Can someone recommend a USB hard drive pls

Lamp

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Running out of room on my PC. Web storage not an option - not with 700MB+ files and slow internet connection.
  • Minimum 1 TB. (2 would be nice, but not too fussed)
  • Preferably one that can run off the PC's power & doesn't require to be plugged into the mains
  • No software or CDs. Just plug in & away you go.
Should I just go for Western Digital or is there another manufacturer you recommend?
 

Cyradix

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I have both the Samsung S2 1TB USB3 and the WD My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB3 and they are both great.
Don't know about the latest samsung models as they seem to be seagate drives now...
 

TdC

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a mate's gotten a USB3 drive and holy hell it's fast compared to my 160GB USB2 one :/
 

caLLous

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I've had various WD drives (the bus-powered Passports and mains-powered My Books etc) for years and they've been great. I would avoid their "world edition" NAS drives though, the one I have is miserably slow.
 

Wazzerphuk

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I have a Buffalo 2TB DriveStation External Hard Drive - USB 2.0. Think it cost about £90. Plug in and off you go, only drawbacks are USB 2, not 3 (but backing up is a slowish process anyway so it makes little difference to me) and it requires a power source (from plug).
 

Lamp

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Thanks chaps

Is it just me, or are these drives a bit bulky and kinda old-fashioned? I know a TB is a large amount of memory, and it physically takes up room, and then there's all the power management etc, but if a phone the thickness of a few credit cards can store 100 GB....?

(Won't be too long before Samsung release the first TB smartphone)

Hurry up with quantum computers ffs :)
 

caLLous

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Well there's a bit of a difference beween a flash memory system and a mechanical hard drive. There's no physical size difference between a 20 year old HDD that can hold 250MB and a swanky SATA 6GB/S one that can hold 4TB.
 

Lamp

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My sister bought me a WD 1TB for my birthday today.

Well, I say 1TB, but if you right click / properties it says there's 931GB free. Something is taking up 69GB (if you're supposed to get 1000) or 93GB (if its 1024)...:unsure:

16jt7d.jpg


I'm not fussed. Its still 931GB. But why couldn't they just say its 930GB on the blurb?
 

Yaka

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just get a dock, u can get a usb2/3 or e-sata ones. buy hdds as when when you are running outta space and quickly switch between hdds and damn usefull
sata-hdd-docking-station.jpg
 

opticle

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just get a dock, u can get a usb2/3 or e-sata ones. buy hdds as when when you are running outta space and quickly switch between hdds and damn usefull

That's awesome. I had no idea they existed.

Not ideal if you want a mobile HD I suppose (?) - although my 1TB Samsumg's are 3.5 HD's so I guess there's as much bump risk with them as anything else.
 

soze

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I got a usb3 caddy from Amazon an icy box for £15 and used an old 500gb hard disk and it is working great.
 

Yaka

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well no not ideal for somat you wana which in a bag, but then even in an enclosed usb case i wouldn't knock a mechanical drive about,but he said he wanted to store pr0n (yes we all know what large 750 + mb files are! :p ) and preety sure i have mentioned docks in these forums sevral times before over the years

also scan/scam had WD red 3tb drives for £120 if you wana risk shopping with em
 

soze

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Yaka said:
well no not ideal for somat you wana which in a bag, but then even in an enclosed usb case i wouldn't knock a mechanical drive about,but he said he wanted to store pr0n (yes we all know what large 750 + mb files are! :p ) and preety sure i have mentioned docks in these forums sevral times before over the years

also scan/scam had WD red 3tb drives for £120 if you wana risk shopping with em

I ordered 4 of them yesterday to boost my NAS ;)
 

Yaka

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i find them handy to have, i think you can also get them so they fit in a 5.25 bay those ones remind me alot of the iomega zip/jazz drives from the 90s
 

Yaka

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I ordered 4 of them yesterday to boost my NAS ;)
i missed out on them, mrs had used the card in the morning so only managed to get 2:/ i wanted more for the nas i am building
 

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