Western Digital or Seagate?

[SHRED]

Looking to buy a 2TB portable external hard drive.
Just wondering if either is superior or is it a coin toss?

[SouthernLiberal]

1. I haven't bought WD in years....

Because the first drive I bought from them failed within a couple of months. Since then, I have only purchased Seagate. I did have some trouble with a drive that was three or four years old when I got a new PC. Other than that, they've given me no trouble at all.

I can't say that Western Digital is bad. It's been years, and it was just one drive. But it did change my mind about what drive to buy.

Hope this helps

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

2. I like this seagate $85

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822178862
Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Slim 2TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive with Mobile Device Backup Model STEH2000100 Platinum

[teach1st]

3. I have tons, both brands

Some of my external drives are quite old. I've never had a problem with either brand. I just recently checked all of the drives and they're all working. That said, I tend to buy Seagates now, based on what I've heard from others.

[Afromania]

4. coin toss.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. I have one ancient Seagate and two WD external drives and they all work fine...

That, of course means little in the grand scheme of things, but goggling around, it depends upon whom you ask. Hitachi seems to have an edge over both of them.

They're cheap enough you might just buy two. Or three. And buy a few TBs of cloud storage.

[Egnever]

6. Most of the things I have read say HGST are most reliable

I used to buy only Seagate but have a few WD as well.

I don't think I have ever had a Seagate outright fail on me.

That said this site has data for thousands of drives from the big manufacturers.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016/

Looks like HGST drives fair best with WD pulling up the rear. That said different sized drives seem to have different failure rates.