Looking for 4TB External HDD

Looking for 4TB External HDD. which is the most reliable model at present?
It is required to copy some 3TB data from WD Passpost 4TB bought last year which is showing caution - Current Pending Sector Count.

W

Not much choice:WD My Passport or Seagate Backup Plus. Try seagate this time.

B

Bro how much is the warranty left on that 4tb hdd? Copy your data, run wd diagnostic tool and post results here if possible.

whitestar_999 said:
Not much choice:WD My Passport or Seagate Backup Plus. Try seagate this time.

thanks so it is seagate this time. *www.amazon.in/Seagate-Backup-Porta...nxXkwv1dNZw37tjFr2XigjtWhxRoCVlQQAvD_BwE&th=1

trying to decide 4TB or 5. Neopack HDD Pouch worth ₹399 is free with these.

All companies are same.

I've a 4TB WD for past 4 years.

Key to a good external HDD health...
don't move it at all!

(basically there is no pattern or guide which you should follow. This worked for mine till date. Not sure if I return from office and would see it alive today. This is how untrustworthy every external HDDs are.)

If you believe in GOD, take the name of your favorite one and buy a HDD from any brand.

billubakra said:
Bro how much is the warranty left on that 4tb hdd? Copy your data, run wd diagnostic tool and post results here if possible.

bought it last year in march so enough warranty is left dear. tried to run quick test last night but it failed so I stopped. now i will buy a disk and try to copy data. i will try test after that.

Oh, mine is desktop HDD i.e. requires external power.

rhitwick said:
All companies are same.

I've a 4TB WD for past 4 years.

Key to a good external HDD health...
don't move it at all!

(basically there is no pattern or guide which you should follow. This worked for mine till date. Not sure if I return from office and would see it alive today. This is how untrustworthy every external HDDs are.)

If you believe in GOD, take the name of your favorite one and buy a HDD from any brand.

it was kept on the table only. not moved any where. it was connected only for backup once in 7-15 days or more. this is the worst experience I have considering it was not used much. i ran full hdd test after purchase and it was ok then.

rhitwick said:
Oh, mine is desktop HDD i.e. requires external power.

mine 2tb seagate desktop 8 years old works fine

vidhubhushan said:
mine 2tb seagate desktop 8 years old works fine

Pure luck! And, the company (if came to know this) would pay you to take the HDD back to study. To study, how did this survive this long!!!

rhitwick said:
Pure luck! And, the company (if came to know this) would pay you to take the HDD back to study. To study, how did this survive this long!!!

i once used a Numeric UPS for some 7-8 years without any problems in my old office. their sales people used to quote my example and my name n orgn name to get confirmation.

seagate one is used in the same manner - connected for backup and then disconnected. both lying next to each other on the same table.

W

My currently active oldest hdd bought in 2006:

Hoping it will make it to 50000 hours.

W

vidhubhushan said:
trying to decide 4TB or 5.

Do not buy 5TB(specifically seagate backup plus portable 5tb usb drive with no power adapter required) as they run very hot & unless you operate them in AC chilled room 50C+ temp is normal for these drives. In fact I think seagate 4TB internal hdd(barracuda with 2 years warranty & not surveillance series which comes with 3 years warranty) is better as it runs much cooler than any 4TB external hdd I have ever seen. Or you can simply buy MS Office 365 Home pack 1 year license from amazon(usual price 4.2k but during sale it goes for as low as 3.2k,planning on getting it in amazon great shopping sale in oct) that comes with 6 accounts each having 1TB onedrive storage & use that as backup(no need to worry about hdd failure as MS runs multiple backups for their onedrive data).

whitestar_999 said:
Do not buy 5TB(specifically seagate backup plus portable 5tb usb drive with no power adapter required) as they run very hot & unless you operate them in AC chilled room 50C+ temp is normal for these drives. In fact I think seagate 4TB internal hdd(barracuda with 2 years warranty & not surveillance series which comes with 3 years warranty) is better as it runs much cooler than any 4TB external hdd I have ever seen. Or you can simply buy MS Office 365 Home pack 1 year license from amazon(usual price 4.2k but during sale it goes for as low as 3.2k,planning on getting it in amazon great shopping sale in oct) that comes with 6 accounts each having 1TB onedrive storage & use that as backup(no need to worry about hdd failure as MS runs multiple backups for their onedrive data).

5400rpm 4tb barracuda is 8200 in mdcomp. i will definitely use the cloud option afterwards.
should i try this 4tb backup plus or try external connector with barracuda?

whitestar_999 said:
My currently active oldest hdd bought in 2006:
View attachment 18297

Hoping it will make it to 50000 hours.

mine misbehaved in 2012 and is lying somewhere

B

vidhubhushan said:
bought it last year in march so enough warranty is left dear. tried to run quick test last night but it failed so I stopped. now i will buy a disk and try to copy data. i will try test after that.

Not going for rma?
IDK if its just me but I have seen lots of WD drive crashes in the past few months. Happened with me also. I "think" Seagate is making a little better drives. Again my personal assumption. My old pc, bought in 2006, has Samsung and Seagate's hdd's. Each of 80 gigs. They worked fine the last time I used my old pc in 2017.

billubakra said:
Not going for rma?
IDK if its just me but I have seen lots of WD drive crashes in the past few months. Happened with me also. I "think" Seagate is making a little better drives. Again my personal assumption.

i will be going for RMA but before that I need to try to copy the data on it. I am looking to buy a disk to do that. Whatever I am able to copy, I will copy, after that I will try to test it again n start RMA (don't know about wd rma as it is my second one, first internal one is working)

old drives were much better. i remember formatting my 360kb floppy drives multiple times. never tried on 1.44mb ones after many got dead. same goes with HDD as per my personal experience.

