USB3 External HD
Anyone got any experience with these drives:
I’ve read some good things - but the lack of external power concerns me…
I’ve never had issues with them but I’d replace yearly just dye yo nature of portable drives.. At least back up regularly
If you want external power, you need to look at ‘back-up’ HDDs, not portable ones.
That said, I don’t think it’s that big of an issue.
The lack of an external power supply is a “good” thing there’s on less thing to worry about. I use these things at work and its such a relief to need to worry about needing to make sure that you have the plug for the drive then needing an outlet to plug the darn thing in then hoping that the cord for the power supply is long enough. “Any device without a power supply is a good device”
Personally I use these exact drives and it’s a much better deal IMO:
Good question, I’m needing to do a better back up than I’ve done so far,… We all know how this ends if I don’t sort it out;
But USB slots on a MBP are at a premium, does anyone have experience of thunderbolt drives and at a sensible price?
I just use a USB3 hub for now, I’d like to go thunderbolt but it definitely seems more expensive at the moment.
Brand and model of drive is completely irrelevant.
The only thing that matters is that you have 3 regular backups.
Theres no reason at all to replace them yearly, just backup daily and replace as they die.
Not entirely true. Seagate HDDs don’t have the best reputation compared to WD.
They degrade over the course of a year of steady use…
The wear on them because obvious as speeds start to degrade and other things… Can likely
Stretch out to two years but I personally don’t trust regular drives I’ve seen too many fail… If I could justify I’d have ssd drives in usb3 enclosures…
I replace mine when they die, I always have multiple back ups going, no reason to waste money for no reason. I like Seagate drive too though, so I could be a terrible judge of this. 
Just got curious here, I want to buy an External SSD so I can backup my music. What is the best brand?
Seagate is a nice budget and goes on sale frequently. WD is probably the best big brand though. That said, I have never had a HDD fail, and I usually grab Seagates.
Reputation is also irrelevant. Failure rates are all that matter, and on a large enough scale, they all fail. Year to year, there are some brands that fail more than others, but to say Seagates are not as good is just incorrect.
Thats a bunch of superstition, not technical information. The speed of an OS can slow down over time, but the hard disk will not unless the rotating parts or the actuator are damaged. You are literally throwing your money away by replacing your hard disks every year. Ive seen brand new thousand dollar server hard drives fail within a day, the age of the thing is largely irrelevant.
Fun fact: SSD’s do actually slow down as you fill them up and SSD drives fail all the time too.
Yes indeed SSD do slow down as they fill that is a fact… However I was referring to the fact that moving components wear over time due to the nature of them… Arm on a disk wear because they are susceptible to being toss around and so on… This causes wear which results in slower read times… But hey it’s not like I’ve installed hundreds of them in laptops that are put though the paces by large Ag mechanics or that I run SSD drives in everything I own… Once you have a SSD nothing ever feels
The same so maybe that’s why I feel that way…
SSD drives I’ve had the best luck with are Samsung and OCZ of the maybe 100 I’ve installed either at home or work the only two to ever fail have been 1 Intel and 1 Kingston..
Take a brand new external usb3 drive load up with data from one you had in your bag for a year plug both in and see which one loads data faster… Newest one almost always does… I’m talking about a catalog of 100k plus tracks some folders containing upwards of 40,000 tracks on them…
You will start to notice after 2 years that every once in a while your is will struggle to find the drive sometimes at first prompting a disk is not formatted but then smartens up… Infact I find the ones that get used the least have the most issues… Trust me nothing is ever out of the realm of possibilities when it comes to moving electronic components… Normally before a mobile Dj gig I will take my newer tracks and the classics and throw them on a sub stick just to be safe.. I’ve seen new drives fail in weeks after purchase I’ve seen USB STICKS fail months after purchase and I’m not talking the 8$ ones in talking the 80$ ones…
If you want to test it take a SSD drop it 2’ ontop something soft such as carpet now do the same with a standard drive…
It’s not the speed that degrades in sense of rpm it’s the read and write times that changes due to a arm that reads it and eventually scars up the platter
TL;DR Don’t ever trust something beyond 50% with the price of a 480gb SSD being around $180 there’s no reason not to use them as they are far superior for shock sustainability.
A big thing is never defrag a SSD Drive
This thread did not turn out how I expected… 
Someone make me some suggestions for a 1TB external drive, that will never leave my desk! 
Does it need to be/is it better if, it is externally powered?
In general:
External HDDs that require a power adapter, 3.5" drive, 7200 RPM
External HDDs that are USB powered, 2.5" drive, 5400 RPM
Powered HDDs are big and bulky, USB powered are small and portable.
All SSD drives will eventually become unreadable. HDDs can last an extremely long time, provided you take care of them.