Best External Hard Drive for music storage.

[BMC]

I am sure this has been discussed but I struggled to find a definitive answer. I was just about to purchase a WD My cloud 2TB to store my music. But then started to do some research and started to read that internal HDD units with an external enclosure may the best route to go.

I am quite a newbie so am looking for advice/suggestions. My apologies if this is old news and has been replayed many times.

Thank you for any help.

[kumakuma]

I've had good results with WD Red drives in OWC Enclosures:

 

External Drive Enclosures & Optical Drives | OWC

 

I had four Seagate drives fail in a two week period and now avoid them like the plague.

[sandyk]

I had four Seagate drives fail in a two week period and now avoid them like the plague.

 

Suffering succotash !!!

 

How old were they ?

[Sal1950]

Well if you have a reason to prefer how the drive is formatted, like I'm a Linux user and prefer EXT4 over NTFS or whatever Windoz is using now, you might be better off with a generic external enclosure. Proprietary drives like the Cloud are usually locked into a format and also have a control app that is required to be installed. But then again it will also be automated with backup programs and things like that.

In short if you want the drive to be the boss over its operation, something like the Cloud may be the ticket.

If you want to make the decisions on how things operate, a generic external may be the best.

I've always used Western Digital Black drives in external enclosures and have never had a drive fail in about 15 years of use.

[BMC]

Sorry. I meant to write WD My Book 2TB. I was considering an external enclosure from OWC and the WD Black drives. But quite a bit more expensive than the My Book 2TB. Is it worth it?

[BMC]

 

I had four Seagate drives fail in a two week period and now avoid them like the plague.

 

A family member also informed me that they had 2 Seagate drives fail on them recently. Thanks for the second heads up.

[wwaldmanfan]

I am sure this has been discussed but I struggled to find a definitive answer. I was just about to purchase a WD My cloud 2TB to store my music. But then started to do some research and started to read that internal HDD units with an external enclosure may the best route to go.

I am quite a newbie so am looking for advice/suggestions. My apologies if this is old news and has been replayed many times.

Thank you for any help.

 

All external hard drives have an internal mechanism in an external enclosure. The OWC stuff is no better than anything else, perhaps not as good. I have a OWC 2x1TB RAID built with two HGST internal drives that has never really worked that well. It doesn't always mount, and is noisy. I've also owned several G-Technology externals built with Hitachi HDD's that have failed.

The most reliable drives that I have owned have been LaCie and Western Digital.

 

This eBay seller has good deals on WD HDD's. I have purchased two factory-refurbished FireWire portable drives from him, and, so far, they have worked perfectly. They are fast, and extremely quiet.

 

Dell Laptop Hard Drives, Cheap Memory items in Laptop Hard Drives store on eBay!

[miguelito]

I've had good results with WD Red drives in OWC Enclosures:

 

External Drive Enclosures & Optical Drives | OWC

 

I had four Seagate drives fail in a two week period and now avoid them like the plague.

Yes I have very good experience so far with single reds in OWC enclosures. The lower rotation speed means no noise and no heat, but still plenty of throughput. I use a OWC FW400 enclosure with a simple linear PS as per Alex Crespi's recommendation. However you cannot find these anymore but the FW800 ones are great too (I have one). Doesn't hurt that the OWC ones are slim and all aluminum for good heat dissipation and good looks.

 

And yes I too have not had good experience with Seagate.

[Forehaven]

I spent the last 4 yrs or so using an HGST ext hd in a OWC enclosure. It worked great, but here's my advice. After awhile, you're going to get tired of having to power up/connect the hd to your computer before you can listen. I'd suggest just getting a 2 bay Synology NAS, it's so convenient. Just my .02

[wwaldmanfan]

I spent the last 4 yrs or so using an HGST ext hd in a OWC enclosure. It worked great, but here's my advice. After awhile, you're going to get tired of having to power up/connect the hd to your computer before you can listen. I'd suggest just getting a 2 bay Synology NAS, it's so convenient. Just my .02

 

Sacrilege to some here, but my FW music drives are bus-powered. They spin up and shut down automatically when I power up/sleep the Macs. I do not hear a SQ difference with the FireWire plugged in vs. copying music files to RamDisk then disconnecting it. One less AC power cord/outlet needed, too.

[REShaman]

Since 2011, Promise Pegasus, 12TB, R6, Raid 5, fast (very), silent even though a fan (never hear it). Backup to a Pegasus 8TB R4, Raid 5 (very fast), also silent etc. Hate to tempt the Gremlins, but nary a worry, problem. They are superb. Had FW/OWC/4way-800/400/eSata/USB. As good as they are, the Thunderbolt's are lightning fast, silent, and trouble-free. Firmware updates when necessary. Otherwise...

