Any External Storage suggestions ?

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For you and others, a couple of questions or thoughts: 1) Should one's external HHDs be replaced periodically, e.g. when they reach 5 years of age? I just checked the 4 HDs that I use to back up my MBAir w/ DriveDx - all were perfectly fine and several are 3+ years old - of course, another alternative is to have redundant BU drives, and replace the ones that die;

You sort of answered your own question. Your plan depends on how valuable your data is. The more valuable it is, the more places it should be backed up to.

The Backblaze study indicates that hard drives start becoming importantly unreliable after their third year, and possibly unacceptably unreliable after their fifth year. However, many RDHD's last for many years beyond that. It's up to you how much you want to invest in protecting your data.


2) As these external SSDs drop in price, the question becomes whether to replace old HHDs w/ SSDs, of course the latter can die also;

SSD's, very surprisingly, even though they can theoretically last for 20 years or more, in the real world aren't any more reliable than RDHD's. They are more resistant to jarring (and hence they are good for use on the go with a laptop), and if attached to a fast bus, they can perform better than a RDHD. Frankly, I don't see that an EXTERNAL SSD is worth the extra cost over a RDHD. Usually you want a bigger external hard drive, not a faster one. It's your internal hard drive that can benefit most noticeably and frequently from the improved performance of an SSD.

3) The Glyph HDs look excellent w/ a great warranty - I'm assuming this manufacturer does not make their own internal drives, does anyone know which brand(s) are used in their products?

I get asked this constantly, the answer is....it's irrelevant. You are putting your faith in Glyph, not in the company (or companies) that they get their mechanisms from. Glyph's reputation is really something. Check out their reviews on Amazon, and do a Google search for reviews. (To answer your question directly, they source their internal mechanisms almost exclusively from Seagate. But these mechanisms are unlikely to be exactly the same as the consumer-class mechanisms that you or I can buy on Amazon.)

Glyph gets internal mechanisms that meet their specifications, and then they carefully test each mechanism to insure its reliability. (Note that a dirty little secret in the hard drive mechanism industry is that consumer class drives are not tested AT ALL once assembled. The components are tested, but not the completed drive. Enterprise class drives do sometimes get a short burn-in. Fierce competition and paper thin margins produced this situation.)

Glyph then puts the raw drive mechanism in a case that they have designed to provide thermal stability, and which has excellent electronics and a stout power supply. These are weak features from just about any other manufacturer of external hard drives these days.

I've been recommending Glyph drives for a bunch of years now, and to quite a few users. So far, out of hundreds of users who I know who have purchased one, I've only heard from one user who has suffered a failure. (I can't say the same for any other brand of hard drive.) And they were subsequently made happy by Glyph's support. When you see a Glyph drive in person for the first time, you'll instantly get a feel for why they're better. These things are really over-engineered...the tank of hard drives. Ventilated steel/aluminum case, substantial internal power supply, internal fan, heavy duty wiring.

Once again, it all depends on how much your time is worth, and how much your data is worth. If your time and data are worth very little, any cheap POS hard drive will probably do fine for you. If your time and data are very valuable to you, you might want to pay a bit more for the best. Note Glyph offers data recovery as part of their warranty. A third party hard drive recovery service won't charge the difference in price between a Glyph drive and a POS drive. A hard drive recovery service will likely charge at least a couple thousands dollars. Glyph has such faith in their products that they offer data recovery for free under warranty.
 
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You sort of answered your own question. Your plan depends on how valuable your data is. The more valuable it is, the more places it should be backed up to.

The Backblaze study indicates that hard drives start becoming importantly unreliable after their third year, and possibly unacceptably unreliable after their fifth year..............

SSD's, very surprisingly, even though they can theoretically last for 20 years or more, in the real world aren't any more reliable than RDHD......Frankly, I don't see that an EXTERNAL SSD is worth the extra cost over a RDHD...............

I get asked this constantly, the answer is....it's irrelevant. You are putting your faith in Glyph......... Glyph then puts the raw drive mechanism in a case that they have designed to provide thermal stability, and which has excellent electronics and a stout power supply.........

I've been recommending Glyph drives for a bunch of years now.........Once again, it all depends on how much your time is worth, and how much your data is worth. If your time and data are worth very little, any cheap POS hard drive will probably do fine for you. If your time and data are very valuable to you, you might want to pay a bit more for the best. Note Glyph offers data recovery as part of their warranty........

Hi Randy - just some highlights above of the many excellent points and comments you made to my questions - MUCH appreciated! :)

As a retired physician, my computer needs are now all personal, so not much of critical concern; OTOH, wife does keep our financial stuff on her iMac so more concerned about that machine. I'm planning to re-check the 'age in use' of my RDHDs and may replace several that I know are 5 years old and non-OWC brands - will stick w/ OWC and also look much more closely at the Glyph drives. Thanks again for all of your outstanding advice. Dave
 
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It looks like, if your Mac has USB-C, that a Glyph Black Box is the way to go.


