- Most Reliable Internal Hard Drives 2020
- Most Reliable External Hard Drives 2018 Suv
- Most Reliable External Hard Drives
- Most Reliable External Hard Drives 2018 Suvs
- Most Reliable External Hard Drives 2018 Download
Seagate’s 10TB drive family has been particularly good, with a 0.33 percent AFR for 2018, improving on the already-low 0.89 percent AFR for 2017. For those of you wanting an AFR comparison that.
- Most such multi-bay devices are sold without the actual hard drives included, so you can install any drive you want (usually, 3.5-inch drives, but some support laptop-style 2.5-inchers).
- Most Reliable External HD: G-Technology G-Drive Mobile SSD Fast, reliable and rugged, the G-Technology G-Drive Mobile SSD ticks all of the boxes when it comes to a powerhouse hard drive.
Do you remember how the bitcoin price jumped to $20,000 in less than nine months in 2017?
I remember too. You may wonder how bitcoin prices related to hard drive reliability. I will explain further, but first, let me tell you which Mac hard drive is most reliable from my own experience.
The most reliable external hard is Elements from Western Digital. It is best used with Macs with only USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports. For Macs with USB-C (3.1) ports, the most reliable hard drive is WD My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive. Both hard drives are affordable and available in sizes from 1TB to 5TB.
Now, back to the story. When bitcoin price jumped to $20K, I naturally started reading various stories about people who became accidentally rich because, in 2009 and 2010, they bought several bitcoins and cashed them later when prices went over the roof.
For instance, one Norwegian student bought 5,000 bitcoins for his college research paper for $27 in 2009. He forgot about his purchase for a while. Only in 2013, when the price of a single bitcoin was around $177, he remembered about his purchase.
At that time, his $27 initial investment was worth $886,000. He sold 1000 bitcoins and bought an apartment in Oslo.I learned about this story in 2017 and thought to myself – if I also bought 5000 bitcoins like Norwegian, in 2017, they would be worth a whopping $100,000,000 – a hundred million dollars!
Alas, I didn’t buy anything in 2009. And I forget about this story. Bitcoin since then dropped to $3,000 and stayed on that level for a while. In 2019 the price of bitcoin started climbing again and reached $6,000.
And suddenly, in the spring of 2019, it dawned on me. I knew that I didn’t spend money on bitcoins, but I am a programmer after all. When bitcoin mining became popular, many programmers mined for fun. They wanted to learn new technology – cryptocurrency.
In 2009 I lived alone and had a lot of time on my hands. What if, I told myself, I mined some bitcoins and saved them on my computer? Yes, 5000 bitcoins would not be worth $100 mln as they were in 2017, but I bet I’ll be ok with $30 mln.
I immediately jumped off my sofa and ran to my basement. Obviously, I didn’t have my original computer anymore (it was too old, I bought it in 2005). But, I have a habit of backing up my data.
And I found it – my external hard drive I used ten years ago. It was Elements from Western Digital. I wiped the dust from its surface and plugged it to the power, and heard a humming sound as the disk started rotating. Good, it looks like it is working. Now, the big question is whether if it is readable? I was afraid that after years of not being used, some sectors could be corrupt.
Fortunately, the data was there; all folders and files were readable.
You see, I told you that this is the most reliable external hard drive. Obviously, you won’t be able to get the same drive as I had, and you don’t want to. Here is a new version of the same device. Let’s review it.
WD Elements Portable External Hard Drive
Let’s start with the clarification – Elements is not a drive you want to use with newish MacBooks (2016 or newer) because it does not support USB-C ports. On the one hand, you absolutely can buy a USB to USB-C adapter and use the drive, but I have a better option.
There is another hard drive from Western Digital, which is a close sibling of Elements. So, if you have 2016 or newer MacBook Air or Pro, skip this section and go to the paragraph about WD My Passport for Mac drive.
Most reliable hard drive for Mac
WD 5TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive, USB 3.0
Size and Weight
Adobe premiere elements 15 student and teacher edition. The Elements drive is much smaller and lighter than the drive I had 10 years ago. The new version has the following size and weight specifications:
- Depth: 4.35 in/11.05cm
- Width: 3.23 in/8.20cm
- Height: 0.82 in/2.08cm
- Weight: 0.51 lb/0.23kg
For comparison, my old disk had following dimensions: 8in x 4.5in x 1in or 20cm x 11.43cm x 2.54cm. And it weighed a ton!
Speed
The speed of any hard drive depends on two factors: read/write speed of the disk itself, and speed of transfer over the cable.
Elements drive support USB 2.0 and 3.0 standards. 2.0 and 3.0 ports look similar, so if you are not sure which one you have, I have a post about used MacBooks where you can find the specifications of your laptop.
