Looking for a Good External HD

PerpetualCycle · Sep 18, 2023

JAM83 said:
I've got a couple of enclosures in mind. . I may take a look at those you posted tho

This One

And This One

I have had the fan-less Vantec Nexstar and they are pretty good enclosures.

Here is what I have now - hot-plugable 5-bay docking (independent drive) enclosure.

I have 6TB WD black and Seagate Ironwolf Pros in it.

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Tray-Less-Docking-Station-DS-SC5B/dp/B07Y4F5SCK/ref=sr_1_9?crid=2H82VK7GONDDQ&keywords=sabrent%2Benclosure&qid=1695082226&sprefix=sabrent%2Benclosur%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-9&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.ac2169a1-b668-44b9-8bd0-5ec63b24bcb5&th=1

Anibor_11 · Sep 18, 2023

geneo said:
I have had the fan-less Vantec Nexstar and they are pretty good enclosures.

I agree. I have used Vantec enclosures for at least 10 years. They´re very good, solid and durable. Currently, I keep all my personal data in an external Samsung SATA SSD installed in a Vantec USB 10G enclosure. It has run without any problem for more than 18 months.

Berton · Sep 18, 2023

Agreeing with an earlier reply, the 2.5" drives use only USB [either USB 2 or USB 3] power as they need only 5VDC up to 1000ma/1A while the 3.5" requires both 5VDC and 12VDC so an External gets it from an included power unit. Older IDE/PATA 2.5" drives I've used in External cases needed a Y-cable, one for data and power and the other leg for additional power, use 2 USB 2 ports. The SSD drives may need less power but still need to provide the same power/data connections/sockets as the HDD drives so as to fit in the same places.

MisterEd · Sep 19, 2023

The problem with 2.5" and 3.5" IDE/PATA drives is that they used different data and power connectors. At least with 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives they have the same data and power connectors.

I have both 2.5" and 3.5" SATA enclosures. Naturally the 3.5" SATA enclosure had to include a power adapter. This enclosure can also be used with 2.5" SATA drives since they have the same connectors. I use the 2.5" SATA enclosure for portability since it doesn't require a power adapter.

One of my 3.5" SATA enclosures can also be used with 3.5" PATA/IDE drives because it also includes IDE data and power cables. Unfortunately, it can't be used with 2.5" PATA/IDE drives.

BTW, I have only had one laptop that had a 2.5" PATA/IDE drive. The computer no longer works but I still have its 80GB PATA/IDE drive. I never bothered to buy an external enclosure or adapter for it because it wasn't worth it.

JAM83 · Sep 19, 2023

MisterEd said:
BTW, I have only had one laptop that had a 2.5" PATA/IDE drive. The computer no longer works but I still have its 80GB PATA/IDE drive. I never bothered to buy an external enclosure or adapter for it because it wasn't worth it.

I never use IDE Drives either. . So dang slow

bobkn · Sep 19, 2023

JAM83 said:
I never use IDE Drives either. . So dang slow

There was a large range. The fastest PATA drives (the ones with the 80 pin connectors) supported 133MB/s. 6Gb SATA is 750MB/s, and the fastest HDDs I have manage more like 250MB/s for sequential transfers.

No. I don't miss IDE/PATA.

MisterEd · Sep 19, 2023

bobkn said:
There was a large range. The fastest PATA drives (the ones with the 80 pin connectors) supported 133MB/s. 6Gb SATA is 750MB/s, and the fastest HDDs I have manage more like 250MB/s for sequential transfers.

No. I don't miss IDE/PATA.

I have a couple 20 year old computers with Windows XP on them. Since good PATA hard drives are so hard to find I decided to switch to using SATA drives with them. One has 2 x SATA ports on its motherboard while the other uses a PCI SATA controller with 2 x SATA ports. All these ports are SATA 1.0 (150MB/s). Even this is noticeable faster than PATA drives.

Note the motherboard with the 2 x SATA ports came out before SATA drives were available. The people that first used these ports had to use PATA drives with PATA to SATA adapters.

BTW. even though the PATA controller was rated at 133MB/ most PATA drives were only 100MB/s. Only Maxtor had drives they rated at 133MB/s. Whether Maxtor's drives were any faster than anyone else's drives was probably only marketing.

JAM83 · Sep 19, 2023

MisterEd said:
I have a couple 20 year old computers with Windows XP on them. Since good PATA hard drives are so hard to find I decided to switch to using SATA drives with them. One has 2 x SATA ports on its motherboard while the other uses a PCI SATA controller with 2 x SATA ports. All these ports are SATA 1.0 (150MB/s). Even this is noticeable faster than PATA drives.

