What External Drive Should I Get?

[@askleonotenboom]

There are many choices, and they keep changing.

[@manavkabra9659]

Is seagate one touch good?

[@NoEgg4u]

A few items not discussed by our host: 1) Activity light: Some models have them. Some models do not have them. Some people prefer having the light. Some people do not want the light. Some people do not care. The activity light helps you if a job seems to be hung. You can tell if it is still active with the drive. The activity light tells you when the drive is idle. This is helpful if you started a long job (perhaps a backup), and your monitor's power saver mode kicked in. The activity light will let you know if the job is still running, without you having to wake-up your monitor. It is usually hard to know (pre-purchase) whether or not a drive has an activity light, because it is virtually never noted on the box, or on the manufacturer's on-line data sheets, etc. You usually have to find a review on youtube (and they usually do not mention it), and watch for the host to demonstrate the drive and if the drive is facing the camera, you might see it blinking. Or, ask the reviewer in the comment section. 2) Mechanical drives are great for backups. But if you expect to be performing requests from more than one program that will be using the drive (simultaneously), then that mechanical drive till slow down, probably by more than 50%. I have found that LaCie drives are remarkably good at handling multitasking. They contain Seagate drives. 3) Self powered drives are super convenient. They have only a single cable that conducts both data and power. But note that if you are using such drives on a hub, then do not expect more than 1 self-powered drive to work. If you plug in a second one, the drives will become slow and unresponsive. This applies to mechanical drives -- not SSDs. 4) The cable that is included in the box is usually short -- perhaps 16". If you will need a longer cable, purchase it at the same time you are purchasing the drive, to save on separate shipping costs. Be sure that the additional cable has the correct connection types on both ends. Be sure that the additional cable is USB 3.0 (or higher) certified. If it does not specify the version, I suggest you not purchase it. 5) Warranty. There is more to the warranty than the coverage period. There is the expectation that the manufacturer will honor their warranty, and what that entails. Western Digital makes it an ordeal to get an RMA (return merchandise authorization) number. It could take you a month to get the RMA number, and that is with you calling them a few times each week, and pressing this button and that button to finally be put on hold to speak to a human. And that hold can be 15+ minutes, and repeated as necessary, until you get your RMA number. If you manage to get an RMA number, then you might have to wait another month or two before they ship you your replacement drive. The warranty maze and hoops with Western Digital are by design. There is simply no way for that to be accidental. Seagate, on the other hand, does everything they can to make their warranty process pain-free. They answer their phones, without long waits, and without a press this and press that maze. You still have to press buttons when calling them. But it is minimal, and then a human answers, asks you some questions, issues you an RMA number, and you are good to go. Also note that some (all?) of Seagate drives include free data recovery. If they recover 3 TB of data on your 4 TB failed drive, they will send you the recovered data on a 3 TB drive, and that is in addition to them also replacing your failed 4 TB drive, resulting in you now owning both a 3 TB drive and a 4 TB drive. You get to keep them both. 6) Power switch. External drives that come with a power brick might, or might not, have a power switch. This might matter to you, or might not matter. If it matters, find the answer prior to purchasing the drive. 7) Power saving / Sleep mode Some drives will sleep, after X minutes of inactivity. For most people, this does not matter. When a request goes to the sleeping drive, it will wake up the drive. But this takes time, because the drive has to spin up. If this is a problem, or waiting is an annoyance, then avoid such drives. How do you know which drives sleep? Search and search for the answer. It just seems that it is not covered anywhere. The G-Technology drives sleep after approximately 5 minutes of idle time, and there is no way to configure them to not sleep. There are applications that will send requests to the drive to keep it busy every few minutes, preventing sleep. Or you could write your own script to send a few bytes of data to the drive every couple of minutes to keep it alive. On the subject of G-Technology drives, note that they have strong metal casings. You can stack them to the moon. But if you do so, you should blow a fan on them (on low, for a light breeze), to keep them from cooking each other. 8) If your new, external drive vibrates strongly, send it back for a refund / replacement. 9) Samsung makes two very good external drives: T5 and T7. The T7 will run at approximately twice the speed of the T5, until its cache runs out. If you will never write enough data, without rest, to fill the T7's cache, then it will always run at warp speed. If you do fill the cache, then it will run slower than USB 2.0 speed, much slower than mechanical drives. The benchmarks you see are never run with enough data to exceed the drive's cache, and so the drive always attains very fast scores. The T5 also has cache. But when its cache runs out, the slow-down is minimal. So if you have large writes to the drive, then the T5 will be faster. The cache is probably 10% of the drive's capacity. Maybe a little more.

