Hey i catch the opportunity of a very fresh similar thread to ask you some references/link to great and reliable 4Tb 7200 rpm External hard drive with usb3 and usb2. Didn't want to pollute it.

i noticed most of you advise WD but i can't find any information about external hard drive which use the great WD black.
Would the "studio/book version" have it inside ? real pain to know the speed on the manufacturers and shop websites here !!

->i own now 3 little external hard drive that i would like to transform in safety backup mode and it would be easier to get only one bigger in terms of ports availability on my laptop
->it will be for samples libraries and software storage and Kontakt library use (my actual 5400rpm are really slow so "reading speed" is the most important to me considering i can't afford SSD models of course

Thanks

 

I would only recommend WD Black Drives & up like the RE series then to SSDs then to PCIe SSDs lol

WD Black 4TB 3.5" SATA 7200RPM 64MB Hard Drives (WD4003FZEX)$299.00

I personally use the 1 & 2 TB Versions With this bad boy
Mediasonic (H82-SU3S2) ProBox 8 Bay 3.5 Sata, USB 3.0 & eSata Hard Drive Enclosure

 

Hello. I would also recommend WD Black but, if you can spend a bit more...

Instead of using an enclosure, I'd recommend a NAS. They cost a bit, but you can get some cheaper ones these days. You can have two 2TB drives, or four 1TB drives in a NAS and they work as backup of each other. Of course you would have to get a 2bay or 4bay NAS accordingly. Here are some samples of NAS models:



Scenario:

- You have one 4tb drive and it fails. you lose everything; or
- You have a 2bay NAS with two 2TB drives. If one drive fails, the other one keeps the data until you replace the faulty one.

A con about the NAS is that you lose some storage space for backup purposes. So, if you have two 2TB drives, you set them up as a "RAID1" you have both drivers mirrored, so you lose half (2tb), which works in keeping data backed up on both drives. On the other hand, if you have four 1TB drives running as a RAID5, you lose about 1TB (a quarter), but if a drive fails, all the data is backed up on all the other 3 drives. I personally stress a lot about backing up, especially when once I lost a couple of months' worth of very important photos!

I find this really handy, as I have lost data in the past and I know now that I am safe. The only difference in drives, going with a NAS is that I'd recommend WD Red (designed specifically for NAS). Also, please keep in mind that there are many brands of NAS (I use QNAP) and you can find several different prices according to their features. If you just want external storage, they are a lot cheaper; if you want to add network connectivity, turning it into a server, use security, etc they get more expensive. There are some very affordable ones by Netgear, that have nice features as well.

With the NAS you get other features as well, one of the most handy ones is that you can use your NAS as a server. it can host your website, or you can simply access your data from any other computer or even your phone.

I have a 4bay NAS, and I will never go back to single drives. It's just amazing. I also connect another external drive to the NAS to run a backup of the lot EVERY NIGHT. So when I go away on a trip I just take the external drive with me. If I come back and everything is stolen, burnt down or dead, I have a backup still in my bag.

If you just prefer to go external, I'd recommend the WD Black, like Kontakt Guru suggested, but I'd probably also recommend to get two separate 2TB drives. Only because to lose the contents of one 4TB drive would really hurt and it would be hard to get a new one; 2TB drives are easier to purchase and, in that case, I would definitely go for the enclosure like Mr Guru showed above.

Then again, if you wanted to use internal hard drives you, can also make a RAID1 internally, without the NAS, but I am aware that you mentioned external only.

Anyway, my two grains...

Good luck, mate!

 

As you might have seen me mention elsewhere the bigger the capacity the more platters. The more platters the higher the likelihood that the drive will fail. Also take Demon's advice and look into a NAS if you have the money. Idiotically most of the external drive makers have stopped producing 7200 RPM drives so your options will be limited. Possibly a better option would be to buy an internal drive and an enclosure and roll your own.

 

also there are the pci-e sata/nas cards that have long cables for outside storage.
Docking station hd are a cheaper solution like this

 

Cool! Can these be setup as RAID?