Not to knock the product or the advice but am I not understanding the specs shown for that drive and using USB-C (3.1) ?
They show:
Transfer Rate
Up to 250 MB/s
https://www.glyphtech.com/product/blackbox-pro

That seems awfully slow for usual USB-C (3.1) transfer speeds and struck me a being a bit odd.

What am I missing???





- Patrick
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Not to knock the product or the advice but am I not understanding the specs shown for that drive and using USB-C (3.1) ?
They show:
Transfer Rate
Up to 250 MB/s
https://www.glyphtech.com/product/blackbox-pro

That seems awfully slow for usual USB-C (3.1) transfer speeds and struck me a being a bit odd.

The transfer speed probably has nothing to do with the bus speed. It's limited by the speed of the RDHD. Even FW800 was capable of transfers much faster than any RDHD. They are probably just giving a more accurate estimate than a theoretical estimate.
 
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Dave:

I have the Samsung T5 500GB and can testify that it is lightning fast doing backups. I also purchased it from B&H in NY when it was on sale for $99. Either one of those SSDs are a great buy. Keep in mind that you will need a Thunderbolt 3/USB-C port on your Mac in order to use the T5. My 2017 27" iMac 5K has 2 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports.

@ Charlie & Others - well, several of my BU external HDs have been going for 5 years now and decided to look at some replacements - went to B&H in NYC and ordered the two below which arrived today - wanted to try a SSD and bought the one discussed above; also, I wanted to try a Glyph HD - purchased a smaller sized USB bus driven option - the drive is much smaller w/ the 'rubberized' cover removed; also was formatted in HFS+ so ready to go for a TM BU.

BUT, the Samsung was formatted as ExFAT, which I converted to HFS+ - there was a Mac DMG to install some software for a PW insertion which I do not need - for those who have this SSD, is this software really needed, requires a computer reboot? Thanks for any help. Dave :)

P.S. both devices come w/ 2 cables, i.e. a USB-C to C and a USB-C to A, the latter working on my older laptops/iMac.
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dont use the samsung samsung software on a mac it installs master boot record and you cant do anything with the ssd untill you remove it
 

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BUT, the Samsung was formatted as ExFAT, which I converted to HFS+ - there was a Mac DMG to install some software for a PW insertion which I do not need - for those who have this SSD, is this software really needed, requires a computer reboot?

My T5 came formatted as NTFS. Strange that yours came formatted to exFAT. That's the first time I've heard a new drive formatted that way. Usually they're formatted to NTFS or if they're for a Mac, then as HFS+. Also, my T5 did not come with a Mac DMG. I did receive the same two cables as you have though. The first thing I did with the T5 was to reformat it to APFS since I'm using it as a CCC backup.
 
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dont use the samsung samsung software on a mac it installs master boot record and you cant do anything with the ssd untill you remove it

My T5 came formatted as NTFS. Strange that yours came formatted to exFAT. That's the first time I've heard a new drive formatted that way. Usually they're formatted to NTFS or if they're for a Mac, then as HFS+. Also, my T5 did not come with a Mac DMG. I did receive the same two cables as you have though. The first thing I did with the T5 was to reformat it to APFS since I'm using it as a CCC backup.

Thanks Guys for your quick responses - as stated I reformatted the Samsung SSD to HFS+ and will not add the proprietary software; as to the T5's format, mine was definitely exFAT - image below from the T5 user manual available on the Samsung website - since that format can be Read/Write on both platforms, assume the reason - was easily reformatted and deleted the Mac DMG package (which can be re-downloaded if one wanted to use the PW feature). Dave :)

SamsungManualT5.png
 
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Time Machine External Drives - Replacement and Add-on Questions?

As in my recent posts here, I decided to replace 2 TM external drives, one is 5 years old but still is fine tested w/ DriveDx (used on my MBPro), another shows an 'early failure' warning w/ the same diagnostic app (on our iMac) - both of these old external HDs contain a LOT of backup folders which probably are not of much importance to us - BUT, what are some of the strategies used for this purpose - I can think of several: 1) Keep the old HD (if still functional) w/ its BU folders and start a 'new' one; 2) Simply replace the drive and start 'fresh' - reformat the old drive if useable or discard/recycle; and 3) Copy the old BU folders onto the 'new' drive and continue on - is this possible or trouble? Thanks for any comments. Dave :)
 

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Hi Dave,

Transferring or copying Time Machine backups from current drive to new drive is easy enough - details here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202380

You then have two choices. Keep that as a historical BU or, more likely, add new Time Machine BUs to the copied backups as mentioned in the article (which you will notice is current).

As a BTW, I've just had one of my two Time Machine EHDs die in the last 15 minutes.:Not-Amused: Just started a new BU on a new EHD - a few hours' work there.

Ian
 

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As a BTW, I've just had one of my two Time Machine EHDs die in the last 15 minutes.:Not-Amused: Just started a new BU on a new EHD - a few hours' work there.

