# Buying External Harddisk



## Zangetsu (Jul 3, 2017)

Hi Folks,

Space and I want space..

Going to buy an external HDD (capacity upto 4TB).Shortlisted WD Passport 4TB.But the prices are high now. (may be due to GST).

If anybody, finds cheaper one under 9~10k. Please tell me


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## Flash (Jul 3, 2017)

4TB as a single HDD is a huge risk.


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## billubakra (Jul 3, 2017)

4 tb was like 9k before 30th here. Prices are increased now.


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## Zangetsu (Jul 3, 2017)

Flash said:


> 4TB as a single HDD is a huge risk.


Oh man!! Scary


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 3, 2017)

See this:
The Best Portable Hard Drive

Wait for a 1-2 weeks before buying imported pc parts like hdd,ram,processor,mobo etc.Now that all checkposts are gone,transit time & expenses for shipping from port cities to far away cities has also gone down & should reflect in prices of new stock.

4TB hdd is indeed a risk but as long as you have a good fast UL internet connection & majority of the space is going to be used for such data that can be re-downloaded easily,it is worth it.


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## Vyom (Jul 3, 2017)

Unless you want a 4 TB drive for commercial reason (like stocking up lots of footage before editing them) 4 TB is indeed a bigger risk.
I would say taking care of your drive, like keeping it on places which is not easily accessible (not on computer table), ejecting properly, keeping a tab on SMART data for its health, a 4 TB is STILL freaking huge basket to keep all your eggs at one place.

Better to have 2x2 TB HDDs.


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## Zangetsu (Jul 4, 2017)

Vyom said:


> Unless you want a 4 TB drive for commercial reason (like stocking up lots of footage before editing them) 4 TB is indeed a bigger risk.
> I would say taking care of your drive, like keeping it on places which is not easily accessible (not on computer table), ejecting properly, keeping a tab on SMART data for its health, a 4 TB is STILL freaking huge basket to keep all your eggs at one place.
> 
> Better to have 2x2 TB HDDs.


I agree, but a 4TB has better cost per gigabytes as compared to 2x2TB one...what do u say ?
Btw, anybody using 4TB external HDD in TDF ?


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 4, 2017)

No but I have 5TB external seagate portable.


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## Nerevarine (Jul 4, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> No but I have 5TB external seagate portable.


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 4, 2017)

Which contains backup of my two 2TB & one 750GB internal hard disks.


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## Nerevarine (Jul 4, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Which contains backup of my two 2TB & one 750GB internal hard disks.


I have a 250 GB HDD if that counts


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## Zangetsu (Jul 4, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> No but I have 5TB external seagate portable.


Desktop portable one ? which needs separate power ?



Nerevarine said:


> I have a 250 GB HDD if that counts


I have 500 GB Seagate Slim & 1TB WD Passport.
But still need one more HDD


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 4, 2017)

No,USB one that launched exclusively on Amazon India here in Nov 2016 I think.It is the largest USB portable HDD as of now.

@Nerevarine Well that's good if that's what you need.For me,my needs are a bit large.Currently I have around 10TB in portable external HDDs & around 7TB in internal HDDs.


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## Flash (Jul 6, 2017)

Vyom said:


> Better to have 2x2 TB HDDs.




@Zangetsu , Why don't you buy 2TB Internal & 2TB External?


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## billubakra (Jul 7, 2017)

Sorry about an offtopic question, how much free space does a 2tb internal drive have?


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## Nerevarine (Jul 7, 2017)

931 * 2 = 1862 GB i guess


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## Flash (Jul 7, 2017)

100GB = 93.13GB
250GB = 232.83GB
500GB =    465.66GB
1TB =     931.32GB

So, 2TB =    1862.64GB


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## Zangetsu (Jul 7, 2017)

Flash said:


> @Zangetsu , Why don't you buy 2TB Internal & 2TB External?


But that will be costly


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## billubakra (Jul 10, 2017)

Flash said:


> 100GB = 93.13GB
> 250GB = 232.83GB
> 500GB =    465.66GB
> 1TB =     931.32GB
> ...





Nerevarine said:


> 931 * 2 = 1862 GB i guess


Itni khali jagah kaati kaha hai? Around 150 GB not usable, hadd hi hogi.


