Getting serious about organizing my backups: New rec for external hard drive

[elegantlion]

I have one, but I'm giving it back to the ex as it has most of his documents on it. His is a western Digital and has worked fine for years, but I want to make sure I'm getting a quality one. 

 

I really don't need more than 500GB of storage, but they seem to be priced about as much as the 1TB, so I'll probably buy 1TB. I have mostly text files and pictures and right now they don't take up much space. 

 

I'd like one that will do well if I just put it in the safe. I don't really care about cloud storage as I prefer to have most of my stuff saved offline. 

 

What are good brands? Brands to avoid? I have a PC if that matters. 

[Lanny]

We have two (2) Western Digital External USB Hard Disk Drives in the house. The first one arrived early in July 2015. It has 1 TB capacity. I was planning to use that one for the "System Image" backups I make of the hard drives, with "Clonezilla Live".  After I ran the  Diagnostics on it, I told my wife, "maybe we can get one of these for (my Stepson) for his  birthday, which is in mid July, but it will not arrive from the states in time for his birthday."  We ended up giving him the 1 GB WD drive for his birthday, and then I ordered the 2 GB WD drive, that I am using.  The 1 TB was a higher end line, which came with some software I was not going to use. The 2 TB was a lower cost line, without any software. I suspect that internally, for example, a 2 TB drive of the low end line and the higher end line, are identical, with the exception of the model number.    I have no experience with any other brands, so can't comment on those.    I used the  2 TB drive this morning and after I disconnect it, I leave it in open air, to cool down, for an hour or so, before I put  it into the locked closet where it is stored.  I think I bought both of them on eBay. I think the 2 TB drive was about USD$70 last July. Hopefully less now, or, possibly you can get one with larger capacity for that money now.  If I were to buy another External Drive today, I would buy a WD drive.

[elegantlion]

  If I were to buy another External Drive today, I would buy a WD drive.

 

glad to hear your recommendation. some of the reviews were iffy and ours is more than a few years old, so I wanted to make sure the quality hadn't gone down hill. 

 

Thank you. 

[Guest]

My dh did all the research and got me a 1TB Passport.

[prairiewindmomma]

We went with Seagate.