Which portable HDD would You choose for Yourself ?

[VoodooPL]

Hi guys,

I need to choose a portable 2,5" HDD for my own purposes.
I am wondering which brand You trust?

My requirements:
- 2 x 500GB HDD with almost identical SN or PN (in case first drive fails I will have second one as a donor for HSA or PCB replacement)
- 2,5" Enclosure with USB 3.0

I think about Samsung HM500xx or Seagate ST9500420AS.
Do You think it's a good choice or shall I take another model?
Waiting for comments.

[labtech]

All drives fail sooner or later for the same or different reasons.

[VoodooPL]

Definetely You are right.

For example, I wouldn't choose:
- WD Passport Portable 2,5" because some of them are equipped with Initio chip and the PCB is based on USB, so in case of failure, it could be difficult repair or recover the data.

- Toshiba because of known bearing problems with some models.

Paying attention to the fact that it's just a matter of time, when the drive dies, it's good to know which HDD models are recommended or preffered by DR pros for their own purposes

If You need to choose a 500GB portable drive with SATA interface, which one would You choose?
(having on mind:
- Your own experience and observations related to repair of 2,5" HDD's,
- high probability of repair, in case the drive fails).

All coments are appreciated.

[drc]

2 x 500GB HDD with almost identical SN or PN (in case first drive fails I will have second one as a donor for HSA or PCB replacement)

Why try to plan for data recovery? Just use the second one to keep a backup.

IMO all the discussion of "which drive is better/more reliable/etc" is completely pointless. HD failure is by definition unexpected. All you can do is make backups so that if/when failure DOES happen, you don't have to worry about it.

[TaskManager]

Thumbs Up for Hitachi Internal or External drives. Long live hitachi

[ShaneWard]

Seagate Momentus are a good drive... But really, the second disk should be used as a backup... Makes life cheaper and easer.

Shane

[Nick_CT]

Strange concept to buy two so that you can use the one for parts to repair the other in future!? Just make a decent, regular backup.

The discussion about which drive manufacturer is better has been seen countless times on countless forums and has little or no value in my opinion. Sure, certain brands/models might have their weaknesses or strengths in certain aspects, but if you have bad luck on your side it doesn't matter what drive you buy.

Backup backup backup.

[VoodooPL]

Thanks guys for answers.

Need to explain the idea of 2x500GB drives.
Well, I've got two options:
1. make a regular backup according to Your suggestion (similar to RAID-1) but then total storage area is only 500GB
2. use separately same drives (probability that two drives fail in the same time is very small), in case one fails, I'll make a 1:1 of working one to another HDD, and use spares of working one. Total storage area in that case is 1TB.

Of course, You are right. The first method is the best one for very important files, but for (mp3, movies, iso, etc.) i think 2nd one could be ok. If the recovery will not work, so the pesimistic option is to download the files again.

[drc]

At least here in the US, the price difference between a 500GB 2.5" USB3 drive and a 1TB 2.5" USB3 drive is $35 (about 25 Euro). For me there is no question whether to pay an extra 50 Euro and keep a backup or save 50 Euro and rely on (in no means guaranteed to work) potential physical recovery