Note the motherboard with the 2 x SATA ports came out before SATA drives were available. The people that first used these ports had to use PATA drives with PATA to SATA adapters.

BTW. even though the PATA controller was rated at 133MB/ most PATA drives were only 100MB/s. Only Maxtor had drives they rated at 133MB/s. Whether Maxtor's drives were any faster than anyone else's drives was probably only marketing.

Maxtor Drives, i believe were the best PATA drives out there, like you said. .

Berton · Sep 19, 2023

In the quest for more data transfer speed the IDE/PATA computers used 40-pin connections but added another 40 conductors in the ribbon cable to prevent "cross-talk" between conductors to prevent corruption of data. Those cables were stiffer than the earlier ones. The only IDE/PATA drive I have on the shelf is from my son's old laptop [saving his business files]. Recently threw out the ODD in a case from over 20 years ago.

JAM83 · Sep 22, 2023

Which One? I'd like to save money. . I do have an external enclosure ready to go, if i decide to go with one of those internal HDDs

Seagate Expansion 6TB, External Drive, 3.5 inch (STKR6000400) 763649160718 | eBay (Only 6 Months Old)

Western Digital WD Black WD6001FZWX 6TB Hard Disk Drive SATA 128MB Cache 7200RPM 718037835983 | eBay (7200RPM + 128MB Cache)

Toshiba MG06ACA600E 6TB 256MB Cache 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - Warranty July 24 | eBay (7200RPM + 256MB Cache)

bobkn · Sep 22, 2023

JAM83 said:
Which One? I'd like to save money. . I do have an external enclosure ready to go, if i decide to go with one of those internal HDDs

Seagate Expansion 6TB, External Drive, 3.5 inch (STKR6000400) 763649160718 | eBay (Only 6 Months Old)

Western Digital WD Black WD6001FZWX 6TB Hard Disk Drive SATA 128MB Cache 7200RPM 718037835983 | eBay (7200RPM + 128MB Cache)

Toshiba MG06ACA600E 6TB 256MB Cache 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - Warranty July 24 | eBay (7200RPM + 256MB Cache)

I've never purchased a used HDD. Maybe it's OK.

Feeling lucky?

JAM83 · Sep 22, 2023

bobkn said:
I've never purchased a used HDD. Maybe it's OK.

Feeling lucky?

I purchased the Western Digital. I"m only using it for Movies & TV Show Storage. I have a 30-day refund guarantee. So, i'll try it out.

Scannerman · Sep 23, 2023

I'm in Canada. The reason I say this is because I know of so many people in USA who are very pleased with Western Digital mechanical hard drives. The only Western Digital mechanical hard drives that impress me are my 15 year old Velociraptor drives that never produce SMART errors and just keep on running like they did the day I got them. Western Digital doesn't make them anymore.

I've been building PCs for going on two decades and repairing PCs for other people nearly as long. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of hard drives fail and I can honestly say that in my own personal experience Western Digital takes the lead when it comes to failed mechanical hard drives. I have often pondered why this is the case as the old Caviar Blacks and the Velociraptors (that Western Digital no longer make) rarely seem to share this misfortune. Despite this, if my customer wanted a Western Digital hard drive in their PC I would still buy one for them until one day Western Digital taught me a valuable lesson: I purchased a brand new, WD Caviar Black 1TB hard drive and it began clicking two days after I received it. I called the company for a replacement and I literally had to haggle with the guy on the phone for about 20 minutes before he agreed to replace it. I will always remember what he said to me: "Okay, but just this once." Well, that man must have been psychic because the replacement I received also started clicking about a month later and I've never purchased a brand new mechanical hard drive from Western Digital ever since this experience.

I believe part of the reason Western Digital mechanical hard drives fail so much is because most of these budget targeted hard drives are SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) as opposed to CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording). That doesn't explain why Seagate SMR drives seem to last longer. I don't buy SMR drives anymore. I don't care who makes them. My advice is to save your rubles and get CMR drives only if you insist on using mechanical hard drives. Hybrid mechanical hard drives are also notorious for issues and I've had a few of those too. Seagate SMR drives also tend to fail but for me, not nearly at the same frequency as Western Digital mechanical drives. Perhaps it's due to all the bumping and thumping the drives have to go through before they make it this far North. I really don't know the reason.

