External hard drive brands

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Bill16

Senior Member
I'm looking at two brands and need help choosing which is the better brand! The choice I have is between the Toshiba and Western digital! Both are 2tb and portable I believe, but the western is a bit more money and I think it's slightly slimmer!
So any advice would be appreciated since I'm a dummy when it comes to computer stuff! Lol :D

Thank you for any help offered! :D
 
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Steve Bell

Senior Member
Although I use a Toshiba 1TB 2.5" 7200 rpm drive in a laptop, if buying a portable drive I would choose a WD My Passport. The WD Black drives mentioned in posts are 2.5" and 3.5" 7200 rpm drives, nice and with a 5 year warranty. I've never seen the 2.5" WD Black drive used in their portables. As far as I'm aware they are all 5400 rpm.
 
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FastGlass

Senior Member
Another thing to consider is what type. Most people choose HDD ( hard disk drive) which have moving parts and not sure if it's true but have heard that they wear out over time.
The other is SSD ( solid state drives) are almost triple in cost, have no moving parts and literally last forever. Myself, I use an Lacie HHD. Just my .02
 
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RocketCowboy

Senior Member
I've only had one Toshiba branded hard drive, but I definitely prefer WD over most other brands.

One other note...SSD drives do still fail, and unlike spinning disks when they do fail it's significantly harder to recover data from the failed disk. Don't let SSDs change your thoughts on backup solutions/scenarios.


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Steve B

Senior Member
Trying to buy based on brand only can be a mistake. All of the HDD manufacturers have an occasional lemon. Look at a site like newegg.com and compare the ratings for the different drives you are interested in. Get one that is compatible with both USB 2.0 and 3.0 if you are using it on a Windows PC. Unfortunately most manufactures do not publish the drive RPM for their external hard drives. If possible get a 7200 RPM drive.
 
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Bill16

Senior Member
The two hard drives I'm considering are the Western Digital 2TB My Passport Slim Hard Drive and the Toshiba Canvio Connect 2TB External Hard Drive! :D
 
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Steve B

Senior Member
Looks like the Western Digital drive has a 3 year warranty and the Toshiba has a 2 year warranty. The Toshiba is a 5400 RPM drive and I am guessing the WD is as well.
 
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Bill16

Senior Member
I'm leaning heavily towards the WD hard drive! :D

My Passport Slim from Western Digital offers ultra-fast USB 3.0 performance and high capacity in an* ultra-thin, metal enclosure
2TB capacity
Protect your precious memories and important files with WD SmartWare Pro local and cloud backup software
Put the drive in your purse or backpack and take it with you, knowing that password protection helps secure your data from prying eyes
Includes soft pouch
3-year limited warranty
 
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RocketCowboy

Senior Member
crycocyon said:
I wouldn't consider WD, I use exclusively G-Tech RAID drives, my next one will be an 8 TB Thunderbolt.
Click to expand...

At the house, I use G-Tech external drives as my Time Capsule target (Firewire, non-RAID) and my working storage (Thunderbolt, RAID) for my photos and music. When traveling though, I use a smaller USB drive like the WD Passport that Bill is looking at for storage until I get back home. I built my own, using an external drive case I got from OWC during one of the hard drive upgrades I did on one of my older MacBook Pros, so I picked the drive inside myself.
 
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