09-07-2019, 04:52 AM
I purchased a 2018 Mac Mini a little over a month ago. I ordered it with a 512GB SSD. I want to keep my applications and system on the SSD and put my data on an external hard drive. I do photography professionally so I have a lots and lots of photos on my drive and I am working in Photoshop and Lightroom on nearly a daily basis.
I upgraded from a Mid 2012 MacBook Pro that has a 256GB SSD for the system and a 2TB hard drive for data in it (I installed a Data Doubler.) My data drive is starting to fill up so that's why I'm wanting to go to 4TB. I've been researching what would be the most reliable 4TB external drive to use on a daily basis for storing data vs. using it as a backup drive and haven't found anything definitive.
My initial thought was to get an OWC Mercury Elite Pro. After reading some things online, I wasn't sure if I needed to go that route or simply get a 4TB WD My Book. (Basically, what I read is that most drives start to fail after three years so I'm not sure a more expensive drive is the way to go.) I do know that Mercury Elite Pro will come with a 7200 RPM hard drive in it while the WD has a 5400 RPM drive. The WD is cheaper but I didn't particularly like the number of complaints about this hard drive failing and, quite frankly, I see lots of complaint about failing external hard drives in general.
Until this point, I've never used an external drive as a daily use drive. I've only used them for backup and I want reasonable speed but, more importantly, I want reliability. Right now, I am using a 2TB WD My Passport external hard drive as my data drive. (It was one of my backups from my MacBook Pro.) It's working pretty well. I haven't noticed much, if any, of delay in opening photo files or data files from it.
I'm looking for some recommendations as to specific drives you recommend and why. (I do want to keep the cost to below $200 – I can't go Thunderbolt 3 for the drive for now.
I upgraded from a Mid 2012 MacBook Pro that has a 256GB SSD for the system and a 2TB hard drive for data in it (I installed a Data Doubler.) My data drive is starting to fill up so that's why I'm wanting to go to 4TB. I've been researching what would be the most reliable 4TB external drive to use on a daily basis for storing data vs. using it as a backup drive and haven't found anything definitive.
My initial thought was to get an OWC Mercury Elite Pro. After reading some things online, I wasn't sure if I needed to go that route or simply get a 4TB WD My Book. (Basically, what I read is that most drives start to fail after three years so I'm not sure a more expensive drive is the way to go.) I do know that Mercury Elite Pro will come with a 7200 RPM hard drive in it while the WD has a 5400 RPM drive. The WD is cheaper but I didn't particularly like the number of complaints about this hard drive failing and, quite frankly, I see lots of complaint about failing external hard drives in general.
Until this point, I've never used an external drive as a daily use drive. I've only used them for backup and I want reasonable speed but, more importantly, I want reliability. Right now, I am using a 2TB WD My Passport external hard drive as my data drive. (It was one of my backups from my MacBook Pro.) It's working pretty well. I haven't noticed much, if any, of delay in opening photo files or data files from it.
I'm looking for some recommendations as to specific drives you recommend and why. (I do want to keep the cost to below $200 – I can't go Thunderbolt 3 for the drive for now.