I've had three WD "My Books" crater on me so I don't think Western Digital is a good choice for external mechanical hard drives either. Later on I found out that there were indeed bridge issues with these and perhaps that's why I had those failures. Perhaps the issue has been dealt with since. Either way it matters not to me because Western Digital's customer dis-service is my final reason for never buying mechanical hard drives from them again. To be honest, I've never had a Seagate mechanical drive fail on me while still under warranty although I've seen many fail. Every one was an SMR drive. So what would I recommend?

Seagate EXOS, Seagate Enterprise drives (preferably CMR), HGST (Helium filled), Toshiba CMR drives such as the N300 or X300, or Seagate's award winning Iron Wolf. Save your pennies, get a good enclosure, and pop one of these in and you'll have an external drive that you can count on for years and years. Now I've heard that Western Digital just bought HGST so you might be better off getting an HGST HUH refurb because I can't vouch for Western Digital anymore when it comes to mechanical hard drives.

I know that some here might disagree with my views but I know for a fact they can't disagree with my experience. It is what it is.

I hope this helps.

Scannerman · Sep 23, 2023

JAM83 said:
I want a WD Black...

Noooo you don't. WD Caviar Blacks of yore are history. All they make now are imposters. Better off going green (unless you live in Canada). If you live in Canada do NOT buy Western Digital mechanical hard drives.

JAM83 · Sep 23, 2023

I've never had a problem with Western Digital. Here's what I got
Western Digital WD Black WD6001FZWX 7200RPM with 128MB Cache. . . Now, I had $97. I could have gotten a Seagate, but I needed some money left over for other things. This one that I bought only has like 5500 used hours on it. I do plan on getting a brand new one with bigger storage later down the road. I have to get what I can afford at the moment. Now, I do have 30 days on this one too. If I get lucky and get the money sometime, then I'll get a better one, or if someone on here, or someone around here in town just wants to give me one, then I'll be grateful, but as I said, I have to get what I can afford. :) I've never had a problem with WD. I've had MyBooks, My Clouds, etc. .

JAM83 · Sep 23, 2023

Scannerman said:
I'm in Canada. The reason I say this is because I know of so many people in USA who are very pleased with Western Digital mechanical hard drives. The only Western Digital mechanical hard drives that impress me are my 15 year old Velociraptor drives that never produce SMART errors and just keep on running like they did the day I got them. Western Digital doesn't make them anymore.

I've been building PCs for going on two decades and repairing PCs for other people nearly as long. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of hard drives fail and I can honestly say that in my own personal experience Western Digital takes the lead when it comes to failed mechanical hard drives. I have often pondered why this is the case as the old Caviar Blacks and the Velociraptors (that Western Digital no longer make) rarely seem to share this misfortune. Despite this, if my customer wanted a Western Digital hard drive in their PC I would still buy one for them until one day Western Digital taught me a valuable lesson: I purchased a brand new, WD Caviar Black 1TB hard drive and it began clicking two days after I received it. I called the company for a replacement and I literally had to haggle with the guy on the phone for about 20 minutes before he agreed to replace it. I will always remember what he said to me: "Okay, but just this once." Well, that man must have been psychic because the replacement I received also started clicking about a month later and I've never purchased a brand new mechanical hard drive from Western Digital ever since this experience.

I believe part of the reason Western Digital mechanical hard drives fail so much is because most of these budget targeted hard drives are SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) as opposed to CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording). That doesn't explain why Seagate SMR drives seem to last longer. I don't buy SMR drives anymore. I don't care who makes them. My advice is to save your rubles and get CMR drives only if you insist on using mechanical hard drives. Hybrid mechanical hard drives are also notorious for issues and I've had a few of those too. Seagate SMR drives also tend to fail but for me, not nearly at the same frequency as Western Digital mechanical drives. Perhaps it's due to all the bumping and thumping the drives have to go through before they make it this far North. I really don't know the reason.

I've had three WD "My Books" crater on me so I don't think Western Digital is a good choice for external mechanical hard drives either. Later on I found out that there were indeed bridge issues with these and perhaps that's why I had those failures. Perhaps the issue has been dealt with since. Either way it matters not to me because Western Digital's customer dis-service is my final reason for never buying mechanical hard drives from them again. To be honest, I've never had a Seagate mechanical drive fail on me while still under warranty although I've seen many fail. Every one was an SMR drive. So what would I recommend?