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 11, 2017)

In digital world base number system is 2(binary number system) not 10(aka decimal number system). So One Thousand is not 1000 but 1024.However HDD manufacturer advertise the capacity in decimal system so the actual space of HDD is always less than advertised capacity(because at every stage you are dividing by 1024 & not 1000.e.g.100000bits is 100000/1024=97.65kb but advertised value will be 100kb).In case of 1TB hdd the bits are 1000000000000 but divide it by 1024 three times & you will get ~931gb so basically manufacturers are advertising decimal system values but PC will use binary system values.


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## Vyom (Jul 11, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> In digital world base number system is 2(binary number system) not 10(aka decimal number system). So One Thousand is not 1000 but 1024.However HDD manufacturer advertise the capacity in decimal system so the actual space of HDD is always less than advertised capacity(because at every stage you are dividing by 1024 & not 1000.e.g.100000bits is 100000/1024=97.65kb but advertised value will be 100kb).In case of 1TB hdd the bits are 1000000000000 but divide it by 1024 three times & you will get ~931gb so basically manufacturers are advertising decimal system values but PC will use binary system values.


This is the most common and known way manufactures misleads non informed buyers.


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## Nerevarine (Jul 11, 2017)

Dont forget, ISPs advertising their speed in bits instead of bytes


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## Hrishi (Jul 11, 2017)

Nerevarine said:


> Dont forget, ISPs advertising their speed in bits instead of bytes


It is the standard saaar! 

Sent from my ONE E1003 using Tapatalk


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## billubakra (Jul 13, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> In digital world base number system is 2(binary number system) not 10(aka decimal number system). So One Thousand is not 1000 but 1024.However HDD manufacturer advertise the capacity in decimal system so the actual space of HDD is always less than advertised capacity(because at every stage you are dividing by 1024 & not 1000.e.g.100000bits is 100000/1024=97.65kb but advertised value will be 100kb).In case of 1TB hdd the bits are 1000000000000 but divide it by 1024 three times & you will get ~931gb so basically manufacturers are advertising decimal system values but PC will use binary system values.


Why hasn't some firangi sued them for this?


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 13, 2017)

Because ISO standards are based on base 10 number system so using mega,giga,tera etc are all fine.That is why new standards were made for base 2 number system like kibibyte(Kib),mebibyte(Mib),gibibyte(Gib) etc.
Kibibyte - Wikipedia
Now if a hdd manufacturer sells a 2Tb hdd then it is legally correct because as per base 10 system & ISO standards 2TB=2*(1000000000000) bytes.


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## billubakra (Jul 14, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Because ISO standards are based on base 10 number system so using mega,giga,tera etc are all fine.That is why new standards were made for base 2 number system like kibibyte(Kib),mebibyte(Mib),gibibyte(Gib) etc.
> Kibibyte - Wikipedia
> Now if a hdd manufacturer sells a 2Tb hdd then it is legally correct because as per base 10 system & ISO standards 2TB=2*(1000000000000) bytes.


So, the terms kilobyte, megabyte etc. ate going to be things of the past. Wah now that's news.


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 14, 2017)

Not anytime soon,neither seagate nor WD has any plans to switch from decimal system storage units.Though I have seen some recent torrent clients showing speeds in Kib/s,Mib/s instead of Kb/s,Mb/s etc.


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## Zangetsu (Jul 28, 2017)

I am getting the WD 4TB external @9630. Is it a good deal ? or much lower price is expected ?

Also, why colors has different prices ?


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## Nerevarine (Jul 28, 2017)

Looks like a great deal, but be wary.. one failure and 4 TB of data evaporated


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## Flash (Jul 28, 2017)

Nerevarine said:


> Looks like a great deal, but be wary.. one failure and 4 TB of data evaporated


That's the risk he have to live with. 
@Zangetsu , why do you need that much space? Are you working as an admin or something or for private use?


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## Zangetsu (Jul 28, 2017)

Flash said:


> That's the risk he have to live with.
> @Zangetsu , why do you need that much space? Are you working as an admin or something or for private use?


private use and space constraints



Nerevarine said:


> Looks like a great deal, but be wary.. one failure and 4 TB of data evaporated


OMG...scaring me


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## whitestar_999 (Jul 28, 2017)

Buy 2TB internal & 2TB external.Use 2TB external as your main storage device & keep a backup of important/hard to redownload data in 2TB internal hdd.


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## Zangetsu (Aug 10, 2017)

Thanks to all for replying.
I have finally bought WD 4TB external HDD from amazon lightening deal

MOD can close this thread before its SPAMMED!!!


