Seagate Backup Plus 3TB USB 3.0 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive STCA3000101 Black

Pros: Very fast over USB 3.0. Quiet. No stability problems that I can detect. Even without a fan, these drives stay relatively cool.

Cons: The included software is not very flexible. I encrypted the drive with TrueCrypt and the included software was no longer able to back up to the encrypted disk. Western Digital gives you a version of Acronis that doesn't mind if the disk is encrypted, as long as a Western Digital drive is connected.

Overall Review: I was a Seagate-only customer for a long time (a few dozen drives per year) but stopped buying Seagate drives a few years ago after a series of failures on both internal and external Seagate drives. I took a chance on this drive due to a promotion and was pleasantly surprised. I now have four of them, one running 24x7 and three rotated for off-site backups. It's been only 4 months but I'm happy with them so far.

Pros: A lot of storage at very fast speeds with USB 3.0

Cons: It runs hot. By hot, I mean > 60C.

I was in the middle of backing up my files before noticing that my HD Tune noticed me of a drive failure. Turns out the maximum temp on this drive is suppose to be 55C, but when I was backing up my 1TB hard drive, the temps went to 62C. I immediately turn it off, because I know that 60C is not the right temperature for a hard drive to be operating at. I had to wait 2 hours before the drive cooled back to 30C.

Overall Review: Despite what the name says, you should not use this for backup of important files. The enclosure is designed with little functionality in mind. The vents don't do much to help cool the drive. If I used it for backing up files, I would expect drive failure within a year.