External Hard Drive - Long Term Storage
Discussion
Hi all,
Looking at getting an external hard drive, something I can put on all photos, memories etc from the last few years on. It'll probably not get used much, every 6 months or so to just update it etc.
From my initial bit of research it seems one with 3.5" drive has better long term performance, and not as SSD.
Anyone got any tips or recommendations, will probs be get a second, use the cloud, sort out a NAS or something else..!
Cheers
Josh
Looking at getting an external hard drive, something I can put on all photos, memories etc from the last few years on. It'll probably not get used much, every 6 months or so to just update it etc.
From my initial bit of research it seems one with 3.5" drive has better long term performance, and not as SSD.
Anyone got any tips or recommendations, will probs be get a second, use the cloud, sort out a NAS or something else..!
Cheers
Josh
I tend to stick with WD and Seagate, had issues with other disks such as Toshiba in the past. Bear in mind any HDD won't last forever either and should be one part of your backup strategy alongside cloud ideally (ie. a copy of data also held off-site).
If you don't need much capacity then one (or two) drives should be fairly cheap. Remember to keep an eye on drive health using something like Disk Sentinel which will tell you when a drive's health starts to decline.
If you don't need much capacity then one (or two) drives should be fairly cheap. Remember to keep an eye on drive health using something like Disk Sentinel which will tell you when a drive's health starts to decline.
Just get a NAS, so much easier and more efficient than a USB HD. Mine backs up all my mobile phone photos (same as Google photos etc), mirrors documents from PCs, acts as a CCTV recorder, and will do 1 million other things if you want it to.
Would recommend a Synology with 2 HDs, chances of both HDs failing at once are almost non existent. I also have my photos/documents backed up via a paid provider as well, in case of fire destroying my PC and the NAS.
Would recommend a Synology with 2 HDs, chances of both HDs failing at once are almost non existent. I also have my photos/documents backed up via a paid provider as well, in case of fire destroying my PC and the NAS.
Don't use an external HDD as your only backup. That'd be a single point of failure. Something like Google drive, dropbox, or any of the other cloud storage services would be far more robust and probably rather less hassle. Cheaper initially too, though no don't the ongoing cost will eventually overtake to cost of an HDD.
Edited by ATG on Sunday 8th September 20:36
I'd suggest just using a series of USB sticks.
A mate of mine has a theory about large disk drives and the like:
"How much data do you want to lose in one go?"
Seriously, weed out your data, only keep the good stuff and have a system for multiple copies of the most important stuff.
I've got a 1TB SSD at a mate's house. A 512GB at my brother's place.
A lot of stuff is also on my email server and copies on cloud storage.
But my archive of important work is on multiple USB sticks.
In reality, there's probably about a Gig of data that actually matters, if that.
A mate of mine has a theory about large disk drives and the like:
"How much data do you want to lose in one go?"
Seriously, weed out your data, only keep the good stuff and have a system for multiple copies of the most important stuff.
I've got a 1TB SSD at a mate's house. A 512GB at my brother's place.
A lot of stuff is also on my email server and copies on cloud storage.
But my archive of important work is on multiple USB sticks.
In reality, there's probably about a Gig of data that actually matters, if that.
joshleb said:
Hi all,
Looking at getting an external hard drive, something I can put on all photos, memories etc from the last few years on. It'll probably not get used much, every 6 months or so to just update it etc.
From my initial bit of research it seems one with 3.5" drive has better long term performance, and not as SSD.
Anyone got any tips or recommendations, will probs be get a second, use the cloud, sort out a NAS or something else..!
Cheers
Josh
How much data do you need to store?Looking at getting an external hard drive, something I can put on all photos, memories etc from the last few years on. It'll probably not get used much, every 6 months or so to just update it etc.
From my initial bit of research it seems one with 3.5" drive has better long term performance, and not as SSD.
Anyone got any tips or recommendations, will probs be get a second, use the cloud, sort out a NAS or something else..!
Cheers
Josh
I have three older drives I use for my photo backups, one of which I keep away from the house. Drives are cheap and my photos are irreplaceable.
I update them all on a regular basis which reassures me they are still working, I don't know how reliable drives are in the long term if left unused.