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## Flash (Aug 10, 2017)

Congrats @Zangetsu . How much is the normal price & lightning deal price?


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## whitestar_999 (Aug 10, 2017)

@Zangetsu just need to confirm one thing with your help,if possible.Run crystaldiskinfo & check whether it can show power on hours value & how many SMART attributes it is showing.All the screenshots I have seen of latest WD passport series & related research seems to indicate that WD is using a new sata-usb bridge chip in this series which only allow access to 4 SMART attributes & not even power on hours value is available(it shows as unknown).

Reference image see below,need to confirm if yours is same:


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## Zangetsu (Aug 10, 2017)

^^OK..will do that once I get the delivery

It was 15% cashback from SBI card 
so Rs 9899 - 1484 = *Rs 8415*


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## whitestar_999 (Aug 10, 2017)

Ok!I thought you already got it.I asked because I am planning on buying an external hdd but this inability to display power on hours & very limited SMART attributes is making me to think about dropping WD 2.5" portable hdd models altogether.In that case I would be left with only seagate.


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## Zangetsu (Aug 10, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Ok!I thought you already got it.I asked because I am planning on buying an external hdd but this inability to display power on hours & very limited SMART attributes is making me to think about dropping WD 2.5" portable hdd models altogether.In that case I would be left with only seagate.


Hmm...ordered yesterday and the deal is still going on. I will get it by today evening


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## whitestar_999 (Aug 10, 2017)

If possible make sure to post the result even in late night today as I am planning on getting one tomorrow.


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## Zangetsu (Aug 10, 2017)

Here you go

Your were right about it.
Now you will go for Seagate ?


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## whitestar_999 (Aug 11, 2017)

Zangetsu said:


> Here you go
> 
> Your were right about it.
> Now you will go for Seagate ?


Thanks!I think I have no other option.I like full list of SMART attributes & power on hours value for peace of mind.I could have even accepted only 4 SMART attributes but power on hours is must for me.


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## Zangetsu (Aug 11, 2017)

^^Can u give the URL of sites where it says about chip changes


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## whitestar_999 (Aug 11, 2017)

The sites don't exactly say chip changes but it is obvious as unlike seagate,WD uses its proprietary sata-usb board soldered onto the hdd inside case to prevent people from simply opening the case & use them as internal hdd(WD 3.5" desktop portable series still allows it though). Because of this same reason all SMART monitoring softwares can only display as much information as WD allows as all communications from internal hdd passes through the sata-usb bridge chip.You can see below links where people have asked about this on WD forums but standard reply they got from WD staff was that if they have any doubts they can run WD diagnostic tools & if it says "pass" then everything is fine else not.
My Passport 4TB SMART Attributes Missing
My Passport Ultra 4TB - Missing a bunch of SMART Attributes

edit: Another possibility might be that WD designed these HDD with incomplete SMART values in the first place for reasons best known to them.


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## billubakra (Aug 12, 2017)

@Zangetsu
Can you do me a favor and check on the invoice if Amazon has mentioned the word "Invoice" or not? If not then what have they actually mentioned?
P.S. I am talking about the printed invoice that came with the box. Also check on the orders page, what is mentioned on the e-invoice.


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## Zangetsu (Aug 12, 2017)

billubakra said:


> @Zangetsu
> Can you do me a favor and check on the invoice if Amazon has mentioned the word "Invoice" or not? If not then what have they actually mentioned?
> P.S. I am talking about the printed invoice that came with the box. Also check on the orders page, what is mentioned on the e-invoice.


Yes, Invoice word is mentioned
like Invoice No:, Invoice Date, Invoice Details
also 2.5% of CGST & SGST

and MRP on box is Rs 19500, so retailer can charge up to that much amount


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## billubakra (Aug 13, 2017)

Zangetsu said:


> Yes, Invoice word is mentioned
> like Invoice No:, Invoice Date, Invoice Details
> also 2.5% of CGST & SGST
> 
> and MRP on box is Rs 19500, so retailer can charge up to that much amount



No my point of asking was that Amazon does not let a person take credit of GST paid. They do that by calling us not actual users, though I am also unclear about this as of now so can't really explain. That is why they mention Bill of supply on the invoice also.


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## Zangetsu (Aug 21, 2017)

@whitestar_999 : Can u please move all the discussion about GST from this thread to GST discussion thread ?


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