Although ports look similar, there is a significant difference in transfer speed. Max transfer speed of USB 2.0 devices is about 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s). The maximum transfer speed for USB 3.0 depends on the version: version 1 has a 5.0 Gbit/s transfer rate, and v2 is twice faster at 10.0 Gbit/s. In other words, USB 3.0 is 10-20 times faster than 2.0.
As for the read/write speeds of the disk itself, it’s around 95MBps for writing and more than 100MBps for reading. Sometimes, you can see reviews stating that the overall speed is much slower: 50-60 MB/s.
You probably, already guessed why there is such a discrepancy in transfer speeds for different people. Transfer speed on older laptops is limited by USB standard: if your Mac has USB 2.0 port, the limit is 60MB/s, so no matter how fast the drive is, you are limited by port throughput.
With 3.0 ports, however, you are getting the maximum from the drive.
File format
Strictly speaking, this drive is not compatible with Macs right out the gate. It comes with NTFS preinstalled, which is a Windows format and not compatible with macOS.
So, if you plug in the device to your Mac, you will not see it in the Finder. Here’s what you need to do to use it with Mac.
1. Start Disk Utility app from Spotlight Search
2. Click on the Erase icon in the toolbar or right-click on the Elements and select Erase in the popup menu.
3. Give the name for the device and select choose format.
4. If you are planning to use the drive only with Macs, then select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. If you want to use the drive with Macs and PCs, then the format should be ExFat.
If you want to know the differences between disk file formats and when to choose which one and other advanced hacks, check my post on this subject.
After proper formatting, you are now ready to use the external drive for storage and Time Machine backups.
WD My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive
As mentioned above, Elements is perfect for old Macs with USB 2.0/3.0 ports. However, it’s not a good choice for new Macs with USB-C ports.
Fortunately, WD released a newer version of external drives: My Passport series. The series has a lot of various drives with various tech specs, and it could be overwhelming to navigate in a sea of choices.
But since here we concerned mainly with reliability the closest sibling of Elements hard drive is WD 5TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive
WD 5TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive – Blue, USB-C/USB-A
Size and Weight
My Passport is slightly smaller and lighter than Elements. It has the following size and weight specifications:
![Hard Hard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/1gbjaz.jpg/1200px-1gbjaz.jpg)
- Depth 4.22 in/10.71cm
- Width 2.95 in/7.49cm
- Height 0.75 in/1.91cm
- Weight 0.51 lb/0.21kg
Speed
Speed is another thing where My Passport beats Elements. Let’s start with the following fact: My Passport supports both USB 3.0 and USB-C ports. It comes with two cables, and depending on which port you have on your Mac, you can use one or the other.
As indicated above, the transfer speed of USB 3.0 is limited to 10.0 Gbit/s max. The max speed for USB-C is 40.0 Gbit/s, four times faster than second-generation 3.0.
Overall the read and write speed of My Passport is around 110 MB/s (on par with Elements).
File format
The best thing about My Passport for Mac is that it already preformatted for macOS. You can start using the drive as soon as you plug it in. No need to mess with disk utilities and other stuff. However, it also means that it is not compatible with Windows.
So, if you have both PCs and Macs and you want to use the drive to transfer data between them, then you need to reformat the drive before use.
The end of my story
At this point, you are probably wondering whether I was able to find forgotten bitcoins on my drive. Don’t worry; I won’t leave you hanging in midair.
So, first, I searched for anything like “bitcoin” or “crypto.” I didn’t find anything.
Well, I am not that stupid. I didn’t expect that I would leave anything precious easily available on my disk. Upgrade adobe pdf viewer. If I had cryptocurrency mined, I’d use obfuscation techniques to hide anything valuable. Here are the techniques that can help you hide sensitive data on your disk.
Long story short, I spent a couple of days examining my drive, and I didn’t find anything. Truth to be told, when I first learned about crypto, I thought it’s more suited for criminals and decided to stay away from it.
Now I think I made a mistake, but I can sleep well now when I know that I don’t have anything valuable on my drive (because I bought a very reliable hard drive back in 2009). Imagine, how would I feel if the external disk I used crashed or data was corrupted. I’d be thinking that I might have lost millions of dollars!
Anyway, I am far better than the guy who swapped 10,000 bitcoins for 2 pizzas in 2009. In 2017, each pizza would cost $100 mln!
Feb 23, 2021 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
As more and more gadgets make their presence felt in the digital arena, the competition about these electronic utility devices is only increasing. With multiple domains being ushered by a single venture into its manufacturing and production units, users now, have a wide range of products to choose from. The ones that were limited by choices in the past today find themselves amid countless options to choose from. However, this competition hasn't only been about increasing the product quantity and frequency in the retail stores, but about what stays and what doesn't. The World Wide Web has found a common voice in Social Media that has gadgets that are reviewed as they are in their beta testing modes. Today, we pick up the five best external hard drives by top media websites across the globe and see what makes them so special for the potential buyers.