[@HarpaxA]

10. Some might have hardware encryption, some not. I reckon this is much more important than power switch, which easily covered by buying regular switch.

[@orsoncart9441]

Thanks for all that very usful information.

[@MikaelKKarlsson]

My favorite first backup tip is for the user to take a moment to figure out what files are really important. It can be much less than one might guess, and fit on a relatively inexpensive thumb drive. (then make it two) I have a lot of files myself and enjoy photography now and then. But only a low percentage of it all is actually that important.

[@okaro6595]

Why would you store files that are not important?

[@Boz1211111]

One of the best tips here... I dont backup games because i can download them and they take up so much space

[@lightyear3429]

@@okaro6595 importance is not binary

[@johnc2438]

I tell my wife about this 3x storage space vs. storage needs -- but concerning our pantry shelves. But she likes to fill the shelves up so that I cannot find anything! "Where's that extra bottle of mustard, my Precious?" (About drives: I use two 4 TB drives -- has met my needs for years.)😖

[@Glipshone]

Ha.Ha. I had the same problem. Ended up buying another pantry and put it in laundry. Now that's almost got the same problem. She says she'll go through it (the old pantry) one day and throw out expired/old stuff, but I'm not holding my breath. And to anyone wondering why I don't do the job, I wouldn't dare, I'd end up in the dog house for "messing up her system.

[@Serai3]

I still have a Western Digital 250G drive that I bought in 2001. I don't use it often, but it still works when I plug it in.

[@stevenvanhulle7242]

That's the reliability I've come to expect from WD

[@DrBongos]

442 is the free space, not the uses space. Since that is about half the drive space, it's not to far off, though.

[@bme7491]

I have an 8TB external USB3.0 drive. I keep my desktop image backups, my iOS/iPadOS backups and Windows File History on it. Has served me well for several years. I'm using Paragon HDD manager for the desktop backups and iMazing for my iOS/iPadOS backups. Two great applications.

[@Brock_S]

A redundant backup of important files is also key. I had two Western Digital portable drives fail in the past year, one was only 6 months old.

[@HarpaxA]

you missed an important point, some might have hardware encryption (e.g. WD My Book), some not (eg. WD Element)

[@opticbit]

On a spinning drive you'll want to avoid smr (shingled) and get cmr (conventional) drive Shingled drives have overlapping data that is slower to be re-written. Upto a few months ago 18tb was the largest 3.5" spinning drive, now it's 22tb. 5tb largest 2.5" spinning drive. 8tb 2.5" largest SSD. To get 28tb currently and at the time of this video, you'd need two 14 TB drives, in raid 0- striped if one drive fails you lose it all. 3 14tb drives in raid5 would allow for a drive to fail and keep your data. Or 4 14tb in raid 10. Could also go with 4 10tb in raid 5 for 30tb of space, and many other combinations.

[@bobcollard11]

I use a WD Elements 1TB drive. It has been very dependable for decades. It is USB 2, plenty fast enough for the BMAX B3 Plus mini-PC I use.

