noiseless and run fairly cool so the fan rarely needed too :)
The main advantage though is the enormous pick up in speed both in terms of launching programmes but also copying files or backing up the system which is now an absolute breeze
The Black Adder
06-12-2015, 15:28
I agree, Mike... SSD drives are great, but they are just not big enough at the moment (for my stuff) and the prices are a bit high still, unless there is something I haven't seen.
I agree, Mike... SSD drives are great, but they are just not big enough at the moment (for my stuff) and the prices are a bit high still, unless there is something I haven't seen.
Yep - only downfall.
Up to 250gb the price differential is hardly worth talking about given the huge advantages but higher than that the price differential gets a bit silly. I can run my Mac comfortably with either of the two smaller drives I have and the difference in normal computing use really is day and night - but for bulk storage and backup I still rely on traditional spinners of 500gb and 1tb capacity. A real shame as I'd love to run a NAS with a couple of big SSDs :(
Spectral Morn
06-12-2015, 18:28
Freecom are good, as are WD. I researched it awhile back and Seagate were not rated as highly, but ultimately HDs are what they are and will fail, so back up, back up, back up.
Always fancied putting an ssd into my lap as a swap to really speed it up. It doesnt seem rediculously difficult but think doing it for first time might bring on a stroke so have resisted the temptation. Might try an external one for testing though. It does seem curreny the 250gb are the ones to get.
As for hdds i had 2 buffalo ones...1 packed in and other is still working although ive had reported errors a couple of times.
Got 3 wd..2 big my books and the other is a small one. All are still operating well. I also have a small newish toshiba which was the last one i bought. Maybe a year plus old and its a usb3. Nice little thing and silent plus quick.
'Personal Cloud' FFS!!!
What an industry for trumped up marketing bollox ;)
Ha - don't I know it! It's utter bobbins, but hey, said 'cloud' has just provided me with a lifetime's worth of music, so I guess it would be churlish of me to complain! :D
Marco.
I have 2 toshiba Marco, a 1GB and a 2GB and they have both been excellent.
I also have a Western Digital and tha is just as good but with additional security.
I would recommend either make as being very satisfactory.
Always fancied putting an ssd into my lap as a swap to really speed it up. It doesnt seem rediculously difficult but think doing it for first time might bring on a stroke so have resisted the temptation.
Really nothing to it Grant ... just clone your current operating disc onto the SSD, swap them out - boot up and hi-ho silver lightning :)
Really nothing to it Grant ... just clone your current operating disc onto the SSD, swap them out - boot up and hi-ho silver lightning :)
:D said the actress to the bishop :lol: I will have to think about it some more.
:D said the actress to the bishop :lol: I will have to think about it some more.
Something like 'Norton Ghost' is very useful here...:)
Ha - don't I know it! It's utter bobbins, but hey, said 'cloud' has just provided me with a lifetime's worth of music, so I guess it would be churlish of me to complain! :D
Marco.
I don't doubt the quality of the said device Marco...but it's getting a re-branding of 'LAN NAS' from me...;)
Thanks for the advice, I'll go with either a Seagate or Toshiba drive. SSD would be nice but is unaffordable in the size I'd need. The whole idea is to have one large drive that can do everything for a couple of years. I'd read some HDD reviews some years back and was surprised that one of them, can't remember which, made so much whirring and clicking noises that the reviewer summed it up as capable but a nuisance, certainly didn't want that as my music will all go ever to it.
Hal55
StanleyB
07-12-2015, 12:37
I'd read some HDD reviews some years back and was surprised that one of them, can't remember which, made so much whirring and clicking noises that the reviewer summed it up as capable but a nuisance, certainly didn't want that as my music will all go ever to it.
If a HD, any HD, makes those kind of noise then you know that you got at least one bad data block and that the drive might even have been dropped. One of the heads might have made a mark on one of the plates in the drive. That would cause clicking and whirring noises as the drive tries to read data. If you ever experience such a scenario it is best to run chkdsk on the drive.
I've used WD exclusively since ~90
One late 90's model failed (actually only started clicking but remained fully functional) WD replaced it, delivering a fresh one to my door within 48 hours.
