What backup media to store Macrium Reflect images-file-folder backups

Thank you again! I am very appreciative of your time!

ignatzatsonic said:

The internal drives get warm to the touch in an external dock, but they are in the open air, not confined inside a case within inches of a CPU. I don’t worry about static charges or dust. I don’t touch the circuit board. The dock and the drive are only used for 3 hours every month or two and then both go back to a box in the closet.

That is good to know! Now

If you need to use some type of external every day, maybe you’d choose one that had an enclosed drive and was constantly connected—rather than a dock. That’s not my case.

Since I am working off external drive with all my personal data teveryday maybe for that purpose I would go with an external enclosed HDD, but for backups as I like the idea of back it up and the store it in a closet or something. For that purpose I would possibly go with the bare drive route.

From the studies I’ve seen, the correlation between heat and drive failure is quite weak, assuming heat isn’t extreme. Barring design flaws, sheer random luck is the big factor.

This is good to know.

Here’s some speed tests I did for comparison:

All data copied from an internal Samsung 1 TB drive to an internal WD 3 TB backup drive; 662 GB, 90,939 files; 174 minutes; aka 228 gigs per hour; average file size 7.3 mb.
All data copied from the same internal Samsung 1 TB drive to an external Rosewill dock containing a WD 1 TB Blue drive through the case’s USB 3.0 port; 630 GB, 88,400 files; 190 minutes; aka 199 gigs per hour; average file size 7.1 mb.
The target drives in each instance (WD 3 TB Green and WD 1 TB Blue) aren’t identical. I haven’t tested, but I suspect the Blue is faster than the Green generally. But this gives you some idea of speeds to expect from an internal to an external docked drive—about 199 gb per hour in my case, using USB 3.0.

Thank you for sharing this. Is the WD 3tb backup drive inside your case? It seems like it is faster in the case than in the dock.

I can’t make it clearer on why I like discrete C and D drives.

No problem!

I use a Crucial MX100, which was a mid-level performer at the time I bought it.

Thank you for sharing!

Also, another thing here about internal drives, what are the RPM's of the internal drives that you use?

I feel that if an internal drive is 5400 I might as well go with the enclosed WD MyBook or even Passport since I have been hearing that they use 5400 rpm drives. Or does it really matter if the internal drive is 5400 or 7200RPM? Or is it just overall the internal drives are just plain better than the enclosed HDD's?

Wow! Making sure here! You have exactly the WD Blue internal and enclosure? If so, how do you like the performance? Do you think that would be the way to go over the external one like the MyBook or Passport?

Yep, the exact same WD Blue HDD and Sabrent Enclosure. I actually have 2 of them. One for MR Images, UserFiles, etc and one connected to my NetGear AC 1750 router (USB/FileSharing) and use it as a poor mans NAS ... lol

I use the setup on my Desktop (see specs) and the performance is good.
MR Image of my C: Drive (250GB SSD) which is approx 18GB takes about 3min

I prefer the External Enclosure with an HDD vs a MyBook, Passport, etc. ... Way more options / bang for the buck.
1. Some of them you can't easily replace the HDD (if at all) if it goes bad.
2. Need more space ... just buy another 1TB or larger and pop it right in.
3. You can use 2.5 or 3.5 HDDs
4. You can use an SSD

Eagle51 said:

Yep, the exact same WD Blue HDD and Sabrent Enclosure. I actually have 2 of them. One for MR Images, UserFiles, etc and one connected to my NetGear AC 1750 router (USB/FileSharing) and use it as a poor mans NAS ... lol
I use the setup on my Desktop (see specs) and the performance is good.
MR Image of my C: Drive (250GB SSD) which is approx 18GB takes about 3min
I prefer the External Enclosure with an HDD vs a MyBook, Passport, etc. ... Way more options / bang for the buck.
1. Some of them you can't easily replace the HDD (if at all) if it goes bad.
2. Need more space ... just buy another 1TB or larger and pop it right in.
3. You can use 2.5 or 3.5 HDDs
4. You can use an SSD

Thank you very much Eagle51 again!

Good to know the performance is good. Just a matter of what I am going to do. I am presented with some good options to think about. Looking forward to the next steps.

Another thing I learned that if I go the external HDD route like the WD MyBook that I can open up the enclosure take the drive out and use it like you have discussed.

Thank you again!

Another thing I learned that if I go the external HDD route like the WD MyBook that I can open up the enclosure take the drive out and use it like you have discussed.

Cool ... Long as you can change the HDD fairly easy. I guess it comes down to preference and price then :)

FWIW .. Crystal Disk Mark test ... Run on my Desktop PC (system 2 in specs) and both WD Blue HDD's are identical models

PC Internal WD Blue HDD ...
MR Full Backup Image (18GB) @ ~1.6 GB/s


USB 3.0 Sabrent Enclosure with WD Blue HDD (Quick Removal Policy) ...
Note: Have not tested it set to Best Performance(Write Cache Enabled)
MR Full Backup Image (18GB) @ ~1.0 GB/s

I don't have one of these, but it may be another option - for desktop users
ORICO 5.25 SATA HDD Drive Internal Caddy Adapter 659436413344 | eBay

Hey Eagle51,

Thank you for the response.

Eagle51 said:

Cool ... Long as you can change the HDD fairly easy. I guess it comes down to preference and price then :)

On these hard drives I wouldn't do it in the beginning, but in the future I might as I transition into more of using internal hard drives with docking stations etc.

FWIW .. Crystal Disk Mark test ... Run on my Desktop PC (system 2 in specs) and both WD Blue HDD's are identical models
PC Internal WD Blue HDD ...
MR Full Backup Image (18GB) @ ~1.6 GB/s


USB 3.0 Sabrent Enclosure with WD Blue HDD (Quick Removal Policy) ...
Note: Have not tested it set to Best Performance(Write Cache Enabled)
MR Full Backup Image (18GB) @ ~1.0 GB/s

It looks like the Sabrent Enclosure is not good with speed. Maybe I should return it and get a 5.25 swap bay instead, which I can connect to my motherboard sata. What do you think?

Hey Everyone,

Update here, I did buy two of the WD MyBook external drives and have set them up today. I got a good deal so I figured I would start off with them and then transition into the internal drives with docking stations etc. So far so good with them. Here is the first bench mark. Let me know what you think and if I did this right.Also, what does this mean? I need to learn how to read them.



I might buy one more HDD, but this one would be internal and I am strongly thinking about getting the 5.25 swap bay. Those look cool.

SIW2 said:

I don't have one of these, but it may be another option - for desktop users
ORICO 5.25 SATA HDD Drive Internal Caddy Adapter 659436413344 | eBay

Thank you very much SIW2 for your time and input. I appreciate it. Looks cool! Something like this is what I am strongly considering to use with internal drives. Thank you for sharing.