WD super huge storage breakthru

[Darth Kybiel]

I only warn of Seagate because I and around five others I know had Seagate 1 TB external drives that overheated to the point of fire or almost fire and I never had that with WD or Toshiba. My only complaint with WD is I only hook it up to the computer when I absolutely need to get something from it. All my WD 1 and 2 TB externals had issues with constantly rebooting after around a year of using them. Never had data loss like Seagate though. Out of all my external hard drives Seagate was the only one that crashed/had any data loss. Some Toshibas, you do want toremove any security and other prograns from them and reformat for a clean drive. Some will compress data for maximum storage spacxe and you'll find music and videos compressed to glitchy crap.

[Kwai Chang]

I have:
2 Seagate 500GB (vertical)
1 Seagate 1.5TB (horizontal),
1 Seagate 2TB (vertical)
1 Toshiba 3TB (vertical)
2 Seagate 2TB portable...
The only problem is the Toshiba fell flat onto padded carpet a total drop of 20 inches...that was the end of that. It was full.
I was devastated. It took a long time to fill that thing and only a second to incur the permanence of it all. The storage space you're speaking of is massive. I don't want to risk failure in those quantities...but, I know eventually, they should all die by design(?).
I think it is very interesting that Darth warns of overheating since I have noticed the difference myself.
They work great but the vertical Seagate(2-500GB, 1-2TB) get noticeably warm, while the horizontal and portable models do not. That is odd, since the horizontal configuration seemed to be short lived. I would love to know what is the procedure for removing the Seagate software that you are warning us about. Is it a simple matter of deleting that file/folder or will it function normally without it? I only ever used it on the first one I had. But it started duplicating files and I had to buy the second one...stored one file of everything. This was done early on. But, I did it manually, and never even opened their folder. No more duplicates. So, do I delete the Seagate folder and carry on like before? I don't want to contribute to its demise.
Thank you all for the great convo!
KC

[yymca6]

It's all a matter of how much you are willing to pay and what your computer can accept.

On my iMac (2017 edition, I know it's an old one...), I connected a Cal Digit Thunderbolt 3 hub that allows me to connect 2 chained LaCie 8 Tb Thunderbolt 3, one for my Time Machine backup, the other one for extra stuff. In this extra stuff, I have a Beatles DVD folder and also my iTunes folder (along with other things). Both the Beatles DVD folder and my iTunes folder are backed up weekly on their own portable 5 Tb Seagate drive.

Then I have LaCie 10 Tb Thunderbolt connected with a USB-C cable to my hub and used only for Beatles stuff other than DVD. This one contains 2 folders, Beatles and Beatles 2, each one also backup up weekly on their own portable 5 Tb Seagate drive.

So far everything works all right but I might one day have to rearrange the whole kit when my iMac will be replaced and no longer will accept my chained Thunderbolt 3. I am NOT looking for this of course.

[Gringo557]

I'm using Seagate 5T and 8T drives and I really love them.

[Lord Reith]

You can lay down the vertical drives, there is no reason for them to be vertical other than a marketing gimmick. I always lie them flat because having them vertical is just asking for trouble. One bump or tug on the cable and they topple over.

[Lord Reith]

Also i've found that the large (4 & 5TB) portable drives sometimes can't draw enough power from a usb to operate properly. At first I heard clicking sounds and got errors and thought they were going bad, but it was that they couldn't get enough current. I wonder if some people have thought their drive had failed and binned it.

In the end, I had to make a special Y cable, one end of which goes to the portable drive, another goes to the usb of the device, and the third goes to a phone charger. All smiles now.

[zaval80]

Also i've found that the large (4 & 5TB) portable drives sometimes can't draw enough power from a usb to operate properly. At first I heard clicking sounds and got errors and thought they were going bad, but it was that they couldn't get enough current. I wonder if some people have thought their drive had failed and binned it.

I use 4Tb Seagates fed through USB and they work fine, clicking sounds mean DANGER. Could it be your USB port does not work properly?

[pumma4]

back in 2018 i had to update my WD HD from a 4 TB to an 8 TB..i also was advised to get 2 ..that way i always have a back up for everything i get..now im down to about 750 GB..so im gonna need to get 2 new WD HDs very soon..so anyone know how big the WD HDs are now and where i could get a good deal?