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Best 2TB external USB 3.0 drive for SP3

Len J

Active Member
I have about 750 GB of raw photographs in my Lightroom Catalog. The 512 GB drive is obviously not large enogh to hold them and in addition, I don't need the pictures with me always. I'm looking to pick up a quality, fast 2 TB 3,0 USB external portable Drive

Anyone have a recommendation based on experience?

Thanks

Len
 
I have the 2TB external usb 3.0 drive mentioned above and it works with the SP3 without any issues. No power supply needed.
 
I have the 2TB external usb 3.0 drive mentioned above and it works with the SP3 without any issues. No power supply needed.
Well, that's a good news. But I'm cautious when recommending users to spend money. The SP3 USB post is not so powerful than read here somebody reporting issues when writing to a USB memory. And I think it may be a lack of power issue.
 
Even with a potable....why?

If you use a portable size drive, you'll want to get a 6' "split" USB cable (unless you already have another plan worked out) to reach from the drive, to the Surface Pro power brick USB port. I have seen several people complaining that USB port on the SP3 itself can't power the drive. But the cord from the wall to the power brick is so short, and the distance from the SP3 to the brick so long, that's difficult to get power from the brick and still plug the drive into the SP3.

This is what I got for my drives... http://amzn.com/B00439567Q
 
How about an alternative way of thinking...

Why not consider a WiFi-connected Network Attached Storage (NAS) box. This would obviously not be portable... as it would be sitting on a desk somewhere. But, you could access it via WiFi from practically anywhere (like a private cloud). They are not all that expensive, and many have built-in RAID capability for protection of your data.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/personalcloud/
 
It doesn't even need to be WiFi connected so long as it's on the same network. Wired works.
 
I have a NAS in my office and several customers with a 9TB NAS and one customer with 2 9TB NAS. They can be very very handy.
 
but USB 3.0 is 5gb full duplex. Not that the HDD will go that fast but it could swamp the WiFi transferring large files.
 
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