Seagate EXOS, Seagate Enterprise drives (preferably CMR), HGST (Helium filled), Toshiba CMR drives such as the N300 or X300, or Seagate's award winning Iron Wolf. Save your pennies, get a good enclosure, and pop one of these in and you'll have an external drive that you can count on for years and years. Now I've heard that Western Digital just bought HGST so you might be better off getting an HGST HUH refurb because I can't vouch for Western Digital anymore when it comes to mechanical hard drives.

I know that some here might disagree with my views but I know for a fact they can't disagree with my experience. It is what it is.

I hope this helps.

WD Black 6TB Review (WD6001FZWX) - Larger Capacity Faster Performance HDD

This person said the HDD that I bought is faster than the WD’s Velociraptor 1TB despite having a 10,000 RPM speed.

PerpetualCycle · Sep 23, 2023

JAM83 said:
WD Black 6TB Review (WD6001FZWX) - Larger Capacity Faster Performance HDD

This person said the HDD that I bought is faster than the WD’s Velociraptor 1TB despite having a 10,000 RPM speed.

I have the WD6003FZBX Black 6TB for some time. It has twice the cache as yours but about the same sustained rate - it should be better in burst transfers. It is fairly quiet, but it make a low periodic chunk noise as the drive freuently retracts the heads to lube them. Good drives.

jimbo45 · Sep 23, 2023

JAM83 said:
Which One? I'd like to save money. . I do have an external enclosure ready to go, if i decide to go with one of those internal HDDs

Seagate Expansion 6TB, External Drive, 3.5 inch (STKR6000400) 763649160718 | eBay (Only 6 Months Old)

Western Digital WD Black WD6001FZWX 6TB Hard Disk Drive SATA 128MB Cache 7200RPM 718037835983 | eBay (7200RPM + 128MB Cache)

Toshiba MG06ACA600E 6TB 256MB Cache 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - Warranty July 24 | eBay (7200RPM + 256MB Cache)

also @geneo larger / faster cache on HDD's trumps usually anything even faster rpm - can depend on the user though depending on how the user users the machine -- see further explanation on "prefetch" in my last paragraph on this post.

largest cache on classic HDD's always gives better performance, plus faster 7200 rpm of toshiba is always better than a slower one. Go for the Toshiba.

With classic spinners the windows algorithm (built in to the kernel) the larger cache makes the "prefetch algorithm" far more effective -- this is an algorithm that a bit of Windows built in A.I has that attempts to learn what a user regularly does most often on a computer -- and since most users tend to run more or less the same things regularly what the "prefetch" does is to guess what the user is likely to do next and load the relevant data into memory while the "task dispatcher" is not using a load of I/O or cpu -- e.g waiting for a keyboard input etc. This is why often on older PCs after installing windows it usually ran better after several days of regular use. With faster memory and ssd's / nvme's the importance of the prefetch is not so noticeable but if you are using classic spinners then larger cache is definitely THE feature to have.

Cheers
jimbo

Ghot · Sep 23, 2023

They do make a Western Digital Black with a 256MB cache. It would have the model number: WD6003FZBX

PerpetualCycle · Sep 23, 2023

jimbo45 said:
also @geneo larger / faster cache on HDD's trumps usually anything even faster rpm - can depend on the user though depending on how the user users the machine -- see further explanation on "prefetch" in my last paragraph on this post.

largest cache on classic HDD's always gives better performance, plus faster 7200 rpm of toshiba is always better than a slower one. Go for the Toshiba.

With classic spinners the windows algorithm (built in to the kernel) the larger cache makes the "prefetch algorithm" far more effective -- this is an algorithm that a bit of Windows built in A.I has that attempts to learn what a user regularly does most often on a computer -- and since most users tend to run more or less the same things regularly what the "prefetch" does is to guess what the user is likely to do next and load the relevant data into memory while the "task dispatcher" is not using a load of I/O or cpu -- e.g waiting for a keyboard input etc. This is why often on older PCs after installing windows it usually ran better after several days of regular use. With faster memory and ssd's / nvme's the importance of the prefetch is not so noticeable but if you are using classic spinners then larger cache is definitely THE feature to have.

Cheers
jimbo

@jimbo45 Like I said it will be better with bursts of small data. Prefetch (superfetch as you are describing it) is mostly for loading programs faster and not data (except some that may be needed to start the program up). Since most peoples programs reside on the system disk, which is usually nvme or Sata SSD now, prefetch is pretty much an anachronism - it doesn't make that big of a difference. when the programs are on SSD. I have left it on myself.

Looking for a Good External HD

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