I also have a cloud store but that takes a long time to upload to, 1.5mbs upload is about standard out in the sticks.
I update them all on a regular basis which reassures me they are still working, I don't know how reliable drives are in the long term if left unused.
I also have a cloud store but that takes a long time to upload to, 1.5mbs upload is about standard out in the sticks.
I stopped messing about with external hard drives years ago. Seems totally archaic.
Just put every picture you've already taken in the cloud (e.g Google photos) and assuming your phone is your main camera, make sure it is set to upload automatically. There's a free subscription for low res, but I get 2TB for £79 a year and that also covers my Nest "cctv" camera backups. I seperate business form pleasure and have a similar subscription for my work with everything on Microsoft OneDrive.
Yes, over 10 years or so it might be a few £ more than buying and renewing external hard drives (and back up in case they fail), but it's much much safer and infinitely more convenient. Your entire digital life is accessible from anywhere - on any device.
Depends how much you enjoy doing the admin (backing up, backing up the back up, storing and retrieving the back up from and to in another location) etc.
Just put every picture you've already taken in the cloud (e.g Google photos) and assuming your phone is your main camera, make sure it is set to upload automatically. There's a free subscription for low res, but I get 2TB for £79 a year and that also covers my Nest "cctv" camera backups. I seperate business form pleasure and have a similar subscription for my work with everything on Microsoft OneDrive.
Yes, over 10 years or so it might be a few £ more than buying and renewing external hard drives (and back up in case they fail), but it's much much safer and infinitely more convenient. Your entire digital life is accessible from anywhere - on any device.
Depends how much you enjoy doing the admin (backing up, backing up the back up, storing and retrieving the back up from and to in another location) etc.
GuigiaroBertone said:
Just put every picture you've already taken in the cloud (e.g Google photos) and assuming your phone is your main camera, make sure it is set to upload automatically. There's a free subscription for low res, but I get 2TB for £79 a year and that also covers my Nest "cctv" camera backups. I seperate business form pleasure and have a similar subscription for my work with everything on Microsoft OneDrive.
For iPhone photo backup, Amazon Photos cloud storage is unlimited if you have Prime, although videos are restricted to 5GB.Somebody said:
For iPhone photo backup, Amazon Photos cloud storage is unlimited if you have Prime, although videos are restricted to 5GB.
Yes, but my point to the OP is- use the cloud. Whether it's from Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft it's so much more secure, convenient that messing around with hard drives. Storing Photos on a hard drive is only an incremental step from having all your photos developed in Boots and sticking them in an album- with a back up album at your Mums.Condi said:
Just get a NAS, so much easier and more efficient than a USB HD. Mine backs up all my mobile phone photos (same as Google photos etc), mirrors documents from PCs, acts as a CCTV recorder, and will do 1 million other things if you want it to.
Would recommend a Synology with 2 HDs, chances of both HDs failing at once are almost non existent. I also have my photos/documents backed up via a paid provider as well, in case of fire destroying my PC and the NAS.
I've just upgraded to a four-bay Synology. After a drive failed in the previous 2-bay version, it seemed like a two birds, one stone situation without putting the data at risk. The intent was to put together a shared pool which could be expanded over time, starting with three drives. This is the first time I've tried this after moving on from the standard two drives mirrored arrangement. Would recommend a Synology with 2 HDs, chances of both HDs failing at once are almost non existent. I also have my photos/documents backed up via a paid provider as well, in case of fire destroying my PC and the NAS.
It's also the first time one drive from two drives from the same manufacturing batch has failed. Which made me wary that the second drive would fail soon, although it's SMART was coming up fine.
However, it really caught me out as it turns out you can only expand an existing Synology "SHR" pool with a new drive that is bigger than the biggest drive already in the pool. Cue an entire weekend of data shuffling.
So, I would recommend going for smaller drives should you go down this route in the future.
Synology will take any drive, it will just let you know if you're using something it doesn't recognise. I've gone with Seagate Ironwolf Pro for many years now, due to the warranty - although the one that failed was just beyond its three years.