5 Best External Hard Drives Picked by Top Media Websites:
Here, we take a look at the 5 best External Hard Drives that have been making news for their features and specifications:
1 WD 'My Passport Ultra';
Company: Western Digital
Specifications:
- Drive Type: Bus-powered portable hard drive;
- Connector Options: USB 3.0, USB, 2.0;
- Internal Drive Speed: 5400 rpm;
- The capacity of the Review Unit: 2 TB;
- OS Supported: Windows XP or later, Mac OS 10.4 or later;
- Warranty: 3 years;
Review: As quoted from CNET, we see what makes WD 'My Passport Ultra' the best external hard drive; 'WD manages to make portable drives interesting again with the new My Passport Ultra. The drive inherits the fast (though not quite as fast) performance and ease of use from previous generations and now add the top 3TB capacity plus the multitude of color options. On top of that, its backup software is less complex than the one bundled with previous drives, making it suit home users even better. And the security feature means that you can have the peace of mind about your privacy in case you misplace the drive.'?
Media Site which recommends it: CNET
Price: $79.99
2 Seagate Backup Plus Desktop:
Company: Seagate
Specifications:
- Device: 3.5-inch external hard drive;
- Connector Options: USB 3.0, USB 2.0;
- Available Capacities: 2TB, 3TB, 4TB
- OS Supported: Windows XP or later, Mac OS 10.4.6 or later;
- Warranty: Two Year;
Review: For a single-volume storage device, this is as fast as it gets. The drive, for now, is the fastest among traditional USB 3.0 external hard drives. There are a few faster ones on the market, but they all use special caching techniques, SSD storage, or a RAID 0 setup. Therefore, this makes it our list of the best external hard drive.
Media Site which recommends it: PCMag, CNET
Price: $259.99
What If Your Hard Drive Data Disappeared or Corrupted?
Absolutely, many people in the world has encountered with data loss problem of their external hard drive, if you have the same problem, it is recommend that you use Wondershare Recoverit data recovery software to regain your lost data.
3 LaCie 5big Thunderbolt 2:
Company: LaCie
Specifications:
- Capacity: 10TB, 20TB, 30TB;
- Cable Lock
- Kensington lock compatible
- Power Supply: 100-240V; 50/60Hz; 150W
- Warranty: 3 years
Most Reliable Internal Hard Drives 2020
Review: With upwards of 30TB in capacity, speedy performance, and a premium build, the LaCie 5big offers an impressive (and highly recommended) storage solution for media professionals and those with bandwidth-heavy workflows and comes across as one of the best external hard drive available in the market currently.
Media Site which recommends it: CNET
Price: $1299.99
4 WD 'My Book Duo':
Company: Western Digital
Specifications:
- Drive Type: Desktop External USB RAID Storage System;
- Connector Options: USB 3.0, USB 2.0;
- Available Capacities: 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, 12TB;
- OS Supported: Windows XP or later, Mac OS 10.4 or later;
- Weight: 2.2 Kg;
Review: Quoting from the media site that recommends it, The WD My Book Duo is a convenient and affordable way to add a huge amount of storage space to your desktop computer. Its fast performance means you can use it either as a backup drive or one that hosts hot data for heavy media-editing tasks. While it’s not as fast as solid-state-based or Thunderbolt external storage devices, it’s much cheaper and has so much more capacity. And the current street pricing makes it a much easier choice. Therefore, one can count this variant as the best external hard drive for the year 2018.
Media site which recommends it: CNET
Microsoft office 16 34. Price: $399.99
5 Transcend SSD370S:
Company: Transcend
Specifications:
- Drive Type: 2.5 inches, 7mm standard;
- Capacities: 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB;
- Controller: Transcend TS6500;
- Warranty: 3 years;
Most Reliable External Hard Drives 2018 Suv
Review: Quoting from the media site that recommends it, The Transcend SSD370S wons over with its pricing alone. Its excellent performance and extremely high endurance are just gratifying icing on an already tasty cake. In all, this new SSD has a lot going for it. Other than the comparatively short three-year warranty, there’s nothing I can complain about it'?. This makes this one of the most sought and best external hard drives in the market.
Media site that recommends it: CNET
Price: $66.30
![Drives Drives](https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hdd-versus-ssd-nidec.jpg?resize=1024%2C508&strip=all)
Top 5 Best Free Hard Drive Data Recovery Software in 2020
Most Reliable External Hard Drives
Sources:
Here is a list of articles that have extensively covered the best portal hard drives for the year 2018. Researching upon the best external hard drives, we came across these articles and the following can be cited as a source for the information given above:
Most Reliable External Hard Drives 2018 Suvs
What's Wrong with Drive
Most Reliable External Hard Drives 2018 Download
- Recover Your Drive
- Fix Your Drive
- Format/Wipe Drive
- Know Your Drive