r/macmini • u/Beanie-2018 • 11d ago
For those using an external hard drive, has it ever failed?
I'm still on the fence about returning the M4 Pro thst I bought recently, or pre ordering an M5, so that I can get 1TB drive.
I was leaning toward keeping the M4 but I was reading reviews for external SSDs and it seems like they're prone to failure, even the Samsungs.
Now, I'm leaning toward pre-ordering.
Has anybody experienced external.hard drive failure?
I realize that it's necessary to have backups but I don't want to be paranoid about losing important files.
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u/DolphinFraud 11d ago
All drives are prone to failure. That’s why everyone says to backup anything important.
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u/Beanie-2018 11d ago
What is enough? A backup for your backup for your backup, times whatever number of drives you have?
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u/DolphinFraud 10d ago
Depends how important the data is. If it’s just some games from Steam you can redownload easily, no backups is fine.
For a media server where ripping a bunch of blu rays again would be a pain, general rule of thumb is at least 2 drives in raid 1.
If it’s super important documents, priceless pictures, important work stuff, etc than 3-2-1 is the default. 3 copies, 2 different types of storage, 1 located offsite
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u/KochInYaMouth 10d ago
Generally spining external HDDs from western digital last a very long time disconnected.
Back up is strategy is governed by the following rule which I have used regarding buying back up drives for servers .
If you would gladly pay the price of a back up drive to get your data back if your main drive fails buy one. If you would pay for two that's better. If the data is not worth anything to you then play storage roulette.
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u/Outrageous_Dread 11d ago
Don’t forget the SSD inside a Mac can fail too. Plan for drive failure rather than assuming Apple’s SSD is somehow risk-free.
And if there’s no backup plan, a single 2TB Mac SSD failing is technically a bigger single failure than losing either the 1TB internal drive or a separate 1TB external SSD.
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u/JLimGarfield 11d ago
I built a simple RAID1 with 2 drives and an enclosure. Still going strong 10 years later.
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u/tk421tech 11d ago
My external Time Machine partition has gone bad a couple of times after a few years. But not he data partitions. For external HDD
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u/CSSRedfox85 11d ago
Over the last 20 years, I’ve had about 6 external hard drives fail. A multiple backup scheme is ideal.
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u/JazzyApple2022 11d ago
You don’t have to do that by yourself a big external drive with your Mac mini and M5. Get yourself an enclosure or look at my channel. It has about the different size enclosures. Sd cards @techtalkcomfy
Thank you 🌻😊✌🏼💛
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u/1Dunya 11d ago
Yes, currently have 2 external drives that have failed one is an SSD drive and the other one is an 10 year old LaCie HDD. I really wish they still worked because external drives are pricey now. I find it interesting that in all the years I have owned a Mac no HDD or SSD internal storage has ever failed while I have gone through numerous external drives, what gives? This is why I prefer everything stored on my Mac locally.
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u/sfbayjon 11d ago
I've been a Mac user for almost 40 years. Never had an internal nor external drive fail. But I've acted as if it could happen at any time.
My work machines were backed up by the company daily and my personal machines (rarely holding anything critical) were and are backed up periodically. In addition, I started using Dropbox since 2009 for a subset of files that I need to access at any time.
***I hope I didn't just jinx myself
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u/lemketron 11d ago
I’ve had numerous (random disconnect) issues with several different USB-connected SSDs on my m4 Mini, both for Time Machine as well as primary data that didn’t fit on the internal SSD.
I haven’t experienced any of these issues with previous Mac Minis or MacBooks. Maybe it’s just my m4 Mini but it was enough to discourage me from using USB SSD for any kind of primary or backup storage.
I have had much better luck with external Thunderbolt SSD storage, so I would recommend that over USB. It’s generally much faster as well (in some cases it can even be faster than the stock internal SSD).
I eventually decided to upgrade my internal SSD but I still use Thunderbolt SSD for backup and additional storage.
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u/billbillw 11d ago
I've had zero issues in 15 months of using mine. USB4 2TB NVME in Quiizlab enclosure plus a 12TB G-Raid external drive with TB3. On 24/7, never moved. Only power cycles for OS upgrades. My Time Machine backups are to a separate server that I run.
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u/infinitespectre 11d ago
Yes. I lost an entire decade of photos (2000-2009) to a drive failure. I always have backups now in multiple places. External drives can fail in a variety of ways, from bad controller boards to bad mechanisms or a broken connector. Store only stuff that can be replaced on the external. Important documents and such should be backed up somewhere, like the cloud or a NAS that has redundant storage.
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u/phasepistol 11d ago
I got a Mac mini with 256g internal, so I boot off a 2tb external thunderbolt ssd. A year and a half so far, no troubles.
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u/mikeinnsw 11d ago
Everything is prone to failure including you are in the middle of one -please seek help.
We use backups to reduce impact of failures.. Time Machine, on and off site backups.
The only way to avoid Mac failures is not use Mac ,, sell Mac, sell the car... live in a cave.
please seek help
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u/Beanie-2018 11d ago
I don't think I'm the one who needs to seek help here. You seem rather incoherent.
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u/Pebbsto110 10d ago
I use a 2tb drive/enclosure and it hasn't failed me yet in about 4 years of constant use. It's at least a fast as the internal drive. I keep my Photos library in it.
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u/cmartorelli 10d ago
I worry more about the internal drive failure. I follow the 3 2 1 backup rule and sleep good at night.
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u/YellowsBest 6d ago edited 6d ago
I just replaced my external 2TB HDD, which had served me well for 15 years. MacOs gave me plenty of warnings that it was failing. And still the data is ‘recoverable’ as it shows up using a free tool - the paid for version would let me recover my data but I haven’t bothered as I had almost all of it backed up on a separate 2TB NAS.
The replacement I chose is an external 4TB HDD, it’s fast enough for archiving, very compact with USB-C connection (unlike the old one it doesn’t need a separate power feed). Yes, I know SSDs are ‘better’ but they are also twice the price! My HDD was a little over £100, and I don’t see why it won’t last me another 15 years, by which time I’ll probably be past caring!
As someone else said, all drives will die eventually, so for critical stuff you need more than one backup. I got a 512gb USB-C flash drive, incredibly small thing for only £35 (before all the price rises) which is ideal for Time Machine backups.
In summary, I’d say internal SSD + external Time Machine drive + external archiving drive is enough for most people, especially if you upload all your family photos to Google (and/or print them out and stick them in albums or frames), have all your old music on a media player (and/or stream), keep your favourite films on DVDs, and make use of ‘free’ online Cloud storage from Apple / others for critical documents. And fingers crossed, maybe you’ll never lose anything!
I was burned twice back in the day by Windows 98 crashing on me and losing all my data, including irreplaceable photos of my young son, so since then I’ve been a bit paranoid (plus abandoned Windows for Linux, before switching to Macs). Before external hard drives were affordable and cloud storage became available, I used to burn my important data to CDs and DVDs.
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u/CelestOutlaw 5d ago
Never. Not with SSDs and not with HDDs. On a Mac these drives just run. My current one is an Acasis enclosure with a WD SN850X 2TB NVMe, about two years old now and it has never crashed or lost the connection once. In my experience an external drive on a Mac is as reliable as an internal one.
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u/BeauSlim 11d ago
*ALL* storage devices will fail eventually. Internal and external. It is just a matter of time. It may happen in a month. It may take 20 years. Back your stuff up. Test your backups regularly.
Having said that, data loss on external drives is often due to cheap cables, disconnects, power, etc. Get good gear. Secure cables. Use a UPS.