Nice price for this drive, I have had a Toshiba 2tb for over a year, it has been dropped many times and abused, still going strong, so I hope to get the same run out of this one, can't be any worse than some of the others on offer.
From a comment below, apparently not
My biggest annoyance about this was that you couldn't remove the drive to use for other applications, the MicroUSB connecter is soldered to the board.
Video link showing teardown of a 1TN Toshiba Canvio Advance drive: https://youtu.be/AbpIkFXiQKc
The biggest benefit about this was that you couldn't remove the drive for me as the MicroUSB connecter is soldered to the board.
It makes it couple mm smaller in overall length so and fits nicely with my T95U Pro Android media player.
Damn good price but should I risk getting a HDD shipped in the mail? Hmm….
I have about 8 USB HDDs, all bought via the mail. All are fine.
Good to know, just bit the bullet and bought.
Needed another hard drive and this price seemed too good, thanks OP!!
I must have bought 40+ HDD's over the years and probably 30 of those were through the mail. I never had any DOA's.
No risk at all. Head will be parked.
Whats the risk of getting a HDD shipped via mail?
My concern revolves around shippers who throw items into tubs or items being slid down conveyers into tubs in a rough manner. HDDs shouldn't be tossed around.
they get shipped to you the same way they get sent to shops
I'd suspect the way they're shipped to shops are in their packages and then bulk packed into larger boxes, which are likely shipped on pallets by truck. Compared to having a small package which can be tossed around by hand it's not exactly the same.
Massive difference between the hubs to shops, vs single items. I used to work in that industry. the last mile is literally make or break for your stuff. the people delivering are paid pennies, so in turn don't give a flying fk how rough they are with your delivery. It's unfortunate, and there are exceptions to the rule, but majority just don't care and I don't blame them.
HDD's have shock tolerance ratings. When drives are inactive (i.e. heads are parked) they can withstand shocks many magnitudes higher than when they are in use. I couldn't find specs for this drive, but for a Toshiba P300 desktop drive they can withstand up to 300 or 350G (depending on capacity) when not operating.
The likelihood of a drive experiencing this sort of force during shipping is extremely remote, particularly if packaged properly. You really have no need to be concerned.
I see, thanks for the information. That's good to know then.
You'll have to tell Dell to never ship laptops.
Title says Shopping Express, but link goes to smarthomestoreau ??
No go if it can't be shucked….
How do you guys use shocked HDDs? NAS?
Yup most of the time. I install it in my pc at times too.
Any way you want, laptops, security systems, older Desktops etc etc
In that case wouldn't buying an internal drive be cheaper?
@Mickice: Yes, you would buy an internal drive, and usually they would be cheaper, but here we find ourselves in a peculiar position where this deal is an external drive for a 4TB 2.5" HDD that is significantly cheaper than the cheapest internal 4TB 2.5" HDD.
So it would be great if it could be shucked for the people that wanted to use it that way. Looking it up on eBay, the nearest competitor I could find was a Seagate 4TB Expansion Portable 2.5" HDD for around $170 which CAN be shucked, but it's a decent bump in price.
My main issue with nonshuckable is it makes it harder to DIY data recovery (noting of course you should have always have a backup, but yeah).
It'll only ever be 1:1 copy of data which exists somewhere else for me. If you're relying on data recovery as your backup plan, you're going to have a bad time.
Very tempted at this price but not sure if I need 4TB lol.
Any good deals on 2TB atm?
Search, let people know.
i don't think can find the price half of 4tb if that's what you expect to buy at.
Shuckable?
Look up.
How would this go as an external Xbox drive?
Would be fine
Yep. Drive is fine.
SMR?
My understanding of the SMR issue is that it only affects NAS drives. Happy for someone else to clarify, for certain, as I'm not 100% sure?
NAS or not, it only affects users who use their HDDs.
hmm, I did a quick search, and it does look like some Toshiba 2.5 inch drives use SMR. Not sure if it affects this particular deal. Interesting.
Are 2.5" any less reliable than 3.5" external drives?
I trust them more, due to being made for portable use. Considerably more tolerant of bumps & bruises, due to design/purpose.
Why would anyone choose 3.5 then? Is it due to the small difference in price only?
They're mostly legacy for sizes under 4TB which will slowly dissappear as time goes on. Same as for SSD, one day 1TB will be more cost effective due to economy of scale, then 2TB, and so on.. Mechanical 2.5 will go the way of the dinosaurs too.
So whats the best way to store data?
3-2-1 rule, 2 onsite stores and 1 offsite. Eg laptop hard drive, external hard drive and a cloud storage.
Close:
3 separate copies of your files
2 different kinds of media
1 of them being offsite
For important data - copy to a portable hard drive and to your NAS. Have your NAS perform a scheduled sync to off-site cloud storage. If photos/videos then you can also upload to Google Photos in "high quality" for unlimited storage.
$159
No mention of discount coupon
how does this brand durability compare to WD, Samsung, & Seagate???
Religious debate.
Not expired.. just purchased
Can it be opened to remove the drive? Cheers