Forums
New posts
Articles
Product Reviews
Policies
FAQ
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
1TB External Hard Drive for Time Machine Back up?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Randy B. Singer" data-source="post: 1844950" data-attributes="member: 190607"><p>I don't have specific information about the Mercury On-The-Go. But here's the thing...it's a portable hard drive. As a portable drive it is a compromise design to get it as small and portable as it is. So it doesn't use an entire aluminum case as a heatsink, it has no cooling fan, and instead of a beefy power supply it is bus powered. So... the two major determinants of reliability in a hard drive are cooling, and adequate power. A portable drive skimps on both. </p><p></p><p>A portable drive is great for use as an occasional backup drive (but not as a continually attached backup drive doing backups every few minutes), or on the go (as the name suggests) where it isn't in constant use. But I wouldn't use one as a full time connected drive. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Anything from Glyph will be a cut or two above anything else you can purchase. Glyph drives are legendary among folks in certain fields who need very reliable equipment, such as the recording industry.</p><p></p><p>I've yet to hear of anyone having one of Glyph's BlackBox drives fail. But note that, Glyph's BlackBox drives are also portable drives. They have no fan for cooling like Glyph's Studio drives, and they are bus powered. So, unless you really need a portable drive, I'd opt for a Glyph Studio drive instead.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Solid State Hard Drives' (SSD's) main advantages over RDHD's is in speed and resistance to jostling (i.e. they are great for use in a laptop). </p><p></p><p>SSD's have disadvantages too. They usually fail without warning. (RDHD's often start acting flaky long before they fail, giving you time to backup your data.) And SSD's tend to be much more expensive than an equivalent size RDHD. You may even find it very hard to find a SSD in larger capacities.</p><p></p><p>So my feeling is that, at least for right now (things may change soon), SSD's are awesome for use as your main internal hard drive, but for use as a backup drive a RDHD makes more sense. Backup drives don't need to be really fast, they need to have a high capacity and you want some warning when they are going to fail. It's also nice if you can afford multiple backup drives for extra security.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Randy B. Singer, post: 1844950, member: 190607"] I don't have specific information about the Mercury On-The-Go. But here's the thing...it's a portable hard drive. As a portable drive it is a compromise design to get it as small and portable as it is. So it doesn't use an entire aluminum case as a heatsink, it has no cooling fan, and instead of a beefy power supply it is bus powered. So... the two major determinants of reliability in a hard drive are cooling, and adequate power. A portable drive skimps on both. A portable drive is great for use as an occasional backup drive (but not as a continually attached backup drive doing backups every few minutes), or on the go (as the name suggests) where it isn't in constant use. But I wouldn't use one as a full time connected drive. Anything from Glyph will be a cut or two above anything else you can purchase. Glyph drives are legendary among folks in certain fields who need very reliable equipment, such as the recording industry. I've yet to hear of anyone having one of Glyph's BlackBox drives fail. But note that, Glyph's BlackBox drives are also portable drives. They have no fan for cooling like Glyph's Studio drives, and they are bus powered. So, unless you really need a portable drive, I'd opt for a Glyph Studio drive instead. Solid State Hard Drives' (SSD's) main advantages over RDHD's is in speed and resistance to jostling (i.e. they are great for use in a laptop). SSD's have disadvantages too. They usually fail without warning. (RDHD's often start acting flaky long before they fail, giving you time to backup your data.) And SSD's tend to be much more expensive than an equivalent size RDHD. You may even find it very hard to find a SSD in larger capacities. So my feeling is that, at least for right now (things may change soon), SSD's are awesome for use as your main internal hard drive, but for use as a backup drive a RDHD makes more sense. Backup drives don't need to be really fast, they need to have a high capacity and you want some warning when they are going to fail. It's also nice if you can afford multiple backup drives for extra security. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Name this item 🌈
Post reply
Forums
Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
1TB External Hard Drive for Time Machine Back up?
Top
