Question: I want to buy 2TB hard drive. Despite not really wide choice, i’m unable to find any info that would ensure me which drive is correct.

I want to use it as an external drive in HDD hub. It will be used for backups and “data not worthy of being on internal drives”. It will be accessed every few days most likely to just read data, moving big amount of data will be rare occurrence.

It seems there are 3 options – Seagate, Toshiba, WD. I have heard that Seagate likes to fail often, which collides with long life requirement, but i have heard it a few years ago. WD are pretty expensive, especially RED and GOLD, but these are definitely overkill for my requirements. I’m especially confused when lower speed HDD with smaller cache is more expensive than better counterpart of the same model.

Answer:

I want to buy 2TB hard drive. Despite not really wide choice, i’m unable to find any info that would ensure me which drive is correct.

I want to use it as an external drive in HDD hub. It will be used for backups and “data not worthy of being on internal drives”. It will be accessed every few days most likely to just read data, moving big amount of data will be rare occurrence.

It seems there are 3 options – Seagate, Toshiba, WD. I have heard that Seagate likes to fail often, which collides with long life requirement, but i have heard it a few years ago. WD are pretty expensive, especially RED and GOLD, but these are definitely overkill for my requirements. I’m especially confused when lower speed HD with smaller cache is more expensive than better counterpart of the same model.

ANY drive can fail at any time. The best guide you have is what the manufacturer warranty is. If the manufacturer only has a 1 year warranty, then THEY think the failure rate after the first year will be so high that the costs are not acceptable. A drive with a 5 year warranty is your best choice.