[@KoryRude]

Modified config GENIOUS...SSD OS and SSD Primary drive storage synched with external Samsung or maybee WD. Lastly love advancing tech like NFC card values.😊

[@okaro6595]

SSDs are ay faster in writing also up to almost 10x. SSDs are much smaller and lighter and do not mind being dropped so they are much better on the go. They are not that expensive anymore, one can get a 1 TB Samsung for 87 € about same price as a 2 TB HDD. The important thing is to have more than one hard disk as backup.

[@mdh.3421]

I was always a big WD fan and then suddenly I had 1 dead 2gb my passport drive, 1 dead 8gb Easy Store WD drive and a 1gb Gdrive that started clicking really bad but hasn’t died yet. My luck with WD run out and I’m looking into a Seagate Ironwolf drive to replace them

[@gjoseph1628]

Nice Question! I just started the video and am only 4 seconds into it and you asked. I was so fortunate many years ago to find a, I try to remember, a 500 GB external hard drive at a popular consumer electronics store, for about 40 dollars; and I used it a few times. I have it stored in an out of the way spot and today I rarely use it, but it is nice for storage of files. Brand name or company name of the hard drive, "Toshiba".

[@abdullakc]

My suggestions are. Have two 4 TB with all your my documents folders on "users folder" copy all to the external easy 3 to 6 months. If your files are 2 TB.... or if u use much take that 8 TB harddisks. Take 2 so u will have redundancy incase one of the external harddisks failed. If ur files are very much just buy 2 16 TB externals... and so on. Use harddisks for storage and archives. Use SSD for OS. Don't but external harddisks which uses power chords. Because if u have a short or something u would break your harddisk! Be aware.

[@sylvainalain6637]

Can you do , when to get a NAS instead of many external drives ? I have 2 external hdd on my PC 2x 14 TB Wd elements. It’s my data + my Macrium reflect storage . Also I have 4 wd passports 4tb for my backup and 2 other wd passports 4tb for my offsite backup. Those wd passports contains only data , there’s no Macrium reflect backup on those

[@johnnyz7752]

That drive you showed when you said it has 442GB of data? That 442GB is the FREE space on the drive of 922Gb. 922GB total space minus 442GB free equals 480GB of data. Be careful to read the numbers correctly. 1:00. SSD drives are MUCH faster when it comes to BOTH reading and writing. I backup a 1/2 TB drive in about 15 minutes on my SSD drive when it takes more than 2 hours to backup on a HDD. Also, you’re right, when you are backing up your drive to the external hard drive, you’re ONLY writing to the drive. But, the day you need to restore from the backup drive to your computer, you will be READING from the backup drive. Lastly, SSD drives have a lower failure rate than HDD’s. Yes, SSD’s are worth the extra money.

[@InssiAjaton]

I have two NAS drives, one a rotating one and the other one a dual SSD. Opening a folder on the rotating one (with some 300 to 400 PDF files) takes a minute. Same, with a few additional files, on the SSD RAID1 takes just a couple of seconds. I am sure to replace the two-disk RAID1 with a 4-disk RAID5, using SSDs. Sooner or later…

[@claudiadances]

Thank you for your explanation on external drives, I have to update my current drive and this is very helpful for what to consider and to keep up with replacing your drive before they start to have issues.

[@DihelsonMendonca]

⚠️ I have some 40 HDDs here that was gone over the years, from all brands. Since 1990 or so. I've been transferring the content to new media before the old media can't be accessed. When you get experience, you know that a hard drive is not sure. I have so many external faulty Seagate HDDs I'm sick. Don't trust anything which spins. Hard drives should not be used as an external drive. Use a high quality SSD instead. Verify the TBW factor for each of them, as well as MTBF. No heads to crash at the disk surface, no spinning motor. But considering backup, you should have at least 3 copies of your important files located on different places. Even on a cloud, like Google drive. 🎉🎉❤

[@judmcc]

An external hard drives writes up to 120MB/second - an SSD is over 500MB/second. I don't have any hard drives anymore - too slow. I want a backup to finish overnight. I use a 8TB external SSD for backup.