 

yes, ussually all types of raids, always with sata and usb 2 or 3 and different numbers of hds. There is no cheaper solution

 

Interesting to read but all this stuff are very big and i was looking more into simple 3,5" 4th external hard drive, i don't need NAS because too expensive and i have already all my little hard drive to get a backup and i'm really short on money. however i'll think about that in the future because i guess it's a lot more convenient to make a backup on a NAS with 2 or + HDD inside than connects every little single external HDD to manage the data.

Therefore for now i will stay with with the goal of a simple external drive in the smaller enclosure i can find for 1x 4tb or 2 x 2tb


i've red too there is the Seagate backup plus fast which has 2x 2tb HDD inside so it could limit the "platters" problem ?
it is attracting because it still mobile, it supports usb 2 and 3 BUT their hard drive are only 5400...

So i think i will trying an enclosure not too big for the WD Black 4TB 3.5" SATA 7200RPM 64MB Hard Drives, or 2 x 2tb of this WD black for more durability, if you see something a little bit smaller than the models you showed me, don't hesitate (i mean the media sonic from Mr.Guru is so biggg )

 

People here (including me) are always tryiping even without acids... just music
Simple solutions do not exist

 

On the subject of USB3 vs 'N'AS;

Would'nt using NAS slow things down a lot because the data will be be transferred over ethernet ie. 100MBps -overhead of the TCP/IP (Gigabit ethernet is an exception). Although - I know you can stream video video with DLNA or Samba/SMB for a NAS server.

I have seen external enclosures for SATA HD's in RAID (like ovalf shows above) BUT with only a USB3 interface, so is a dedicated external RAID storage solution for PC or laptop, using the USB3 so is not shared over a home network.
... sorry I'm not organised to remember any brands

My own question about NAs boxes:
I know many have a USB [host] port for connecting extra HD's (or a printer) but can that USB port be used as 'slave' mode - for connecting directly to a USB on a PC/laptop ?
The scenario In my question is... connect the NAS box to a DAW via it's USB3 port, and connect the same NAS to a home network router via it's ethernet port ?

 

Hue I suggested a perfect solution for you: buy a nice fast 7200 RPM internal drive, buy and enclosure and you can make your own external hard drive.

 

Or you can consider cheap and safe online back-up solution like S.O.S.

If your network connection is down, you can use your actual backup drive to backup temporary data till your network connection is on.

 

Online backup for 4TB ?
How many months to upload ?

As computer tech for 20 years (yes i'm an old fart ), i advice you to use a good NAS in Gigabyte ethernet...but who i'm i ?
This is the only pro solution in this situation of big space needed and reliability.

And don't forget NAS, RAID1/5 or whatever don't replace backups. If you delete an important file by error/get infected by virus on a NAS, RAID, whatever...you are dead anyway. There is nothing magical in computer world.

NAS/RAID redundancy protect you from hardware failure.
Backups protects you against human plague (being you or scrip kiddies ).
You still can "replace" redundancy if you backup regularly enough. At work, data is only backup once a day.
So at worst, you loose one full day of work.
Short : NEVER compare RAID and backup. Two different things. Same applies to system AND/OR data.

And final most important thing : you WILL have an HD crash (SSD or mechanical). The only question is : when ?

 

