[SOLVED] Recommendations for USB external hard drive?

beachboy2 · 12-23-2017, 04:25 AM

Any recommendations for a 1TB Portable External Hard Drive 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 which is available in the UK and actually still works after a few weeks?

I bought one of these some time ago and up to now it has been fine:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Can...rds=canvio+usb

More recently I bought a second Canvio 1TB and it failed pretty quickly, going from a write speed of 500 plus Mb/s down to 3.9 Mb/s and still falling.

This was replaced by Canvio 1TB number 3 and that behaved just the same as its predecessor.

At this rate I may be better buying a USB 3.0 enclosure and installing one of my old Samsung HD 103SJ drives.

hydrurga · 12-23-2017, 05:33 AM

I use both of these, particularly the latter, and have never had any problems with them:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Pow...dp/B01EYY47M4/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Pow...dp/B01EYY47RY/

wpeckham · 12-23-2017, 06:11 AM

That issues may be faulty equipment, or an operation for which the drive (or interface) is less than optimal. What are you DOING with those drives?

beachboy2 · 12-23-2017, 07:08 AM

hydrurga,

Thanks for your SP recommendation.

wpeckham,

I am storing backup images in particular and various other data from both Windows and Linux machines.

These are the first drive failures I have ever had.

My first Canvio 1TB is fine, along with several other Canvio 500GB drives.

All I am doing is plugging them in and using Macrium Reflect to transfer system images.

Amazon has just sent me a WD Elements 1TB drive.

Fingers crossed!

BW-userx · 12-23-2017, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hydrurga

I use both of these, particularly the latter, and have never had any problems with them:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Pow...dp/B01EYY47M4/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Pow...dp/B01EYY47RY/

This item does not ship to the United States

Is that just Typical US Capitalism? Too rugged so it lasts longer and America cannot have that, it is all about making it wear out so they can sell you another one, or because it is not US Military Specs and they're just envious like that?

I liked it, it's Military-grade Shockproof / Water-Resistant.

....

I use internal HDDs ( 2.5 inch, and proper external hdds) internal here are less expensive dollar per gigabyte. But they're getting better at WD easy store 4TB $80ish US

rknichols · 12-23-2017, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BW-userx

Quote:

Originally Posted by hydrurga

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Pow...dp/B01EYY47M4/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Pow...dp/B01EYY47RY/

This item does not ship to the United States

Is that just Typical US Capitalism? Too rugged so it lasts longer and America cannot have that, it is all about making it wear out so they can sell you another one, or because it is not US Military Specs and they're just envious like that?

It's available in te United States through amazon.com. It's just amazon.co.uk restricting its service area.

BW-userx · 12-23-2017, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rknichols

It's available in te United States through amazon.com. It's just amazon.co.uk restricting its service area.

well it certainly is
https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power...1TB+Shockproof

thanks

jsbjsb001 · 12-23-2017, 10:13 AM

Hi beachboy2,

This is my 3TB external HDD below:

Code:

[29198.596162] usb 4-2.2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[29198.609929] usb 4-2.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0bc2, idProduct=ab42
[29198.609934] usb 4-2.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
[29198.609936] usb 4-2.2: Product: Backup+ Desktop
[29198.609939] usb 4-2.2: Manufacturer: Seagate
[29198.609941] usb 4-2.2: SerialNumber: NA8VFBHJ
[29198.615524] scsi host8: uas
[29198.616499] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Seagate  Backup+ Desktop  D702 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[29198.655606] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 0
[29198.655774] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdf] Spinning up disk...

As you can see it's a Seagate external drive, weather it's been a Seagate or Western Digital drive, I haven't had any major issues (internal or external).

Just my own thoughts; I think it depends on the manufacturer of the drive, as to the quality of it (or lack of), to at least some extent anyway. I've never even heard of Canvio before, so it sounds like their drives ain't of particularly good quality. You might be better off just getting a bigger drive in the first place, rather than just a 1TB drive. Their a lot cheaper now-a-days.

Best of luck with your choice, whatever that may be.

beachboy2 · 12-23-2017, 10:17 AM

jsbjsb001,

Thanks for that.

1TB is more than adequate for my needs.

Canvio is just a name for a range of Toshiba drives.

wpeckham · 12-23-2017, 04:18 PM

I live and work out of the U.S.A., and have never run into that problem. On the other hand, I make less use of USB drives. I generally set up a network backup server using burp and do generational backups over network.

Those USB drives I have used do not appear to exhibit such symptoms.