[@glenccim]

With the elimination of DVD drives in new laptops, what should I look for in an external DVD drive?

[@askleonotenboom]

USB 3 interface. Note that external DVD drives are generally data-only, meaning that they cannot be used to view video DVDs.

[@trashtrashisfree]

Reusing my older barely used sata ssd for backups.

[@crazysquirrel9425]

Had too many WD drives FAIL. I try to shy away from them if I can.

[@mohsinfareed1797]

Great video as usual. I agree with all what you said. I always use WD external drives for many years and none of them let me down.

[@Maltojo]

I have always used drives built for internal use in a removable drive caddy. I currently just got me a Seagate IronWolf 8TB 7200 RPM to start using. An 8TB will hold two full backups plus 12 increments each. Only problem, and hopefully can find an answer here, is it takes 3 days to backup the 3TB or so full back up. I then store the drive (in it's caddy) in a fire proof portable safe. I've only had to use those backups twice in the last 20 years, but totally worth it!

[@robervaldo4633]

that’s why I’ve given up on using disks for backups: they’re too slow to backup to, and also (and importantly), to verify the backups I suggest using SSD’s as long as you can get them big enough for your needs, of course, and remember to backup and verify frequently (consumer SSDs are rated to store data for 1 year without power, datacenter SSDs for only 3 months)

[@lightyear3429]

But Seagate 8TB is a 3.5 form factor HDD, so it needs an external power supply to run, no? It can't be powered from UBS alone. While when inside a PC, it takes power from PC's PSU, how do you make it work as an external one?

[@Maltojo]

@@robervaldo4633. I switched to EaseUS -ToDo and now a full backup takes 4-6 hours. (about 3 TB per backup).

[@Maltojo]

@@lightyear3429 It's been awhile since I used an external enclosure, I think it had a power brick that plugged into the wall as well.

[@Maltojo]

@@lightyear3429 I have a bay that takes up a spot on the outside of the case (I have 4 available) two drive caddy's and DVD and Blu-ray drives. The Hard Disk just slides in the slot and inserts into the jacks for power and sata.

[@parkland4530]

Having some issues with my Passport. No more software support. Makes it difficult to move data to a new computer

[@HoundDogMech]

The problem with back ups even incremental backups is only your data is backed up. Your Programs Operating system drivers etc are not so I suggest besides backups one has a computable drive to your C:\ BOOT drive and occasionally (after new installs or updates to OS or drivers) that you CLONE your C:\ Boot drive to eliminate the need to reinstall all the above mentioned items. I have the Original 1 TB HDD and WD 512 GB M.2 PCIe SSD as the boot drive, and yes like most I'm not backed up. Shame on me. On the other hand Losing that stuff though inconvenient it not Life threatening nor would it be financially devastating.

[@askleonotenboom]

" only your data is backed up." - Not at all. Using imaging tools like Macrium Reflect, EaseUS Todo and others, your backups - including hte incrementals - include absolutely everything. Thats why I so strongly recommend image backups.

[@lcarliner]

Big program with SSD is their relatively short write life span compared with HDD's! For frequent backups the finite lifespan of each storage bit can be a serious issue! The biggest configuration booby trap is an internal SSD and inadequate memory! The accelerated paging activity will quickly shorten the life of the SSD. Also, another booby trap is an internal drive with with shingle mode storage. for equent write activity, the increased frequency of writes will greatly hit performance!

[@robervaldo4633]

the “write life span” of an ssd is not short at all, most people won’t be able to reach it in the drive’s lifetime, especially when used for backups which are written to much less frequently

[@Doc2rjae07]

how are you Leo, i have a question regarding a the (C) drive: as you explained in video; i have 1.04gb of free space on my pc, should i just gey another computer or should i follow your instrunctions on the tb specifications🤔🙏

[@askleonotenboom]

Another computer? WHY???? There are so many cheaper alternatives. Which one depends on what you use your computer for and exactly how you use it. The video covers getting an external drive, so that may be a direction. You could get a second internal drive. You could replace the drive in your computer with a larger one. But, no, this is not something I'd say needs a completely new computer.

