Why Are We Still Buying Spinning-Disc Hard Drives?I’ve been singing the praises of SSDs like everyone else. SSDs featuring the latest 3D architecture and Thunderbolt are the way to go: They are super-fast, use very little power, contain no moving parts, and are getting cheaper all the time. Then why are we still buying spinning-disc mechanical hard drives?Two reasons: high capacity and low price.Currently, the can be had online for about $150, the equivalent of $0.04/gig. Compare this to the G-Tech 2 TB Thunderbolt SSD at $565, or roughly $0.28/gig — seven times the cost per gigabyte.
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There are different types of hard drives for different uses in my workflow. MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, with the exception of the USB-A test. Apple users tend to gobble up internal hard-drive space quickly with large video files, audio tracks, and snapshot images, and using an external hard drive usually requires them to reformat it for use with a Mac. G-Tech relieves users of that extra step and readies its G-Drive Mobile hard drive with HFS+.
Sure, SSDs are a better choice when you consider performance, speed, reliability, and power draw. But if capacity and price are your main considerations, the latest generation HDDs like G-Tech’s G-Drive Mobile will amply fit your bill.For itinerant TV and film professionals, high-capacity portable HDDs mean hauling fewer storage units into the field. It also means that the low-cost drives can be loaned to unreliable collaborators, who may have the nasty habit of not returning “borrowed” drives as promised, and who then stash them in a desktop drawer before adding to their pile of purloined storage devices. Compared to SSDs, traditional spinning disc hard drives consume about 10x more power, operate at only 1/4 the speed, are far less reliable, So what is there to like about HDDs? High capacity at a low cost.
The G-Tech G-Drive Mobile USB-C drive is one of the most cost-effective storage solutions on the market at less than $0.04 per gig.Notwithstanding the drive’s low-tech mechanical innards, the G-Drive Mobile HDD offers some notable performance enhancements. Curiously, the G-Drive ships with a rather lowly 5400 RPM drive, but the speed and performance of the slower drive, according to G-Tech, rivals a 7200 RPM unit.
The improved performance of the G-Drive Mobile appears to be due mostly to more efficient firmware that incrementally increases read and write speeds.Still, with an observed throughput of about 120–130 MB/s, the G-Drive will not win any prizes for speed in an increasingly SSD-centric world; the 2.5-inch portable HDD attains only about a third of G-Tech’s own SSD benchmark speeds of 400–500 MB/s via USB-C.Beyond the firmware tweak, the G-Drive Mobile’s improved performance may be attributed also to its native USB-C interface. The G-Drive is not converted from a previous SATA model, which would require throughput to be throttled in order to accommodate the USB-C emulation software.G-Tech has always been a Mac-centric company, and the unit ships preformatted for Mac OS. However, after merging with Western Digital, G-Tech seems to have assumed a more platform-neutral stance.The G-Drive Mobile ships with Paragon software for mounting HFS+ volumes on Windows machines. The utility, available at retail for $20, allows users to read and write to HFS+ volumes from Windows machines without reformatting. Paragon’s HFS+ for Windows eliminates the familiar dance of shuffling media files from one system to another. For those of us operating frequently in mixed-platform environments, it’s a welcome addition to our kit.In my cursory tests, the G-Drive performed well overall, especially when compared to earlier-generation HDDs. Aboard an aircraft flying cross-country, I had no problem pulling 4K UHD source files from the G-Drive Mobile for basic editing.
Most users will look to the drive primarily for low-cost intermediary storage, rather than as a source drive for complex post-production tasks. Suffice it say, the latency and speed issues inherent to any low-cost hard drive will start to raise their pesky little heads when you try to edit multiple video streams with a heavy data load. The G-Drive Mobile USB-C HDD is clearly not intended for the raw-format power user. Proper care should always be exercised when plugging or unplugging from a fragile USB-C or Thunderbolt port. Designers apparently do not understand the rigors of professional filmmaking and the perils we face daily.As with any consumer drive, ruggedness and reliability are always considerations.
Mechanical drives, with their precisely aligned spinning disks, are especially subject to failure from inadvertent shock, controller failure, or a myriad of other gremlins. Professionals are in a high-stakes game, so it’s important to understand the trade-offs inherent in a low-cost, high-capacity consumer drive. For instance, USB-C and Thunderbolt connectors are notoriously fragile, so exercise caution when plugging and unplugging and during routine handling of the data cable and plug. Most professionals can readily appreciate a low-cost portable 4TB HDD that fits neatly on a coffee shop table or in one’s back pocket. The G-Drive Mobile USB-C drive is best suited backing up entire projects or transferring large files to collaborators – who might or might not return it.Barry BravermanStill, for reasons of economy, the G-Drive Mobile USB-C HDD will appeal to professionals who can appreciate 4 TB of cheap portable storage. At the same time, professionals should be aware of the inherent risks.
Critical data, such as unbacked-up camera files, should never be entrusted solely to a single low-cost consumer device. Given this caveat, a great many pros will opt for the G-Drive Mobile USB-C HDD for routine backups and for transferring large files.Sometimes in a portable drive we need big. Sometime in a portable drive we need big and cheap. And sometimes in a portable drive we need to send off a drive and not expect it back.
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For all of these reasons, you might not want the priciest little high-performance SSD in the window. The G-Tech G-Drive Portable USB-C HDD with the whirring spinning disc might be exactly what you need.