Still recommend Synology - been using them for years. You can also run docker containers. I'm in the process of setting up the usual pi-hole, jellyfin, and trying owntone for the first time. Never quite go round to using their CCTV solution - Ubiquiti Protect came along in the meantime...
I've got the new Synology backing up to the old one, and the new one also backing up to an attached 14tb usb drive. Should be fine until it's not. My entire career is in this storage. I really should sort out an off-site element to the backup regime...
GuigiaroBertone said:
Yes, but my point to the OP is- use the cloud. Whether it's from Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft it's so much more secure, convenient that messing around with hard drives. Storing Photos on a hard drive is only an incremental step from having all your photos developed in Boots and sticking them in an album- with a back up album at your Mums.
Would entirely disagree. You have no idea what security is on a cloud provider's systems, either physical or electronic. Your entire photo collection then relies on you paying an ongoing and unknown future amount. It also relies on the provider being in business and not having any major issues (intern accidently deletes some data, Cloudflare update at 2am etc). With your own NAS you are in total control of what happens to your own data and there are no ongoing charges,
GuigiaroBertone said:
Another benefit of the cloud is AI retrieval- e.g. "show me photos of my daughter skateboarding" etc.
NAS will do that as well. EDIT - unless you mean actual external HD and not NAS/Personal Cloud storage, in which case you have a point. External HD only useful if you're going to maintain it, back up to it frequently etc, which is a lot of effort in 2024.
Edited by Condi on Monday 9th September 21:59
Been thinking about this myself... I have a couple of near full 1TB (come to think of it, they may actually be 2TB) external drives of old stuff, plus lots of very full dropbox accounts/USB sticks/SD cards... this is stuff that I don't regularly need to access, but that I also can't bin, covering a mixture of stuff from old digital camera/pre-iphone photos/memories, through to other really important documents, old projects, and old invoices/business/document/financial stuff. Kind of worried every time I plug them in that they will go kaput. Obviously data recovery exists, but again, a hassle.
I also seriously need to purge my current main mac of a load of stuff to free some space (so thats another 500+GB), but again, it's important stuff I can't just bin.
icloud linked to my phone is great for my phone needs, and takes care of any new photos, but it isn't good for all of this older stuff, so I'm kind of looking at my options right now. At the very least to get it all in one place so I can have a good sort through it.
NAS or a server isn't an option, so cloud would be the choice here. Any suggestions?
Edited by GCH on Monday 9th September 21:37
Synology user here. In the last 10 years ish my drives have failed on average once every 3-4 years. (RAID 1)
Its on 24/7 but goes into power saving mode so spool down after an hour.
I have 2 SSDs that I put critical stuff on as a back up of the back up.
I.e the best photos, all financials, wedding pics etc.
Every couple of years I go through and delete a load.
Next time I have a failure I may not bother replacing tbh and just risk it with multiple back ups.
Its on 24/7 but goes into power saving mode so spool down after an hour.
I have 2 SSDs that I put critical stuff on as a back up of the back up.
I.e the best photos, all financials, wedding pics etc.
Every couple of years I go through and delete a load.
Next time I have a failure I may not bother replacing tbh and just risk it with multiple back ups.
I do a lot of video, and in 4K the files are rather large. I went through various options a couple of years ago and decided there is no 100% certain option.
I replace my internal HDDs on a regular basis - every 40 months. I use the 'old' HDDs as external drives, buying caddies for them. It may be 'archaic', but it's effective, it's cheap in comparison to cloud, and it's easy to top up.
In addition, I save my 'essential data': tax, records, personal photos, to USB sticks, and in the cloud.
I have five external HDDs that can be connected to my desktop, and a number of others 'put away'. I do a full system scan before connecting any of them, and disconnect from the internet. Not sure why the latter, but I've done it that way for years.
Given the nature of my requirements, my system is about the most secure I can afford. Cloud storage is expensive in comparison.
Externally I have 1 x 3TB, 4 x 6TB external HDDs that can be connected to the desktop. Internally I have 2 x 1TB SSDs, and 3 x HDDs, one of which is over half full with video files.
I've lost two HDDs: one just sort of gave up and, as I had backup, was easy to replace. The other was my first failure and was described as catastrophic. That's when I started to back up.