[@Doc2rjae07]

i like the first option as well as the later...so would it be safer to invest in another drive: i am composer, and are currently doing some animation with two of the programs i use, your feedback is very much appreciated Leo🙏

[@octaviomta]

How about Enclosure, with one's do you recommend, I have some old enclosure that want to upgrade. Thanks.

[@lenircotia]

Thank you for the help! Valuable information!

[@IqbalHossain-vg8vr]

I'm thinking between hdd and ssd to use as a backup drive only for photos and videos and I only use phone and iPad Pro . I've heard hdd doesn't work with phone and iPad due to low power connectivity .so do u think samsung t7 shield 2tb would be a good buy for longterm storage?

[@DaLeSy.]

Do you have a video that shows how to do like a incremental back up once a week? If I already have my entire "my documents" folder saved to an external hard drive, I'm not sure how to get it to just save the files that have been updated or created since the last back up.

[@mikek.6940]

Windows has file history you can use which backups files that have been recently created by user.

[@lowridingtrucks88]

What brand ?

[@schoenerbeats]

Hello Leo Notenboom, I bought the WD My Book (12 TB) because of your recommendation. I noticed that there are WD software installers on the hard drive and now I wonder what your stance on that software is. Intuitively it's a "no" for me, but I trust your advice on this matter.

[@askleonotenboom]

Intuitively "No" as well. More here: askleo.com/should_i_use_the_backup_software_that_comes_with_an_external_hard_drive/

[@schoenerbeats]

@@askleonotenboom Thanks, I read it and added my personal experience.

[@DrBongos]

My latest drives are USB C. Probably no faster than USB3, though, as the bottle neck is the disk speed.

[@judeffr]

My data always gets corrupted on my cheap external drive. I did drop it a few times but it was broken when I first got it. it works when i put a new file on it but that file quickly gets corrupted. My friend told me that maybe they scammed me and they lied about the size of the drive; is there a way to test if my drive has as much on it as they claim and if when i put new things on its corrupting the old things?

[@askleonotenboom]

Corruption and size are unrelated. Probably living up to the "cheap" designation.

[@manavkabra9659]

Is seagate one touch good?

[@palestar828]

No. I heard that brand fails constantly. WD brand is the best from my research anyways

[@stevenvanhulle7242]

I've had two Seagate drives which _both_ failed within three years, even with no intensive use (just backups). I'd never recommend Saegate

[@stevenvanhulle7242]

@@palestar828 I concur. I've installed enough WDs (on my own computer and others') to have at least 500 000 power-on hours. None of them failed so far.

[@jamesedwards3923]

With all these garbage drives in recent news. Some of them I have considered buying. I have seriously re-evaluated my upgrade choices. I will will stick to Samsung T variants. 2TB max for the moment, might go 4TB. I have to do some research. And Wester Digital Platter Drives. 4TB.

[@davejoseph5615]

I think I will buy a simple USB-C to SATA adapter box and a cheap 2T WDC Blue.

[@marcse7en]

I've just bought a 2.5" 5TB USB powered WD Elements HDD. The drive runs at 4,800 RPM, and employs the much-hated Shingled Magnetic Recording system. The drive cost £109.99 / $135.24. It's a great backup drive! WD are my drive of choice! EDIT: Should an SMR drive be Defragmented or Trimmed? ... I think Trimmed? The only downside to the WD Elements, is that the USB port is soldered directly on to the drive PCB. Consequently, this means the drive cannot be used in other applications, and if the port is damaged, the drive has had it! ... Very disappointed by this move!

[@askleonotenboom]

If it's magnetic and rotating: defrag.

[@marcse7en]

@@askleonotenboom Why does the drive support "Trim" then? ... Trim is enabled in WD Dashboard.