If you got 1000mb/s internet connection (100mb Down/Up) like me, then is like you would back up on your hard drive, because hard drives's speed is around 120-150mb/s so there's no such a big difference, maybe only when you'll have to back-up everything after you just purchased the online backup subscription. But think about safety and less worries, because for example, if you just started working on a project, that particular project can't be bigger than 1-2gb (as a daw project, including the bounces/loops/recorded takes.) which can be easely backed up with a high-speed network connection in the same day and in a ergonomic manner, without worrying about hard drive failure anymore and you also can recover your data from any other computer, not just from your NAS unit. Online mode is handy on road because you won't have to take the entire NAS unit with you. Also if you got someone to work for you in your studio and you're traveling, you can check his work right on your cloud account from other computer as long as the automatic backup runs in background. This can be handy too. Let's face it, in the future the network speed will increase more and more... so? I just don't like to worry about replacing hard drives, i like to focus on making music in a peaceful way. If i want to feel the files next to me, i buy a few server-grade 4TB hard-drives wrapped up in a NAS unit in RAID mode just to store the valuable data which doesn't need to be backed up constantly, like important photos, music collection, documents, virtual instruments, libraries, etc. then i turn off the entire NAS unit and keep using the online solution as a primary backup(so the NAS unit would be like a attic chest for me where i keep my goodies) . The less i use the NAS unit, the less i should worry about the hard drives failure. Maybe you don't agree with me and i know this way of backing up sounds wierd and "unprofessional" but for some of us just works.

P.S. 4TB HDD is enough for some of us (as a physical storage in addition to the online option).

 

I've been using WD disks for years after more than 10 years ago i had my 10gb seagate disk fail..however with the factory flood that hit WD a couple of years ago it seems quality has gone down. I had a 3tb (the very last model) blow up in a weeks time..even after updating the fw (as you may search in google)..WD green..just don't buy it. it's really THAT bad. I ended up buying a 3tb seagate which works better. However the most reliable disks are made by Hitachi..they are guaranteed for something like 100000 hours!

 

Here i'm thinking my speed fast lol

 

But let's face it, you don't have to back up 4TB daily , so as long as you set up your online storage/back-up service and upload all the data you had in your computer including the giant amount of data too(which can take a while, of course), the daily usage / work you do in your computer can be easly handled by the network (if you got high-speed connection, of course). And the hourly automatic backup is more than enough, plus the advantage of the online mirroring which assures you that everything that happens in your computer will happen in your cloud mirror too. (unless you fuck it up with viruses )

 

What the hell are you all talking about?! The kid doesn't have money, as I don't also, for your 'I was born in a rich country and I am proud of it' solutions!
Kid, as far as I know, it would be almost impossible to find a 7200 rpm external hd; they are all 5400 rpm, but the usb could cause latency if you mean reading Kontakt libraries directly from the external hd into your project; if you would have enough RAM you could load all samples into RAM and there wouldn't be a problem; but if the samples are going to be read from the external hd in "real time", there could be a problem.
I don't think there is a WD black in any external hd; if there was it would be advertised as that, because it is a flagship hd product in WD.
Hope this helps...

 

C'mon man, i was poorer than a burger grill. If you really wish something that much in this life, you can make it happen by fighting for it from all your powers, even if you start with just 1 dollar in your pockets.
I suggested him online backup because it's cheap and can cover his needs for a few years as long as he don't have to move massive amount of data daily. (and meanwhile the subscription period, he can save some money for a better solution if he feels that online isn't enough even if the storage space is unlimited though, but at least he could have the assurance that he won't lose any data as long as the automatic backup runs hourly).
So if he pays 100 dollars for a 2 year infinite storage online backup, he really can't save up a few hundred dollars for a better solution in all these two years of subscription? Is like he would buy some time, to be able to save up more money for a better solution in the future.

 

I do not know how a topic started with the intention of helping someone ended in WW3?
Certainly a people that sugest better sistems lost important data one day (guilty)...
Sometimes the music data overload our brains in the way that words are aliens that we we do not care so much.
But thee all good sugestions show something that we have to learn right?
So we have to be open minded in a way that all colors are good, and we do not fight against yellow but just pick the ones we like/need at certain moment.
This is a great place to learn, but the harder lessons are the ones we have to learn with our mistakes
So our friend was helped, he have a lot to think and he can choose whatever he wants...
I cannot say that I am all peacefull (I live in Brazil, I am old, I studyied a looooot (with degrees)m I am sick and old), but only appears some dark spirit here... and I do not think thats the case here.
So lets be in the real spirit of the site and hugs for aall