//offtopic you are old right? 360kb floppy drive?! I'm from 1.44MB floppy era but never saw a 360KB floppy drive!

rhitwick said:
//offtopic you are old right? 360kb floppy drive?! I'm from 1.44MB floppy era but never saw a 360KB floppy drive!

yup, from the time of TRex. i have used 360k, 1.2mb (quality started degrading from this) and 1.44 (without any quality).

W

vidhubhushan said:
5400rpm 4tb barracuda is 8200 in mdcomp. i will definitely use the cloud option afterwards.
should i try this 4tb backup plus or try external connector with barracuda?

"External connector" like those usb enclosure cases are a big no(no ventilation so case running internal hdd gets hot quickly) but open type hdd docks are acceptable provided room temps are decent & your power supply via ups is good(forget about directly connecting external hdd power connector to wall socket unless you don't care much for your data). Go with backup plus 4TB this time & sell the refurbished replacement WD drive you will get on olx/erodov/techenclave forum for ~4.5-5k.

P.S. I will also suggest not to order internal hdd online as they are very delicate & no matter how good the packaging is,there is still chance of damage(not visible immediately but rather long term which I suspect is the case with your current 4TB hdd) given how courier companies handle the products usually.

whitestar_999 said:
"External connector" like those usb enclosure cases are a big no(no ventilation so case running internal hdd gets hot quickly) but open type hdd docks are acceptable provided room temps are decent & your power supply via ups is good(forget about directly connecting external hdd power connector to wall socket unless you don't care much for your data). Go with backup plus 4TB this time & sell the refurbished replacement WD drive you will get on olx/erodov/techenclave forum for ~4.5-5k.

P.S. I will also suggest not to order internal hdd online as they are very delicate & no matter how good the packaging is,there is still chance of damage(not visible immediately but rather long term which I suspect is the case with your current 4TB hdd) given how courier companies handle the products usually.

i have an old tech-com usb power connector with power adapter but don't know if it is going to work with 4tb or not. i will get external one and later try to get a 4tb internal along with or after new computer. thanks dear.

W

Stay away from such connectors especially for large capacity internal hdd.These connectors are good for may be 500gb/1tb 2.5" laptop hdd but even then I would not suggest using them.

B

whitestar_999 said:
"External connector" like those usb enclosure cases are a big no(no ventilation so case running internal hdd gets hot quickly) but open type hdd docks are acceptable provided room temps are decent & your power supply via ups is good(forget about directly connecting external hdd power connector to wall socket unless you don't care much for your data). Go with backup plus 4TB this time & sell the refurbished replacement WD drive you will get on olx/erodov/techenclave forum for ~4.5-5k.

P.S. I will also suggest not to order internal hdd online as they are very delicate & no matter how good the packaging is,there is still chance of damage(not visible immediately but rather long term which I suspect is the case with your current 4TB hdd) given how courier companies handle the products usually.

Don't they use proper packaging like those bubble covers? And what about external hdd from online websites? They have a pretty standard packaging from the oem's side.
The shopkeepers also get their internal hdd's in a box via courier/on road transport. No concerns of damage there?

billubakra said:
Don't they use proper packaging like those bubble covers? And what about external hdd from online websites? They have a pretty standard packaging from the oem's side.

My 2nd online external hdd purchase was from Amazon recently and bubble wrap was good enough. IIRC, when I bought a powered external drive in 2014, that came with a lot of air packets too.

W

billubakra said:
Don't they use proper packaging like those bubble covers? And what about external hdd from online websites? They have a pretty standard packaging from the oem's side.
The shopkeepers also get their internal hdd's in a box via courier/on road transport. No concerns of damage there?

External hdd are more securely packaged as they are nicely packaged to begin with. As for internal HDD I am not sure but I know that main distributors receive internal hdd in specially designed packaging not available to public. May be that's why internal hdd bought from shops in smaller cities have higher failure rate(if it is true).

SaiyanGoku said:
My 2nd online external hdd purchase was from Amazon recently and bubble wrap was good enough. IIRC, when I bought a powered external drive in 2014, that came with a lot of air packets too.

But not all sellers are like this & also some courier companies handling may be pretty bad.

iirc, my 4TB WD came in a cardboard box only, no bubble wrap or anything. inside that was the box of WD.
this time, I am going to buy it from local market.

bought Seagate 4TB Backup Plus from Local Market for INR8200. ran full test on it and now trying to copy data from the other disk.

right now i am using COPY option. should / can I use CUT option?

vidhubhushan said:
bought Seagate 4TB Backup Plus from Local Market for INR8200. ran full test on it and now trying to copy data from the other disk.

right now i am using COPY option. should / can I use CUT option?

NO, no CUT!

In case anytime READ fails, due to CUT the data may corrupt.

Try Teracopy and verify post copy (there is a option in Teracopy for that)

rhitwick said:
NO, no CUT!

In case anytime READ fails, due to CUT the data may corrupt.

Try Teracopy and verify post copy (there is a option in Teracopy for that)

Thanks a lot for the reply. i am using teracopy. copied some 10-15% of it. it is misbehaving a lot.
on a big folder having a lot of folders and files, i was able to copy some 10% and after that now it started showing CRC error when i clicked on it to expand. i will try again tomorrow.

One suggestion. Try to copy small amounts at a time.
Like, if a folder has 2-3 sub folders, copy one sub folder at a time.

rhitwick said:
One suggestion. Try to copy small amounts at a time.
Like, if a folder has 2-3 sub folders, copy one sub folder at a time.

thanks dear. i am doing exactly the same from the beginning.