External drive or internal drive w/enclosure?

I've got two external drives, one is a seagate free agent go flex, the other is a seagate desktop model. The desktop model is about 3-4 years old and likely reaching end of life. The Go-Flex has started flaking out a bit after only a year (will suddenly disappear, and i have to unplug it and plug it back it) and I'm looking to replace it.

It appears the western digital My Book Studios get rave reviews. I have a 2011 iMac so I would prefer FireWire. I will likely buy duplicates and use one as a time machine backup. Portability really isn't an issue. I'm wondering if I should just bite the bullet and buy an external drive bay? But I'm looking at likely over $1000 all said and done vs a couple hundred for external drives. If you do have a drive bay, what do you have and how do you like it?

What brand have you found to be most reliable? Is it better to purchase an external enclosure and a high end internal drive?

I have just under a TB of photos which begs the next question. How long, and in what format and medium do you keep client photos? Do you process to full Rez JPEG and dump the RAW?

At home, I use external docking system with 'internal' HDD to save LOTS money; for travel, I use WD Passport, which is up to 2T this day.

Doesn't matter. Whatever is best and most dependable, whatever is most cost-effective price wise for the individual, and most importantly, whatever is portable so one copy can be carried off-site for external storage.

Take a look at one of these - http://www.dlink.com …/network-attached-storage I've had a older model (DNS321) for a few years and it works great.

With the cost of HDD media dropping every day, why not use both? I just bought a new external drive (WD Passport 1TB) which will be used exclusively for backup of stuff I already have on external WD Passport 500GB as well as on WD internal 1TB. It is a backup to the backup.

I keep everything across three 3TB Western Digital external drives and burn blue ray data disks for storage off site.

If you're estimating $1000, that's quite a bit. I'm not sure what your after though, how many drives, raid configuration, etc.

I just bought two internal drives @ 2TBs each. That should help with my storage for a while. I also have an external USB dual enclosure that holds two 2TB drives. Plus a bunch of other external drives. A hdd enclosure can be purchased for $40. 2TB drives can be had for ~$100.

Seagate vs Western Digital vs others, I just go with whatever receives the most reviews. There will always be bad eggs in a batch. That's why you have backups.

Just a note regarding your Go Flex external: it is typically the usb controller that fails. The actual drive may very well be fine.

If anyone ever has an external drive crap out on them - rip it out of the housing and either connect it internally in a desktop or buy the appropriate adapter (or a new housing) and connect it that way. Chances are pretty high that the drive is still good.

With that kind of budget, I'd look at a 2big or a 5big:

http://www.lacie.com …ucts/product.ht​m?id=10573
http://www.lacie.com …ucts/product.ht​m?id=10607


But the key question is risk. How important is your data and how good is your backup system? If this is pretty much all you have, spring for the better storage. If you've got a sweet 'duplicates everything every day' setup, you can take chances with cheaper consumer boxes.

I use a WD Passport for travel & a WD My Book for storage. I prefer an external drive living in Florida the lightning capital of the US. I have been hit once and had a tree come down on the power line another time, that was a real light show in the house. lesson learned.