Best External Hard Drives?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Meekiecheese, Sep 30, 2016.

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  1. Meekiecheese

    Meekiecheese Private First Class

    Hi All! :)

    My computer is old and I can't replace it at the moment. I would like to get some quality external hard drives so that I can remove a lot of photos and videos and back up my business files. What are your recommendations? My computer is an HP, O/S is XP Pro. Thanks in advance. :)
     
    Meekiecheese, Sep 30, 2016
    #1
  2. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    DavidGP, Oct 1, 2016
    #2
  3. mdonah

    mdonah Major Geek Extraordinaire

    If you get a WD Passport, make sure it's USB 2.0. XP doesn't support USB 3.0.
     
    mdonah, Oct 1, 2016
    #3
    DavidGP likes this.
  4. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Good call mdonah, but even USB3.0 should work with USB2.0 just slower, does on a work PC when I use my WD PP USB3.0.
     
    DavidGP, Oct 1, 2016
    #4
  5. mdonah

    mdonah Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Under XP?
     
    mdonah, Oct 1, 2016
    #5
  6. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    mmm now need to check again as we have multiple PCs mine is Win7 in office, but in building some XP still used.... damn getting old!
     
    DavidGP, Oct 1, 2016
    #6
  7. mdonah

    mdonah Major Geek Extraordinaire

    So am I. ;)

    I also run Win 7 on one of my partitions. If I plug a USB 3.0 drive into the USB 3.0 port under Win 7, it doesn't register with Win 7. I have to plug the USB 3.0 drive into one of my USB 2.0 ports. Then, as you said, I get USB 2.0 speeds.

    But, XP is a different animal and I don't think a USB 3.0 device will even show up. Although, I could be mistaken (it wouldn't be the first time).
     
    mdonah, Oct 1, 2016
    #7
  8. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    You have something else going in.
    I own four WD external My Passport/My Passport Ultra drives that are USB 3. I plugged each of the four into a USB 3 port on a netbook that only has USB 3 ports.
    Each drive was recognized, assigned a drive letter and I opened each and was able to view the files on those drives.
    Two of the drives are 2 TB each and two of the drives are 1TB each.

    I'll have to boot into XP tomorrow and test these four drives on a computer that has no USB 3 ports. I'll report on what happens later.
     
    plodr, Oct 1, 2016
    #8
  9. mdonah

    mdonah Major Geek Extraordinaire

    It must be the interface board inside the USB 3.0 enclosures I have the hard drives in (Orico and Oyen Digital). The only WD Passport I have is a 500GB USB 2.0 that I've used for backup images.

    A couple of the Orico enclosures actually caused BSODs (IRQL NOT Less Than or Equal) under Win 8.1.
     
    mdonah, Oct 2, 2016
    #9
  10. Eldon

    Eldon Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Windows XP supports USB 3.0. However, newer motherboards with USB 3.0 don't support Windows XP.
    USB 3.0 devices will fall back to USB 2.0 and the potential speed will drop to that of USB 2.0.
     
    Eldon, Oct 2, 2016
    #10
  11. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    Sorry life interferes and I haven't gotten to testing this. Our two XP computers don't have newer motherboards so I'm fairly certain that won't hinder them at least seeing the USB 3 devices. They also don't have USB 3 ports so I never expect them to be speedy.

    As far as putting an internal 3.5" hard drive into an enclosure, I haven't done that since the Win 2K and ME days. I had problems finding drivers so the old enclosures would be recognized. Since the hard drives were old, they were also small so it was easier to just destroy them and replace with USB sticks and external portable hard drives for the storage I needed.

    If you want a recommendation, I happen to own seven Western Digital external hard drives. That's my preferred brand.
    As far as USB stick, almost any brand works. We've owned between 3 and 4 dozen all different sizes and all different brands.
     
    plodr, Oct 2, 2016
    #11
  12. DOA

    DOA MG's Loki

    Its a bit more $$, but you may be a candidate for a NAS drive.
    I went the external drive route until I looked around at my four 2TB externals and decided remembering what was on which drive was just dumb. I bought a ReadyNAS from Netgear and now all my files are available to all my computers all the time.
     
    DOA, Oct 3, 2016
    #12
  13. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    DOA, if that was addressed to me, I have no need of a NAS.
    The 6 external hard drives are used to image the 7 computers (8 partitions) in the house. I rotate the drives so if I lose one drive, I still have images I can depend on. I make monthly images of the 4 Windows 7 computers.
    Once a computer is e-cycled, I remove the images from the drives they are stored on.

    The old files I might want are on a very old, very small in storage but large in dimensions WD drive. I have a hard copy of what is on it so I have no need to reattach to see.

    I don't keep the drives connected to any computer.
     
    plodr, Oct 4, 2016
    #13

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