Marshall University Information Technology recommends using one of three brands of external hard drives: Western Digital, Seagate, or Samsung SSD. These brands are the largest makers of hard drives in the world and offer the best product warranties. Many other external hard drive manufacturers often use Western Digital, Seagate, or Samsung hard drives in their final products labeled with their own packaging and controllers. Although Toshiba, Fujitsu, Hitachi are large suppliers of hard drives, they are not as large in the marketplace in the US and do not provide as good of warranties and support at this time.
NOTE: The following information is recommended for the purchase of external hard drives for the purpose of backing up personal data. These can be purchased at places like Best Buy, Office Depot, or online at Amazon or NewEgg. Marshall University employees who are purchasing backup drives for office use should contact their IT Service Provider or the IT Service Desk for supported product recommendations.
Western Digital My Passport Ultra for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Requires reformatting for Mac OS X. Available in 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 3TB.
A common online price for these kinds of hard drives as of August 2015:
- $159.99 for 3TB USB 3.0
- $99.99 for 2TB USB 3.0
- $69.99 for 1TB USB 3.0
- $59.99 for 500GB USB 3.0
Samsung Portable SSD T1 for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. These drives are more expensive but offer fast read/write speeds with solid state V-NAND technology. Available in 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB.
A common online price for these kinds of hard drives as of August 2015:
- $499.99 for 1TB USB 3.0
- $239.99 for 500GB USB 3.0
- $149.99 for 250GB USB 3.0
Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 for Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Requires reformatting for Mac OS X. Available in 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, and 5TB.
A common online price as of August 2015:
- $132.99 for 5TB USB 3.0
- $129.99 for 4TB USB 3.0
- $99.99 for 3TB USB 3.0
- $84.99 for 2TB USB 3.0
Western Digital My Book for Windows and Mac OS X 10.6.5 or later (requires reformatting). Available in 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, and 6TB.
A common online price as of August 2015:
- $199.99 for 6TB USB 3.0
- $129.99 for 4TB USB 3.0
- $109.99 for 3TB USB 3.0
- $99.99 for 2TB USB 3.0
MU IT recommends external hard drives that support USB 3.0. This newer standard should provide twice the speed of eSATA and nearly ten times the transfer speed of USB 2.0 and offer improved power management. USB 3.0 is backward compatible with USB 2.0. Devices interoperate with USB 2.0 platforms.