Current models have a 5 yr warranty ;)
SSD 'C' drive is essential with the bloatware OS these days. Cheap too, less than 90$ for a Samsung 125gb (more than one needs for an OS drive)
5 second boot up and 10 second turn off... a V Nice change.
A Seagate drive has been ordered and post Christmas I'll start ripping my CD collection to Flac and begin using it as my music library. I've used Mediamonkey for ripping to MP3 but it doesn't seem to like Flac and seems oddly "clunky" in the way it does things. I tried searching rip and ripping here on AOS but it turned up nothing. I know there has been one or two well supported programs for this purpose mentioned here but can't remember them - if anyone can jog my memory that would be appreciated, and the easier to use the better. Also heard about "MQA" compression this morning and how it will revolutionize high res downloading next year. Looking forward to it immensely.
Hal55
Seagate have just released their 8TB desktop drive for those who need even more storage!
StanleyB
18-12-2015, 09:18
A Seagate drive has been ordered and post Christmas I'll start ripping my CD collection to Flac and begin using it as my music library. I've used Mediamonkey for ripping to MP3 but it doesn't seem to like Flac and seems oddly "clunky" in the way it does things.
I use MediaMonkey to rip, and prefer it as well! It has an option to rip and check the rip for accuracy. I rip in WAV and then convert to FLAC if I have to. But in most cases I stick to WAV.
A Seagate drive has been ordered and post Christmas I'll start ripping my CD collection to Flac and begin using it as my music library. I've used Mediamonkey for ripping to MP3 but it doesn't seem to like Flac and seems oddly "clunky" in the way it does things. I tried searching rip and ripping here on AOS but it turned up nothing. I know there has been one or two well supported programs for this purpose mentioned here but can't remember them - if anyone can jog my memory that would be appreciated, and the easier to use the better. Also heard about "MQA" compression this morning and how it will revolutionize high res downloading next year. Looking forward to it immensely.
Hal55
dBPoweramp is your friend here...:)
Use it to rip to FLAC, excellent meta data (unlike WAV), accurate re-rip configuration, and check sum digit rip accuracy verification...along with various other rip capabilities, HDCD, ReplayGain (album and track) etc.
Top tip, if you have a lot to do, get a high speed external DVD/R, I use an old chunky Samsung...the bigger the better IMHO
Price seems a touch steep, I'll give it a go on their trial and purchase if it works well.
StanleyB
18-12-2015, 21:20
Use it to rip to FLAC, excellent meta data (unlike WAV),
Exactly what meta data is missing in WAV that is present in FLAC? I keep reading this comment about WAV but have never understood what is meant. Can someone enlighten me on this?
Exactly what meta data is missing in WAV that is present in FLAC? I keep reading this comment about WAV but have never understood what is meant. Can someone enlighten me on this?
Hi Stan, perhaps things have changed, however when I started ripping the following was the advice...
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Beginners_Guide_To_Tagging
...I'm exclusively FLAC so have not researched .wav tagging any further
Hi Stan, perhaps things have changed, however when I started ripping the following was the advice...
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Beginners_Guide_To_Tagging
...I'm exclusively FLAC so have not researched .wav tagging any further
Now the odd thing is that the article states that tagging in WAV is not possible, however if I record a track from the radio using Audacity I can enter the usual range of tags when I save it a WAV file (artist, title, track number, album, comments) If I then open the file in iTunes all these bar the track title have disappeared but if I open the same track in VLC all the information is there to view. This would indicate that tagging with WAV files is in fact possible - just not in a form that's universally displayed by all media players.
Now the odd thing is that the article states that tagging in WAV is not possible, however if I record a track from the radio using Audacity I can enter the usual range of tags when I save it a WAV file (artist, title, track number, album, comments) If I then open the file in iTunes all these bar the track title have disappeared but if I open the same track in VLC all the information is there to view. This would indicate that tagging with WAV files is in fact possible - just not in a form that's universally displayed by all media players.
Looks like tagging has been implemented, but via a different mechanism...which would explain your observations...:)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID3
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