[@askleonotenboom]

@@marcse7en Trim is specifically for SSDs and is not the same as defrag. No idea why they'd enable it for a rotating disk.

[@marcse7en]

@@askleonotenboom I know Trim is for SSDs, but apparently, it's also for SMR HDDs too! Trim is definitely supported and enabled. They wouldn't do that for nothing. It's because the drive is SMR. I've been Trimming the drive with Smart Defrag. EDIT: Trim support is one way you can tell an SMR HDD! ... Another is huge capacity on a 2.5" HDD.

[@Boz1211111]

As far as i know there are no cmr 5tb 2.5in drives, and for backup smr shouldnt be any problem, thats basically what its made for

[@fredyoung2165]

Why is a Thunderbolt SSD so much more expensive?

[@bradh.johnson2113]

I have literally spent hundreds of dollars over the years buying quality external HD. Not one time have they died...they have ALWAYS been rendered useless by OS upgrades and the data contained thereon lost forever. Tell me again why I should by another local HD? Thanks.

[@askleonotenboom]

I don't understand how an OS upgrade would render a disk useless. Every disk (and I do mean EVERY disk) I've had throughout upgrades and updates continued to work just fine.

[@bradh.johnson2113]

Thanks Leo! I use Windows and I have upgraded the OS and afterwards the computer no longer even recognizes the HD.. Granted, I believe the issue is the HD manufacturer's problem and not Windows because there was never an updated driver from the manufacturer.

[@askleonotenboom]

@@bradh.johnson2113 Honestly, I've never needed an updated driver either. In my experience external drives are some of the most generic, works-anywhere peices of PC hardware there are. I'm really curious as to what might be happening in your situation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@bradh.johnson2113]

@@askleonotenboom It has been awhile since I had this problem but as I recall, the software that came with the HD had a few utilities, like a backup program. After the OS upgrade, that software suite failed to function (so all backed up data was lost). I believe I also tried to then reformat the HD and it either failed or the HD worked intermittently, so useless. Like I said, it has been years, but I seem to think it was around Win ME to Win 7 or Win 7 to Win 10. But, I do still have the "dead" drives so maybe I will dig one out and play with it again. They were not bargain brand drives so, what do I have to lose. Thanks again Leo!

[@lightyear3429]

I've read that external HDD have inside lower quality/kinda broken internal HDD's. Because they can get away with it. I've never read so many "my drive failed" reviews about internal HDDs, compared to external ones

[@loocius]

Would A NAS Work?

[@askleonotenboom]

It can, yes.

[@3D_Printing]

2x 4Tb WD RED NAS on eBay bidding

[@ncrdisabled]

i have a 4tb westerns digital external drive that just died I lost all my backups. do you recommend Seagate

[@Glipshone]

My experience with Seagate has be fine. Same with Westerns Digital. If it's possible, get at least 3 drives to use as backups, at least that what I've read. Keep at least 1 of those backup drives "off site". That is, in a separate physical location like a relatives/friends house. You can have it password protected and/or locked in a secure tamper/fire proof metal container.

[@palestar828]

I heard westerns digital is better than Seagate and that Seagate fails all the time

[@robervaldo4633]

I totally disagree on the “no point using an SSD for backup”, and also about getting a much bigger drive than you need despite the usb3 speeds, the actual disk speeds have not improved much lately, the self test routine on a 2Tb disk takes about 6-8 hours, just multiply for bigger sizes, if you want reliable backups you should do that periodically, and it’s a lot of time on a disk, and besides that I regard disks as more fragile and more prone to damage than SSDs

[@stevenvanhulle7242]

SSDs have condierably less write operations, so, uless you're only using it for backup purposes, and even taking mechanical life into consideration, magneto-mechanical drives have a longer life than SSDs.