Best,

Richard

[BMC]

Thanks for all the replies /advice. Greatly appreciated

[Jimmypowder]

Yes I have very good experience so far with single reds in OWC enclosures. The lower rotation speed means no noise and no heat, but still plenty of throughput. I use a OWC FW400 enclosure with a simple linear PS as per Alex Crespi's recommendation. However you cannot find these anymore but the FW800 ones are great too (I have one). Doesn't hurt that the OWC ones are slim and all aluminum for good heat dissipation and good looks.

 

And yes I too have not had good experience with Seagate.

 

Miggy , my daughter had a Seagate drive fail just last week . Still under warranty though .

 

I have WD drives

[Jimmypowder]

Seagate stinks :

 

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/198154-2014-hard-drive-failure-rates-point-to-clear-winners-and-losers-but-is-the-data-good

[Ipoci]

I'm definitely happy with a 4 bay Drobo USB3 unit with WD Caviar Green disks as main storage unit...

 

Lacie USB3/Firewire external disk as a secondary storage...

 

Few SD cards 64GB as main playout sources, so during listening sessions none of the HD are power on

 

Have a nice day, Massimiliano

[Cycleman]

Sacrilege to some here, but my FW music drives are bus-powered. They spin up and shut down automatically when I power up/sleep the Macs. I do not hear a SQ difference with the FireWire plugged in vs. copying music files to RamDisk then disconnecting it. One less AC power cord/outlet needed, too.

 

I also use a FW bus-powered external drive for my music files, a 1TB Samsung SSD in a OWC enclosure.

 

Works well, sounds great.

 

Dave, who has also been pleased by Oyen enclosures and WD Red drives

[BMC]

Would a WD My Book a good purchase? I am guessing the hard drive is not of the same quality as WD Red or Black drive.

[kumakuma]

Would a WD My Book a good purchase? I am guessing the hard drive is not of the same quality as WD Red or Black drive.

 

You are probably correct. This is why I like to roll my own. I know exactly what drive is in the enclosure and I can replace later if necessary.

[Audio_ELF]

Would a WD My Book a good purchase? I am guessing the hard drive is not of the same quality as WD Red or Black drive.

As I recall the MyBooks usually contain WD Green series drives. The MyBook NAS type are likely to contain Red as that is WD's NAS series. It is however quite random and only by dismantling one would you know.

 

The actual drives however are idnetical to the same drive sold as an internal drive.

 

PS. I was just reading a lot of WD drives now have direct USB connector ... Think this is limited to 2.5" drives.

[miguelito]

Miggy , my daughter had a Seagate drive fail just last week . Still under warranty though .

 

I have WD drives

 

Same. I've had a few Seagates over the years (all came with other hardware) and yes frankly poor.

[miguelito]

Would a WD My Book a good purchase? I am guessing the hard drive is not of the same quality as WD Red or Black drive.

The hd inside are usually green version. Yes good buy.

[BMC]

The hd inside are usually green version. Yes good buy.

Are the green drives good for streaming movies as well?

[mwheelerk]

I'm a little nervous reading this thread and the opinions on Seagate. I've been using Lacie the past three years (WD before that) and liked the d2 Quadra units. I just upgraded to two d2 Thunderbolt 3TB HDD and now realize that Seagate is the parent company. The enclosures seem to be of similar quality to the others I had but I wonder what drives are inside Seagate or Lacie.

[kumakuma]

The enclosures seem to be of similar quality to the others I had but I wonder what drives are inside Seagate or Lacie.

 

I don't think LaCie is a drive manufacturer so I would guess they are Seagate drives.

[astrotoy]

Reading the reviews for reliability, Seagate usually comes out near the bottom. I have some experience with the 3TB internal drives which I bought before I read the reviews. I bought a completely populated Synology NAS 12 bay unit with Seagate drives. Within 2-3 years all 12 had failed. I started buying WD Red drives (4TB) and now have about 30 of them (in 3 different Synology NAS units (2 12 unit and 1 8 unit). Only one has failed in about 2.5 years. I usually keep about 4 spare WD 4TB drives, around, just in case. I configure the Synology NAS units for their SHR RAID configuration with 2 hot spares, again, just in case.

 

I haven't gone to enterprise drives, although with prices dropping, I may do that. After I populated my 12 bay units with the WD Reds, I found out they recommend them for up to 8 bays. I haven't had problems except for the one drive, so they seem to be find.

 

Larry