Neophye to Novice - daft questions
- Thread starter Amethyst
- Start date
This is like asking if there's much difference between different brands of shoes phones.
WD are the most expensive, they think themselves theNike Apple of the HDD market.
Toshiba would be next, then Seagate are cheaper, and probably Transcend are the cheapest.
You may think that higher price means better quality, but I'm willing to bet that there are various degrees of fault with any drive, from any of these companies.
As with shoes or phones, you may select whichever you like best, or whatever you can afford.
Right now, I have a 2TB Toshiba external disc in front of me that I have rarely used, and now won't let me access some folder and its contents. I've been using a bunch of Seagate discs without failure, particularly with my XBox One and my son's XB1. They were slightly cheaper than this Toshiba unit, yet no problems so far.
What I'm saying is that your mileage may vary.
WD are the most expensive, they think themselves the
Toshiba would be next, then Seagate are cheaper, and probably Transcend are the cheapest.
You may think that higher price means better quality, but I'm willing to bet that there are various degrees of fault with any drive, from any of these companies.
As with shoes or phones, you may select whichever you like best, or whatever you can afford.
Right now, I have a 2TB Toshiba external disc in front of me that I have rarely used, and now won't let me access some folder and its contents. I've been using a bunch of Seagate discs without failure, particularly with my XBox One and my son's XB1. They were slightly cheaper than this Toshiba unit, yet no problems so far.
What I'm saying is that your mileage may vary.
Oussebon
Multiverse Poster
I'd agree with the above. Not necessarily with WD equating to apple - I've not looked at the prices recently but I used to be able to get their portable external HDDs cheaper than seagates and with a 5 year warranty - but I do agree there's ultimately not much difference.
I'd probably buy whatever was cheapest, as long as it didn't have lots of bad customer reviews. If two items are about as cheap, I'd buy whatever had the longer warranty.
I'd probably buy whatever was cheapest, as long as it didn't have lots of bad customer reviews. If two items are about as cheap, I'd buy whatever had the longer warranty.
Amethyst
Silver Level Poster
Tempted by transcend. come in purple. 3 year warranty and Military-Grade shock resistance
StoreJet 25H3 features a sophisticated three-stage shock protection system that's designed to meets U.S. Military’s drop test standards.
But has 41 bad reviews about not working. this would be covered under the warrant if there a fault.
Seagate has 2 year warranty and something like 280 bag reviews amazon
WD drive has the least bad reviews
Toshiba in pc world can't access the re views.
StoreJet 25H3 features a sophisticated three-stage shock protection system that's designed to meets U.S. Military’s drop test standards.
But has 41 bad reviews about not working. this would be covered under the warrant if there a fault.
Seagate has 2 year warranty and something like 280 bag reviews amazon
WD drive has the least bad reviews
Toshiba in pc world can't access the re views.
Warranty will only cover the drive though, and not the potential loss of irreplaceable data that's stored on it should it become faulty - so it would be wise to have a back-up if you go down this route (you should always have a back-up of any important data held on a HDD regardless of brand).
Oussebon
Multiverse Poster
It's probably less about the absolute number of bad reviews, and more about the %. 100 bad reviews out of 3000 is pretty good. Frankly 300 bad reviews out of 3000 on Amazon is something I'd consider pretty respectable.
Also, Amazon lump reviews together so that every variant available on the page (different capacities, different models) is totalled up. You can select to view reviews only for a specific model, and then check the proportion of 1* and 2* reviews.
The Transcend appears to cost about £25 more than you could get a WD or Seagate model for, and the reviews don't seem to favour one over another in terms of reliability though some of the sample sizes are too small to really mean much. I'd probably favour one of the Seagates with a cursory look at what's there.
I saw a 1TB portable HDD for £115. The price is because it has thunderbolt. I lol'd.
Also, Amazon lump reviews together so that every variant available on the page (different capacities, different models) is totalled up. You can select to view reviews only for a specific model, and then check the proportion of 1* and 2* reviews.
The Transcend appears to cost about £25 more than you could get a WD or Seagate model for, and the reviews don't seem to favour one over another in terms of reliability though some of the sample sizes are too small to really mean much. I'd probably favour one of the Seagates with a cursory look at what's there.
I saw a 1TB portable HDD for £115. The price is because it has thunderbolt. I lol'd.
Amethyst
Silver Level Poster
Hi Which ones were you looking at ?
I was comparing
Transcend 1TB StoreJet 2.5 inch USB 3.0 Military-Grade Shock Resistance Portable External Hard Drive £59.39
Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable 2.5 inch External Hard Drive for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation £49.98 -- not sure if this is the correct type
SEAGATE Backup Plus Portable Hard Drive - 1 TB, Red (PC world) £54.99
WD My Passport 1 TB Portable Hard Drive and Auto Backup Software for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 - Red £56.76
Toshiba Canvio Basics 1TB Portable External Hard Drive 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 - Black - HDTB310EK3AA £47.98
does the WD drive come with a lot of stuff loaded onto it ie password encryption etc?
Never backed up to a hard drive. always only done this to floppy disc or a USB(Transcend, which I have since misplaced). I would be using this as back up for the first time for mine and my mums computer. I have the most saved on my PC and most of her's fits on her 8 GB USB.
would it be better if I looked at smaller storage 500 GB?
Other questions - If you going to be handing down a laptop and a computer. what's the best way to restore it to factory setting but retain programs?
I was comparing
Transcend 1TB StoreJet 2.5 inch USB 3.0 Military-Grade Shock Resistance Portable External Hard Drive £59.39
Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable 2.5 inch External Hard Drive for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation £49.98 -- not sure if this is the correct type
SEAGATE Backup Plus Portable Hard Drive - 1 TB, Red (PC world) £54.99
WD My Passport 1 TB Portable Hard Drive and Auto Backup Software for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 - Red £56.76
Toshiba Canvio Basics 1TB Portable External Hard Drive 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 - Black - HDTB310EK3AA £47.98
does the WD drive come with a lot of stuff loaded onto it ie password encryption etc?
Never backed up to a hard drive. always only done this to floppy disc or a USB(Transcend, which I have since misplaced). I would be using this as back up for the first time for mine and my mums computer. I have the most saved on my PC and most of her's fits on her 8 GB USB.
would it be better if I looked at smaller storage 500 GB?
Other questions - If you going to be handing down a laptop and a computer. what's the best way to restore it to factory setting but retain programs?
Last edited:
Oussebon
Multiverse Poster
Ah, I was looking at the 2TB ones. Of the above I'd probably buy one of the cheapest one if I needed another ext HDD (there are 4 sat on top of my PC atm :S)
500gb drives tend not to be very good value in that they're only a few quid cheaper but obviously give half the capacity. That said if all you need is 8gb for a few photos and word docs...
500gb drives tend not to be very good value in that they're only a few quid cheaper but obviously give half the capacity. That said if all you need is 8gb for a few photos and word docs...
If handing down a PC to someone else, I would wipe the drive with something like DBAN, and then perform a full reinstall of Windows + programs. This would make sure my data wasn't on there any more in case whoever I gave it to lost it or had it stolen.
Amethyst
Silver Level Poster
I m not sure if its me on the new monitor. but I have tried VLC and on Naruto shippden the images look fuzzy. assumed this was because it was an animation. so tried Mighty dusk and the hair and people faces gets very odd shadowing ( can this be due to evening monitor settings?) thought it bight be the age of the film. so tried avatar and the same thing happened. what's the next best option if paying for dvd player program/ app?