External Harddrive? Are they pretty much all the same?

[Elisa]

Hey Friends!

I have an old WD External Harddrive that is doing great! Have had it for over 5 years at least. The only problem is, it is almost full! I am going to buy another, but just thought I'd ask if any of you have any External Harddrives that you think are a really great deal/quality for a good price. 
Thanks!

I'll be keeping my eyes open for Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals.

[Brian]

Hard Drives are Hard Drives. The Operating System doesn't care, just as long as it's formatted / partitioned to a filesystem that it can read. To really answer your question, I need your budget.

I personally like G-Drives, though they are a bit pricey. I would avoid the el-cheapo Black Friday drives, unless it's a really good deal on a high-quality one. All too often the big-box stores will have a $69 special on BF, which has a huge profit margin for the re-seller, and a low-grade crappy drive for the consumer. I would avoid anything that is labeled "Eco Friendly," or "Green." Why? Because it's gonna die on you sooner than later and end up in a landfill anyway. So that isn't very "Green." I would also recommend that you avoid 3TB Drives and either go for a 2TB or 4TB and larger. (At this point, I'd look at 4TB drives and larger.)

I might create a Black Friday Thread with links to stuff that catches my eye, though I am working so I might create the thread in the "Land of Misfits" for folks to chime in.

 

[Brian]

I'd LOVE to have this unit, configured in a RAID 1: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1148574-REG/wd_wdbdtb0080jsl_nesn_my_book_pro_8tb.html