[@calvinfoo]

Just keep it in cloud. Why need to worry all the extra spec about keeping in hardware you need to maintain it yourself? Let the professionals do it for you. Cheaper still

[@lightyear3429]

"professionals" lol more like corporate overlords. Only slaves don't value their privacy

[@billjohnson9472]

it is not cheaper, way more expensive because you pay every month.

[@calvinfoo]

There are ways using cloud for free. Google drive, Dropbox, etc. I never paid for cloud for decades. Of course unless you need to backup terra bytes of things. For me I put all my documents in Dropbox. Big files saved all in google drive. I get all the documents easily and free for decades. Really not cost effective reason waste time and money do your own backup locally and it's risky. There are tones of reasons not doing so. House get robbed, all HDD are gone. Even if you need to pay a little fee for terabytes of cloud backup, still it is safer than own backup. Your method is if 10 years ago. Now, totally invalid and no longer needed with so many free or affordable cloud services

[@billjohnson9472]

@@calvinfoo many people are looking at what you put on the cloud. if you need access to the info it is very slow, limited by your network. my backups are about 4T, which takes a very long time to copy over networks.

[@Lardzor]

@1:06 you said that 442 gigabytes is roughly half a gigabyte, instead of half a terabyte. Now you have to live with that.

[@askleonotenboom]

Whoopsie. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Seriously, if that's my worst mistake ever, I can live with it. :-) )

[@BobDaniel]

"Get USB3 because it's faster"... then... "5400 RPM is fine even though it's slower"... confused...

[@MikaelKKarlsson]

Then again nothing lower than USB3 is sold today when it comes to external harddrives. 😉

[@esimin]

The speed of the system determined by the slowest component. 5400rpm is enough to complement usb3. 7200 is not better since the speed will be limited by usb3

[@judeffr]

@@esimin That makes sense, thanks for explaining that it was the bottleneck :)

[@heliogenesi]

3:44 how are ssd's just as slow as hdd's when writing what are you even talking about?

[@askleonotenboom]

SSDs are significantly faster when reading, not particularly so when writing. That's what I'm talking about.

[@heliogenesi]

@@askleonotenboom yeah i heard that why say the same thing again, my point was average ssd’s usually have much faster write speeds than average hdd’s.

[@NoEgg4u]

​@@askleonotenboom "SSDs are significantly faster when reading, not particularly so when writing. That's what I'm talking about." Whether an SSD has SLC, MLC, TLC, or QLC NANDs, along with the drive's controller, will determine the speed of the writes. The type of NANDs do not affect the read speed as much, but there are exceptions. For example, Micro Center has their own brand of flash drives. Sometimes they send you a coupon that you can bring in for a free 32 GB flash drive. That drive's read speed (as far as I can recall) is approximately 50 MB/s, and its write speed is 5 MB/s or a bit higher. So there are low end SSDs. But if you get, for example, a Samsung T5, it will leave any mechanical drive in the dust, for both reads and writes. And that goes for sequential reads/writes or concurrent reads/writes. So, yes, a nothing special SSD might have a top write speed of 200 MB/s, the same as a good mechanical drive. It all depends on the SSD in question. And you can hit the SSD with read and write requests from 10 different directions, and it will not slow down. A mechanical drive will struggle with multiple, concurrent requests.

[@IqbalHossain-vg8vr]

@@NoEgg4u bro I'm thinking between hdd and ssd to use as a backup drive only for photos and videos and I only use phone and iPad Pro . I've heard hdd doesn't work with phone and iPad due to low power connectivity .so do u think samsung t7 shield 2tb would be a good buy for longterm storage?

[@theconsul8452]

A youtube channel named "Ted-Ed" and you both upload a video at the same time everyday with a time difference no more than 5 minutes . I wonder why 🤔 , is there some kind of "lucky timing" ?

[@askleonotenboom]

We both seem to just schedule for the same time each day. (You know you can schedule when videos are posted, yes?) Given the number of folks uploading to KZbin every minute, I'm surprised there's not more.