Thunderbolt external drive recommendation

[dragonfly]

Hi all, am looking for an external hard drive with Thunderbolt 2/3 connectivity. Keep going back to the LaCie D2 4/6TB drives... can anyone suggest better/cheaper alternatives? It'll be used for largish image & video files thus quick access is essential.

TIA...

 

[twist]

Usb 3?

 

[dragonfly]

Usb 3?

Prefer Thunderbolt for speed..

 

[Mr Bump]

Prefer Thunderbolt for speed..

True but very limited options with that interface, I think that is what @twist is saysing.

 

[Cheffievrs]

Lacie of G-Technology.. I personally use Lacie.

 

[neil_g]

Never rated lacie. Always had a high rate of failures personally.

Also, as above consider usb3. Unless you're running ssd/SSD raid USB3 will be plenty fast enough for a mechanical disk.

 

[redsnappa]

Lacie of G-Technology.. I personally use Lacie.

I don't rate Lacie they are just box makers and people think they are a technology company. The hard drives, the electronics, the wiring are all made by other companies, Lacie just puts other companies technologies into a box nothing else except marketing.
I suppose the high rate of failure is because they do not understand anything about the electronics they stuff into those pretty boxes.

 

[dragonfly]

Never rated lacie. Always had a high rate of failures personally.

Also, as above consider usb3. Unless you're running ssd/SSD raid USB3 will be plenty fast enough for a mechanical disk.

Also like the idea of daisy chaining.

 

[dragonfly]

I don't rate Lacie they are just box makers and people think they are a technology company. The hard drives, the electronics, the wiring are all made by other companies, Lacie just puts other companies technologies into a box nothing else except marketing.
I suppose the high rate of failure is because they do not understand anything about the electronics they stuff into those pretty boxes.

I’ve not heard of the high failure rate. So which thunderbolt drive do you recommend?

 

[Selsdon_PJS]

I have a G-Technology 4TB Thunderbolt drive and have not had any issues with it - it can be daisy chained.

 

[neil_g]

Also like the idea of daisy chaining.

Fair enough. Or you could use a USB3 hub

Other wise I've read reasonably good things about g-tech kit.

That said youll always have someone say xyz brand has been bad for them. Essentially it shouldn't matter as you'll have backups.

 

[Cheffievrs]

I haven’t had any fail on me as yet.. and I have 9 of them. (Touchwood)

 

[Eloise]

I don't rate Lacie they are just box makers and people think they are a technology company. The hard drives, the electronics, the wiring are all made by other companies, Lacie just puts other companies technologies into a box nothing else except marketing.
I suppose the high rate of failure is because they do not understand anything about the electronics they stuff into those pretty boxes.

Well LaCie are owned by Seagate now. G-Technology are owned by HGST a subsidiary of Western Digital.

So choose which brand's HDDs you trust more.

 

[Mr Bump]

I was always western digital but in the last 12 months I have had 2x WD 2TB drives report as faulty in my raid 6 array at home.
WD have swapped them fine each time via the returns procedure and I keep a spare drive for use while the return is beng carried out.

 

[neil_g]

So choose which brand's HDDs you trust more.

should be irrelevant as your backups should mitigate.

for what it's worth my 2 USB3 offsite rotation drives are both seagate and haven't skipped a beat (touch wood).

*also worth noting that seagate acquired samsungs mechanical drive production. samsung have, in my opinion, an excellent track record for mechanical drives. I've still got 7-8yr old spinpoints in some of my arrays. hopefully seagate used some of the acquired patents well.

 

[dragonfly]

Thank you everyone for your input, looks like it's going to be either Lacie or G-tech.