I replace my internal HDDs on a regular basis - every 40 months. I use the 'old' HDDs as external drives, buying caddies for them. It may be 'archaic', but it's effective, it's cheap in comparison to cloud, and it's easy to top up.
In addition, I save my 'essential data': tax, records, personal photos, to USB sticks, and in the cloud.
I have five external HDDs that can be connected to my desktop, and a number of others 'put away'. I do a full system scan before connecting any of them, and disconnect from the internet. Not sure why the latter, but I've done it that way for years.
Given the nature of my requirements, my system is about the most secure I can afford. Cloud storage is expensive in comparison.
Externally I have 1 x 3TB, 4 x 6TB external HDDs that can be connected to the desktop. Internally I have 2 x 1TB SSDs, and 3 x HDDs, one of which is over half full with video files.
I've lost two HDDs: one just sort of gave up and, as I had backup, was easy to replace. The other was my first failure and was described as catastrophic. That's when I started to back up.
Derek Smith said:
I do a lot of video, and in 4K the files are rather large. I went through various options a couple of years ago and decided there is no 100% certain option.
I replace my internal HDDs on a regular basis - every 40 months. I use the 'old' HDDs as external drives, buying caddies for them. It may be 'archaic', but it's effective, it's cheap in comparison to cloud, and it's easy to top up.
In addition, I save my 'essential data': tax, records, personal photos, to USB sticks, and in the cloud.
I have five external HDDs that can be connected to my desktop, and a number of others 'put away'. I do a full system scan before connecting any of them, and disconnect from the internet. Not sure why the latter, but I've done it that way for years.
Given the nature of my requirements, my system is about the most secure I can afford. Cloud storage is expensive in comparison.
Externally I have 1 x 3TB, 4 x 6TB external HDDs that can be connected to the desktop. Internally I have 2 x 1TB SSDs, and 3 x HDDs, one of which is over half full with video files.
I've lost two HDDs: one just sort of gave up and, as I had backup, was easy to replace. The other was my first failure and was described as catastrophic. That's when I started to back up.
Where are your hard drives stored? And why 40 months? I replace my internal HDDs on a regular basis - every 40 months. I use the 'old' HDDs as external drives, buying caddies for them. It may be 'archaic', but it's effective, it's cheap in comparison to cloud, and it's easy to top up.
In addition, I save my 'essential data': tax, records, personal photos, to USB sticks, and in the cloud.
I have five external HDDs that can be connected to my desktop, and a number of others 'put away'. I do a full system scan before connecting any of them, and disconnect from the internet. Not sure why the latter, but I've done it that way for years.
Given the nature of my requirements, my system is about the most secure I can afford. Cloud storage is expensive in comparison.
Externally I have 1 x 3TB, 4 x 6TB external HDDs that can be connected to the desktop. Internally I have 2 x 1TB SSDs, and 3 x HDDs, one of which is over half full with video files.
I've lost two HDDs: one just sort of gave up and, as I had backup, was easy to replace. The other was my first failure and was described as catastrophic. That's when I started to back up.
Condi said:
NAS will do that as well.
EDIT - unless you mean actual external HD and not NAS/Personal Cloud storage, in which case you have a point. External HD only useful if you're going to maintain it, back up to it frequently etc, which is a lot of effort in 2024.
On the balance of probabilities, Google and Microsoft are less likely to completely, catastrophically and irrecoverably fail than an external hard drive/NAS. If global communications networks and servers go down forever, retrieving wedding photos will be the least of our worries. Global businesses, critical infrastructure and governments depend on the cloud. EDIT - unless you mean actual external HD and not NAS/Personal Cloud storage, in which case you have a point. External HD only useful if you're going to maintain it, back up to it frequently etc, which is a lot of effort in 2024.
Edited by Condi on Monday 9th September 21:59
I agree that NAS is more convenient than an external hard drive of course, but it cannot be as reliable as a global cloud network far more levels of redundancy.
I'm not sure how the AI retrieval you mention works in a NAS setup, but I would bet it isn't as advanced/usable as the AI funded by one of the big corporate behemoths.
Of course there's a market for NAS, just are there is for Vinyl and homebrew, but for 99% of the population I think the mass market option will serve them better.
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