MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Not really my area of expertise....
All much of a muchness or some I should avoid.
Need somewhere to store docs and gopro footage.
The order of preference for the me storing data would be:
1. Google Drive
2. USB Stick
3. SSD external
19. External HDD
20. Floppy disk
They're a bit delicate for my taste, though they do hold a lot for the cash. I have one plugged into my satellite receiver for example. All my important stuff is online.
Just make sure you’re backing up your stuff. One knock onto the floor and an external HDD will lose your data. I use Time Machine on a NAS, weekly clones of drives for offsite storage, and Backblaze online backup.
if you need an external drive rather than online storage then <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">as @hugo says:</span>
SSD external
HDD external
though the former is way faster than the latter you’ll not get more than 2TB storage and it’ll cost you £300 rather than £70.
I just bought a 4TB WD passport from amazon for £99. USB C connectors and although a bit chunky it seems OK. Though wish I’d had another £200 to get an SSD as HDDs are s l o w.
Pick your size. Determine if you can afford SSD. Then pick a connector type to suit your tech. Then pick a brand. I favour Toshiba, WD, seagate but there’s not much in it.
have you considered a NAS like a Synology?
TLDR if an external drive suits your needs, get Something from a known brand like Seagate
Reasoning - Flipping this round from the modern thinking...
Although I have stuff stored on the cloud I (used to) work away a lot and often only had access to poor WiFi at best. Because of this I mainly backup to an external Disk.
Generally speaking I buy one every 12-18 months and use a mixture of automated backup and a manual copies. I now have about 8 external drives. This has cost me less per annum than some of the cloud storage options.
I have a disk that I carry with me most of the time (they are all mechanical and not a single one has been as fragile as suggested above). I use automated software to backup my files frequently. After 12-18 months I buy another to carry round and move the first to be my regular backup disk at home. As time progresses this is further retired to a drawer and holds an infrequent backup of long term files such as photos.
It suits my situation, but I also think it leaves me better protected - about three years ago Dropbox went down for scheduled maintenance for a weekend. Yup, that was a weekend I needed to work on a special project with shared files where the only copy of the latest version was on Dropbox. The shared nature of the files meant my manual backups were not a real answer, but opened my eyes to the fact that many people assume five 9’s reliability mean they are 100% safe
You say "external" - does it need to be portable or not? If not then get a NAS. If it does then if you can afford it go SSD external, or HDD if money is an issue.
The order of preference for the me storing data would be:
1. Google Drive
2. USB Stick
3. SSD external
19. External HDD
20. Floppy disk
USB sticks have their place, and it's for moving data from one computer to another. Don't ever use them as a backup for storing data as they're highly unreliable and easy to lose. A spinning disk HDD is a much safer option.
If you're planning on doing a lot of reading and writing to the disk an SSD will of course be faster, but generally speaking (and assuming you've got an SSD on the computer itself) you don't need that kind of speed for a backup, and you can probably get a much higher capacity external drive with a spinning disk for the same money.
have you considered a NAS like a Synology?
This is probably a really good question, but unfortunately you're assuming I know what a NAS is.
NAS = Network Attached Storage. PLug a box in near the router and access it over the network. Something like this:
https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-gb/products/cloud-storage/wd-my-cloud-home
But it's a solution for external backups / data access when you don't need to be portable. If you do, then get a smaller drive in an enclosure like this
https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-gb/c/external-storage.portable
Note, I'm not specifically recommending these, they're just examples, but the WD MyCloud NAS gets good feedback
EDIT - it's worth going back to the original post
I’ve been told I need an external hard drive
Who told you, and what do you need it for
If it's just somewhere to store documents and video, I would get a decent branded external HDD - something like Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung etc.
They are pretty cheap, so consider getting two & using one as a back-up or investigate cloud storage for a back-up.
I wouldn't even consider a NAS to be honest, unless you were to look at something like a WD MyCloud Home device.
I bought a QNAP NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive mainly to be used for photo storage. I wanted something I could set-up an share pictures with my family so they could access it at any time.
It's a bit of a ballache to be honest. It frequently needs attention - firmware updates etc. I am probably not using it to it's full capacity for it to make sense really, but when researching them I bought what is described as an entry level NAS for first time users.
nbt
Who told you, and what do you need it for
The OP said it's for this...
alpin
Need somewhere to store docs and gopro footage.
