External hard disks as reliable as internal ones?

[MelloShangerian]

Guys,

Thinking about moving all of my data off my internal hard disk and on to an external one. I don't have any experience of making this switch, so would appreciate your feedback on how reliable external drives are compared to internal ones.

The plan is to move all my critical data on to the external drive, with backups also on an additional external one.

If okay, is there anything I should look out for when buying an external drive (like manufacturer, specs, etc)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[magomago]

externals are internal in a case.

 

[JeffMD]

Yep, external hard drives are the same things as internal ones, but they have something like a USB bridge attached to it. SOME hard drives will actually allow them to be separated, while others replace the hard drives circuit board with one that has a USB interface and cannot be used via Sata.

Transfer speeds can be high, too, but seek and load times on small files seem to be bad so running your programs from them still seem pretty slow.

 

[bruceb]

External drives are just fine. I personally use a Western Digital external drive. The best ones do not have or need any special software for file backups (unless you want that nonsense) .. All I need is my file explorer to move files where I want them. You should get one that has USB 3 if your computer has a USB 3 port. Some of them also have a Firewire connector, which is almost as good if your computer has that type of port. Below are the ones I like from WD

WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAU0010HBK-NESN

WD Elements 3 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBWLG0030HBK-NESN

 

[Ken g6]

I've actually had a lot of bad luck with external drives. Then again one of those was a Seagate 2tb.

Another, a HGST 1tb, developed a nasty click so I don't trust it.

 

[bruceb]

Knock on wood ... seems Western Digital has been the best so far.

 

[Elixer]

Warning about most WD & some Seagate external drives. They have always on encryption, and the decrypt key is programed in the hardware.

That means that if the external unit fails, you CAN'T access the same drive in an internal machine (or another external case), so your data is lost.

So, basically, that means you need to copy the critical data to multiple devices, or use cloud backup to be safe.

 

[bruceb]

Never heard of that on the model I am using. How do know for sure if that is the case (for WD) ?

 

[JeffMD]

Elix, any source for information on this? All the encryption I know of is built into the controller board (not the usb adapter) and is generally still user activated with a user supplied passkey. There isn't much sense in hurting your drive performance all the time with encryption whos key is built into the drive and doesn't offer much additional protection as-is.

 

[bruceb]

The WD Elements series of drives do not have encryption. The Passport series does.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/portable/Default.aspx

 

[Elixer]

Elix, any source for information on this? All the encryption I know of is built into the controller board (not the usb adapter) and is generally still user activated with a user supplied passkey. There isn't much sense in hurting your drive performance all the time with encryption whos key is built into the drive and doesn't offer much additional protection as-is.

Correct, it is the USB controller board, not the drive PCB, and it is hardware encryption, no loss in performance.
The key is set at the factory, you are never prompted to enter one. This is why this blows chunks. It is randomly generated as well, this is why you can't swap drives between enclosures and still expect them to read the data.

Did I mention this blows chunks yet?


http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2460318 is the thread where all this came out.

Here's a list of the current WD External drives that feature Hard Ware Encryption which cannot be turned off and it is on by default:
WD My Book: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=1cK97p
WD My Book Duo: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=AB0uYL
WD My Passport Ultra (all versions): http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=75DxGe ; http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=HLtQ0w ; http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=YHRS0v
WD My Book for Mac: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=aNNDKd
WD My Book Studio: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=x47FcK
WD My Passport for Mac: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=pFsNX7
WD My Passport Studio: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=FzQRt5
WD My Passport Air: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=IyJ9vy

Here's a list of the drives that do not have hardware encryption on them:
WD Elements Desktop: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=t9JBUR
WD Elements Portable: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Qa0eZL
WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=yXn1oc
WD My Book Pro: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=G56blh
WD My Passport Pro: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=yN2yH8
WD My Passport Wireless: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=EcjUHc

Swapping drives between enclosures shouldn't work as the encryption is different on each drive.

WD External drives don't come with additional drives with software but rather with preinstalled programs, depending on the model. You are free to remove them or re-download them from our website.

Captain_WD.