I need a versatile external Hard Drive

I am looking for an external drive that can easily switch between a PC desktop and a Macbook. I bought a Toshiba 1tb slim drive. Everything was going well for a month and suddenly I started hearing a clicking sound. I ignored it, thinking it was just working. After another week it wouldn't read on any computer. Support told me it needed to be replaced. Of course all of my files were gone. After they sent another, I had it only for a few weeks when I heard the same sound. I got rid of it and haven't gotten a new one yet.

 

That clicking sound of the hard drive is obviously a mechanical problem. Since the disk itself is rotating then it is susceptible to such problems. That is why we are now making a thorough research on Solid State Disk ever since I spotted it in this forum. Having no moving parts is a big advantage since mechanical problem is already ruled out. However, since SSD is a new technology, we need to make more observations.

 

Clicking sound is likely a warning that it's going to break down. Or also known as "click of death". So if it ever does it, you'd have to back up those files to somewhere. My old laptops are sort of my temporary backup storage when I need to move files around. That's why I have a thread asking, what favorite brand/model external do people have.

 

Just asking, did you drop your drive before you hear this clicking noise? Hard drives really hate drops. There is a high chance that you'll break it. If you want a new one, in my opinion, any hard drive from popular manufacturers will do. You probably just got a bad one from Toshiba. My friends have external Toshiba hard drives like yours but they work just fine.

 

I have a WD My Passport Ultra that has worked for me very well, it has some advanced features like hardware encryption to protect your files if you think that you need something like that, it also comes with software to automatically backup itself to a service like dropbox but I don't use that feature so I can't vouch for it.

That being said, this portable drives are not that "portable" if you go very rough on then, consider purchasing a hard case for transportation, after all it is a 7 bucks investment to protect a 100 dollar one, or consider a SSD one with (few to) no mechanical parts that could fail on you but get ready to pay big bucks for that.

 

I have the Seagate 1TB external hard drive when I was using window, and now I am on MacBook, I didn't think it's compatible to use on both OS. My Seagate lasted me for several years now, and I have so many files on it. I am hoping one day I will be able to move it to the Mac portable hard drive.

 

If its making a clicking sound on both ocassions that sounds like mechanical failure. If this drive being moved frequently, particularly it you are moving it while it is turned on, you might want to look for an SSD instead, as drives with moving parts really don't like being moved.

If your Windows and Mac PCs are in the same place, and you don't need to move the drive, is it worth setting up a NAS, possibly wireless, which both machines can access? It is more expensive, but some of the entry level ones come with multiple drives and basic raid that would protect you in case of a disc failure. Some of the Apple devices like Airport would be compatible with Windows, but I've never used them personally, so I can't advise. (Alternatively a discontinued Mini-mac is $200 and could be used as a server to store files).

If you don't mind your data going online, there's also the cheaper cloud backup option.

 

Well, to clarify, I think that if you format it for windows you can read it on your Mac but not write to it, if you want to use it for your Mac exclusively you have to format it using the tools that OSX provides. This is independent of the actual brand of the drive and has to with the file system used to format the drive. I am sure some manufactures provide you with drives that come formatted to be used on OSX as the factory default but that's a software thing, the actual hardware is the exact same, so don't pay more for a "Mac Compatible" drive because you can use any other one if you format it.

 

Thanks for the clarification @fcuco ! At the moment I can't format my Window external drive yet as I have years of photos on it, and haven't been downloading them to my Mac. I don't know if I should either since I am afraid something can go wrong or causing trouble too.

My niece gave me a Mac external hard drive, which I will be using exclusively with my Mac, to be on the safe side. I am not tech savvy so I go for the safest route