I feel old saying this, but having used computers since before external hard drives existed, I can say with certainty that buying a hard drive is easier today than it’s ever been before. For traditional drives, prices are low, options are numerous, and capacities are so high that your only choices are “enough space,” “more than enough space,” and “way more than enough space.” I could point you towards a and end this article without another paragraph. Since Apple doesn’t even sell a Mac with that much disk space, you could back up five (or more) computers to that drive without running out of room.
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Or you could store a decade worth of digital photos alongside a giant media library. For $139!But buying an external hard drive isn’t necessarily that simple. There are a bunch of factors worth considering before making a purchase, including everything from reliability to portability, design, capacity, speed, and connectivity. Some hard drives are really cheap but have a higher chance of failing after a year or two of heavy use.
So in this How-To, I’m going to discuss the big issues you need to consider, and guide you towards the best external hard drive for your needsQuick OverviewMost hard drives are guaranteed to work for one to two years no matter what you do with them, ranging from occasional backups to continuous video streaming. They’ll generally last much longer if you don’t use them every day. However — and this is really important — if you keep a typical drive mechanism running 24 hours each day for two years, it’s going to burn out. Hard drive longevity used to be measured with an estimate of “Mean Time Before Failure” (MTBF). Each year has 61,320 hours, so a drive with a MTBF of 300,000 hours would promise to last 4.9 years if actively used 24 hours each day. Desktop drives typically promised higher MTBFs than laptop drives, but there were exceptions.Unfortunately, MTBF numbers were only predictions — and often inaccurately high. Consumers complained.
So drive makers switched to a different but even less useful metric: Annualized Failure Rate (AFR), which estimates the percentage of total drives made that will fail in a year due to manufacturing defects. All an AFR of “0.73%” suggests is that 7,300 of 1,000,000 drives will likely develop problems in year one due to defects rather than abuse. That low percentage may seem reassuring, but it obscures the reality that heavy drive use increases failures over time, and some drives are much better-suited to heavy use than others.My advice: purchase your drive with a specific purpose in mind.
If you’re backing up precious photos, home videos, or important files, buy a name brand, desktop-sized hard drive from a company with a track record of reliability, and pay a little more for it. It doesn’t really matter how the drive looks, just that it will work for a long time. But if you’re just using a drive to store apps, games, or iTunes movies that you can easily re-download at any time, or only intermittently turn a drive on for backups, you can feel comfortable going with something cheaper, more portable, or fancier-looking.Capacity + PricingIt’s easy to pick the right hard drive capacity these days: most external drives now offer at least as much space as a standard Mac (1TB) — and there are — and you can get an.
Most people will find that that 4TB is more than enough to hold years of accumulated photos, media files, and data, but there’s no wrong answer to the capacity question: it’s mostly a matter of personal preference right now. That said, there are sweet spots.Expect to pay around,. By “basic,” I mean the popular and consumer-grade desktop drives shown above from Seagate, a major (but not top) drive manufacturer with a good (but not great) warranty.
The are similar up until the 4TB mark, where the price doubles. Generally, 3TB to 5TB would be the sweet spots between capacity and pricing, but of the 3TB Expansion mirror comments I’ve seen elsewhere online: Seagate’s 3TB units had lots of problems. You’re better off considering 2TB, 4TB or 5TB units instead.Don’t be surprised that longer-lasting drives can cost twice as much as basic models. They’ll typically last longer, which is worth something. Similarly, don’t be surprised if a solid state drive (SSD) costs much more and offers lower capacity than a mechanical drive. SSDs are just beginning to become mainstream internal drives for computers, and their capacities aren’t yet at the “more than enough space” point.ReliabilitySince MTBF and AFR are such sketchy measures of hard drive reliability, I suggest that you focus on two more tangible factors: the reputation of the manufacturer, and the length of the drive’s warranty. A three-year warranty is the best you can expect from a consumer-grade external drive from a top vendor, regardless of whether it’s a.
(Only the very best internal SSDs now offer and, though notably with much less storage space than the drives covered in this article. See my How-To guides to, and.)If reliability is your major concern, as it generally is mine, I’d suggest you look most seriously at (featuring ultra-reliable Hitachi hard drive mechanisms) and, all of which have three-year warranties. I G-Tech’s excellent for 9to5Mac, and have trusted their earlier drives for many years without any issues. Was covered in my, and while it’s more expensive and lower-capacity than the G-Drive USB, it has no moving parts to worry about. Go with a G-Drive if you need a large reliable drive, or T1 if you want something small and reliable.Portability + DesignThere are five major types of external hard drives:,. The first two use 3.5″ hard drive mechanisms and are effectively non-portable: they sit on your desk, depend on wall power, and aren’t easy to carry in typical bags. Flash drives are keychain-sized but relatively limited in capacity and crazy expensive when they begin to approach laptop drive capacities. So if you need a portable hard drive with respectable storage capacity at a reasonable price, you’ll most likely pick a laptop-class drive with a 2.5″ hard drive mechanism inside.Owned by Seagate, boutique drive maker LaCie’s lineup nicely illustrates the relative size differences between the categories of external drives, though there are even smaller laptop and slim laptop drives out there now.
In January, I both, the world’s thinnest external mechanical hard drive, and, a boxy mirrored drive with twice the capacity. Both use USB 3.0 for data and power, with no need for an external power supply. Either one can easily fit into a laptop bag, backpack, or purse, but Seven is much, much smaller.If you want a portable, reliable hard drive at a low price with minimal design frills, consider, which have a. But if you’re looking for something with a distinctive design — and willing to compromise a little on long-term reliability — are definitely the best around.
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March 2023
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