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Question

Good 1-2 TB reliable external HD-to fit in safe deposit box?

Mar 13, 2012 1:08AM PDT

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could recommend a decent external hard drive at a relatively inexpensive price? I was debating on whether to use online storage or not, but given the amount of data that I have, I think that an external hard drive stored offsite in a safety deposit box would suit my needs. I plan to start backing up this weekend to it. I have a WD Mybook Essential, but I figure that's a bit too large for a safety deposit box. I think they may actually offer the smaller "Passport" external drives even up to 2 TB, that may be perfect as far as the size to fit in a safety deposit box. Are these WD Passport drives fairly reliable? You read so many reviews online that vary and it makes it hard to get a good idea.... This drive would rarely be touched, I'd only retrieve it to take home and back up some items not very often at all, and then just drive back and place in the safety deposit box.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
None.
Mar 13, 2012 1:23AM PDT

HDDs continue to be "fine copies" and have not proved reliable. For most it's OK but while they approach fairly reliable, they fail to be "reliable" enough to trust the last copy is on one drive.
Bob

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I hear ya...
Mar 13, 2012 2:07AM PDT

I hear what you're saying. It's frustrating reading all the reviews online, can't find a good on! I know it won't be THE definitive backup, but I'm just looking for one that will be my "off-site" backup. It won't be spinning hardly at all as it will only be for periodical backing up.

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real quick...
Mar 13, 2012 5:38AM PDT

would you recommend Segate or Western Digital? Tryig to pick between one of the mini portable ones between the 2 brands; WD's Passport or Seagate's GoFlex....

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I've used too many.
Mar 13, 2012 9:28AM PDT

At the office I see almost all those makes and it's not so much an issue of make but how they are treated. AND THEN you have the rare drive that just fails. It does not seem to be this or that model.

--> I think you would like any of the nice mini portables.

Just one tip. Be sure to add a Y-power USB cable if you want to increase the odds it will work on more machines.
Bob

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thanks...
Mar 14, 2012 1:43AM PDT

Thanks for the advice Bob. Yes, I see in a lot of the reviews where people claim the drive just died on them, a little later they'll say they dropped it a couple of times. I know with these external hd's, to handle them basically like a newborn baby. I think I might go with the Seagate Goflex 1.5 TB, gives me an extra 500 GB as the mini portable WD Passport only has 1 TB