Good lord...I think we've heard from at least 2-3 members recently with dying/dead external HD's...and a lot of external HD discussions lately.

Sorry to hear about the drive...but luckily it sounds like everything is under control.:)

- Nick
 
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Hi Dave,

Transferring or copying Time Machine backups from current drive to new drive is easy enough - details here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202380

You then have two choices. Keep that as a historical BU or, more likely, add new Time Machine BUs to the copied backups as mentioned in the article (which you will notice is current).

As a BTW, I've just had one of my two Time Machine EHDs die in the last 15 minutes.:Not-Amused: Just started a new BU on a new EHD - a few hours' work there.

Ian

Hi Ian - first, sorry to hear about the HD 'deaths' - RIP! I've had several die on me over the years - hopefully, you've recovered successfully?

Another question for TM Gurus - just checked the 2 old TM drives mentioned previously - both started doing BUs in early 2013 - each is 1 TB and have less that 400 GBs free, so a LOT of data to transfer (vis a vis the link given above); plus, I don't really want data from those early years - can these 'bulky' TM backups to pared down, like eliminate the first 3 years or so (preferably on the old HDs to lessened the transfer time)? Again, thanks for any info - Dave :)
 
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The only way to safely remove files from Time Machine, is to manually delete them while within TM. It is a time consuming process.


Bob -

Sent from my 12.9” iPad Pro 1stGen using Mac-Forums
 
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Good lord...I think we've heard from at least 2-3 members recently with dying/dead external HD's...and a lot of external HD discussions lately.
...
- Nick


Add another, even though indirectly.

My cousin bought over her 2008 MB that had died, deader than dead, but her backup dive was kaput and unreliable and as a consequence out of date. It looks like no repair will stick and is too unreliable to use.

So I reformatted a spare I have to use as a backup and as a transfer drive to use with my old MBPro as a temporary measure until I can get her a replacement older Mac. (She really can't stand the recent OS X versions.) That almost worked until the drive quit communicating and not working properly.

So, I shall carry on And see if I can't get her a working Mac to use.

At least the original Apple/Fujitsu 120GB HDD was still operating that I removed to grab her current data. I may use it for a bit as a CCC backup drive, and it has sure done noble service and seems to be working well.





- Patrick
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Well, just an update especially for those who may be going through the same decisions as brought up in previous posts - last night I worked on the old HD TM BU of my MBPro - backups going back to 2013 - reviewed comments in this Recent Article, suggesting that old BUs could be deleted using Finder - well, I deleted 3 years (2013-15) on the old drive - checked its storage which did not seem to change much? Next, ran Disk Utility 'First Aid' and after a half hour stated the drive was OK, but again half the 1TB space was still 'used' - ran TM which seemed to work - after doing a 'new' TM BU to my Samsung 500GB SSD (which just used about 100GB), I decided to simply reformat the old HD - I have the older years on my other TM drive, plus don't really need the dated info.

SO, my next 'challenge' is the 1TB Buffalo Thunderbolt HD on wife's iMac - only 300+GB left (BUs date to 2013 from an old transfer in 2015) - plan to replace w/ my new 1TB Glyph HDD - again would like to just 'pare down' the old TM back to say half its size but seems there is not an easy and quick solution, i.e. delete w/i TM, use the TMUtil in the terminal, or other? The old HD is showing a problem on DriveDx - any thoughts? Thanks - Dave
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The old HD is showing a problem on DriveDx - any thoughts? Thanks - Dave


Is there a hidden question in there somewhere that I might have missed somehow...???





- Patrick
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Is there a hidden question in there somewhere that I might have missed somehow...???

Hi Patrick - well, nothing serious at the moment - just a 'pre-failure warning' on the DriveDx app (pic below) - not really that concerned except if I want to 'change out' the HD w/ a new one, then how should the old BU HD be handled? I know from Apple's discussion (and Ian's previous link) that I could transfer the entire BU to my new Glyph 1TB HD BUT 2/3 of the storage would be used up, not a solution in my mind - so, just looking for other options - e.g. I guess the old BU could be transferred to a larger BU drive (3-4TB) and the Glyph started anew. The main point is I'm sure others are going through this process, and would like to know recommendations. Dave
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Gee, just looking at that report, I think I would be a bit miffed to have a Buffalo drive starting to fail after only running six months and three days.

I would think that would also be covered under warranty would it not???





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Gee, just looking at that report, I think I would be a bit miffed to have a Buffalo drive starting to fail after only running six months and three days.

I would think that would also be covered under warranty would it not???

Well, really frustrating here - I've not had that Buffalo HD attached constantly so you're seeing the last 'plug-in' time - going back to my previous pic indicates that the drive was first used at the end of 2015, so now 3+ years in action - no longer in warranty - but regardless of the 'age' of the HD, my point is being evaded, i.e. what is the best way to transition from an older TM BU HD to a newer one? Dave
 

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