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What's the best external hard drive for storing videos, music, documents?

  • Beverly Level X3
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    What's the best external hard drive for storing videos, music, documents?

    At Christmas, I was lucky enough to find a really great deal on a 1TB hard drive desktop computer. Ran like a dream for a long time, very good for both work and Steam games. But recently, I have been working on my laptop and my daughter has the desktop now. She is making Youtube videos and storing them on the hard drive. I am concerned they will clutter up the drive. The computer doesn't run as fast as it did before, not sure if related to the storage issue. And, I guess it's not good to store all that stuff on the drive. I have looked at USB sticks and external USB drives and even considered paid cloud storage for videos. I don't want to lose this content (it's uploaded to Youtube now, but if they shut that down then I will lose the videos forever if not backed up). Just really concerned about losing something so precious to me, being those videos. Also, if getting them off the hard drive would be good for computer performance, then i'm all for that too. Please recommend a good external hard drive, by brand name if possible or a solution for archiving videos, documents, etc. It should be very portable and go with us if we move or vacation. Thanks.

    #Drive #Usb #Storage #Cloud Technology & Internet
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    TommyCarey

    TommyCarey

    Hey Beverly,

    I've had 2 different external hard drives but I hated my first one. The second one I bought, which was a definite upgrade, is from Seagate. I have the Seagate Backup Plus which is a 5 TB external hard drive. I can store so much crap on there, I've never actually filled it lol What
    Here's the one I have: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/seagat...mp;skuId=5127069

    On the BestBuy website they're selling it for $138.99 which is actually a pretty good deal for a 5 TB external hard drive. You can find some that are cheaper, but they won't be as good.

    Some of the features I look for in an external hard drive:
    • Capacity: I usually look at hard drives that have at least 5 TB of space for me to add whatever I want. It's difficult to fill 5 TB if you're using it for personal stuff. It could get filled over time if you're using it for business. I'm actually thinking about getting the 8 TB version of my current Seagate hard drive just for business stuff so I can keep everything separate.
    • USBs: If the external hard drive has a few options for USB ports, I'm all for it lol. I like the one I have because it's got USB 2.0 and 3.0 If you limit yourself to just one type, you'll be annoyed later on What
    • The Case: Some External hard drives have a crappy plastic case, which is annoying. If I'm paying a good amount of money for a hard drive, I want it to be very durable. I try looking for cases that are metal so I don't have to worry about it cracking.


    Side Note - Try not to buy an external hard drive off of websites like Ebay because second hand electronics can break quickly after you buy them. Go into a store like BestBuy and buy it there because you can return it if it breaks within the warranty time What
    8 years ago

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    Beverly

    Beverly

    Thanks for all t his information and I will look into it. So far, I could only find a 1 or 2 TB drive such as on the Walmart site online. Possibly I was not looking at more expensive ones. I was checking at just around $100
    and it seems that some external drives give more storage for that than others. It's not so much a price thing for me as I just want a drive that lasts for a decade, or however long it should last and not break apart. Durability and security, so the information does not corrupt. I've owned the USB (thumb) sticks and sometimes the info or files get corrupted, possibly due to misuse. The more recent one is fine, but the last one was lost in the side of the loveseat for a few years and when I found it, all the photos/documents were gone or irretreivable :/

    Would you say that Seagate is the brand name to go with? I like buying brand names whenever possible. Again thanks for your info on this.
    8 years ago

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    vinaya

    vinaya

    I have two external hard disks with 1 TB storage each. I have WD Ultimate Passport, which I have been using since couple of years. I prefer to have two separate disks with 1 TB each instead of one disk with 2 TB storage. When you have two disks, you can use the second one to back up the first disk. This will help you recover your data in case your files are corrupted on your first disk.
    7 years ago

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    ajlancer

    ajlancer

    Hi Beverly thanks for your nice question. Actually for backup all importance data external hard drive more secure than existing hard drive. Because, existing hard drive any time can crash for any fault. So, I prefer always external hard drive. And I also use pen drive for quickly backup for only necessary documents. But, if concern of big file like movie, songs etc. you must to use external USB hard drive. I have been using Dell 1 TB hard drive last 3 years and I do not get any problem still. Working so smooth and data transfer also very fast. And actually it is depend on what USB port you are suing for data transfer. If you use USB 3.0 for transfer and receiving data. It should be great.

    Regards by Ajlancer
    8 years ago

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    Beverly

    Beverly

    Thanks for that info. I like the Dell name. The fact that your Dell drive lasted 3 years is amazing. Did you buy that from Amazon? Also, 1TB is very good, it's what I have on my computer, that is very ample space. Also, I don't know the difference between 2.0 and 3.0 for USB
    8 years ago

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    cdrocks

    cdrocks

    All external hard drives can go out as well from time to time. The only true backup, in my opinion, is a blue ray disc. You can get a blue ray burner for your computer for around $100 now. It holds a good bit of data, is high-definition and data will stay forever. You still cannot beat the good old dvd or blue ray disc as a sure backup.
    8 years ago

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    Beverly

    Beverly

    Thanks for the idea. I had not considered a blue-ray burner for archiving the videos/documents from my drive. I used to keep everything on CD-Roms or DVDs. At some point, my daughter got ahold of my collection, (she was two or three at the time) and used them as toys. What

    I lost a lot of info in that way, some things like her very early baby pictures, gone forever. She is much older now, so I'm sure she would not mess with my DVDs or Blue ray disc collection. I will check into this idea. Thanks again for the suggestion, very useful.
    8 years ago

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    CryptoGuru

    CryptoGuru

    i am not sure about the best but i have a recommendation if you have an open mind, i would recommend the western digital my passport ultra external hard drive, it can range from 500gb to 3Tb weighs less than half a pound works for both windows and mac has cloud and local backups ?the mobile external hard drive can always make way for extra protection of your data owing to 256-bit AES hardware encryption. The device looks really good style wise you like its smooth design and it also comes in four different colors too choose from.
    8 years ago

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    vinaya

    vinaya

    I have 1TB WD My Passport Ultra. I have been using this external hard disk since a long time and I can recommend this to anyone who is looking for a backup storage. File transfer is fast on this disk. You even get one year warranty with free data recovery service if you buy this hard disk.
    7 years ago

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    Corzhens

    Corzhens

    Seagate is our trusted brand of disk storage whether internal or external. That’s also the trusted brand in our office so I guess it is really good. We have 2 external hard drive for archiving. There are 2 so when one breaks down there is another backup that we can use. But we are now doing a personal research on the SSD – solid state drive – which is far from the design of the hard disk. Unlike the HDD, the SSD has no moving parts that it is very attractive to us. That means the wear and tear is not too much and there is no overheating either. But the downside to the SSD is the cost which is still very expensive.
    6 years ago

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