If you're using the drive to edit go-pro footage (or at least store / move it) I would go for an SSD. 4k video files are massive...
For "extra" storage, I use this
https: //www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07Y81R1JM
(edit: breaking link so the forum doesn't do weird stuff to the link)
and an old SSD drive, has the benefit of being able to keep lots of spare drives in use for rotating backups if required.
is it for work or personal stuff, is it cos a mate recommended it as a throwaway comment, is it cos his partner told him to make sure everything's backed up safely, will it be accessed regularly or occasionally, will it need to be available anywhere 24/7 or will it be accessed by one person, if so is that from a fixed location or from wherever that person happens to be...
If it’s just somewhere to store documents and video, I would get a decent branded external HDD – something like Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung etc.They are pretty cheap, so consider getting two & using one as a back-up or investigate cloud storage for a back-up.
I do this for my work stuff - one remains on site at work, the other comes home with me and I swap them daily so there's always a recent back-up on each HDD.
A spinning disk HDD is a much safer option.
I'm no IT expert so always happy to learn something. My understanding is that a decent branded memory stick would be safer as it's solid state and the spinning disk part is the fragile bit?
Worth noting that anything vital I have is on Google drive. In my view all portable data storage is just for transporting it or convenience for anything you don't mind losing!
If possible, put the files you need to edit on your internal drive, edit them, and then export.
I’d not recommend storing 4K video files on a NAS for editing. Even 1080p files can be a bind to preview from one depending on their size
If you have to put them on an external drive for some reason then:
if you have a fast machine with SSD storage in it and USB 3 connections then get a Samsung T5 or T7 external SSD.
if you’re editing <1080p on a regular machine that has a spinning HDD and doesn’t have USB3 then any old external HDD drive will do.
in between those you’ll have to decide whether it’s cash or speed that’s more important
as to HDDs not being fragile. That’s generally true. Until you drop one that one time and find that it won’t read data afterwards. Have had this happen with my own drives. And had it happen with a drive we used to transport (huge) medical images with. In both cases backups were great to have.
I’m no IT expert so always happy to learn something. My understanding is that a decent branded memory stick would be safer as it’s solid state and the spinning disk part is the fragile bit?
I've seen too many memory sticks fail to trust them - I think part of the problem is their size, people don't treat them well and things come loose inside them. They're also a lot smaller (memory-wise) compared to a HD. Spinning HDDs have been around for years and assuming you don't drop them the fail rate is very small. An SSD is probably the best of both worlds, but if it's something you're just planning on leaving on a shelf at home and plugging in every now and then to do a backup, why pay over twice the price for the same capacity?
OP: here's a 1TB external HD from a reputable manufacturer:
If you've got a bit more cash, this is a 1TB SSD drive, also from a reputable manufacturer:
https://www.amazon.de/SanDisk-Portable-Lesegeschwindigkeit-wasserdicht-staubdicht/dp/B078STRHBX/ref=sr_1_5?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=external+hard+drive+1tb+ssd&qid=1591967492&sr=8-5
Why don't you explain exactly what you're trying to achieve rather than relaying someone else's advice and expecting us to blindly assume that it has merit?
Is this supposed to be a backup solution? A transportation method? Storage expansion because you've run out of space on your PC? A means of knocking in nails? Something else entirely? An external HDD may be the best solution to your needs or it might turn out that what you in fact need there is a hammer.
have you considered a NAS like a Synology?
Massive overkill, shurely.
Buy 2 disks of suitable size from Amazon. Make 2 copies of work. End.
Hate to answer the OP's question, but I robbed a WD My Passport from my previous company and it's been shockingly reliable. https://www.novatech.co.uk/search.html?search=my%20passport
I'd recommend one, even if you have to pay for it 😛
As per my reply above I have a two WD My Passports in my collection of USB drives as suggested by DezB
I got a WD My Passport for this very purpose - I'm on a macbook with a 128gb SSD so any video editing was a no-no. Got a 3TB HDD for around £50 with a sale and some student discount. It's been working pretty perfectly for video editing so far. Run iMovie straight from it and it works (almost) flawlessly. It's noticeable that the files aren't running straight from a SSD, there's a little bit of sound cutting out, but nothing that effects me editing.