TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

5-10 years ago, that was the mantra from lots of tech companies, especially the ones that make HDs, and in some cases it was true - there was a shiny new SSD company (which shall go unnamed) that had a 35% failure rate per year, but guess what, last year or so, Seagate had a HD with a 34% failure rate the first year on Backblaze’s quarterly report. Those days are pretty much gone for SSDs. Like all new technologies, there is initial skepticism, followed by gradual acceptance and increased reliability of the new technology. We are at that point now as more and more new computers are being shipped with SSDs standard because of the huge increase in performance.

If you use disk monitoring SW, you may be able to detect incipient failures on a HD in time to move your data, but most users don’t, and typically you don’t get much if any notice. And when they fail, IF a recovery service can save them, the cost is typically so exorbitant that VERY few users go that route. The point being that you can assume that all mass storage devices eventually fail, and 3 copies of your data (working, backup and off-site DR) is the answer to preserving your precious data.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

"TRIX" you are correct and if non of you drive fail great. I just believe that I need a back up and I was burned so I suggest two. I hope you never regret not have two places for you saved stuff.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

👍👍 you are exactly right!

jsteinbr Loc: Franklin, Wisconsin

WD Passport - absolutely solid and reliable.

limeybiker

speedmaster Loc: Kendall, FL

Western Digitial Passport Ultra...go for the 4Tb which is the best value for the money. They are 2.5" factor, powered through the USB port (no bricks) and may be password encrypted what gives you some peace of mind if it is stolen or lost.

I use half a dozen personally and tens of them at work (for users notebook backups) and they are very reliable with less than 2% fail over 8 years of usage and beating. We are now in the process or replacing them by SSDs especially for users that travels a lot and abuse too much of the drives (users are always the IT headache...)

Good luck

RLSprouse Loc: Encinitas CA (near Sandy Eggo)

Gene knows what he's talking about. I've had very poor luck with consumer grade HDs. I now buy only enterprise-grade HDs and yes, of course back up everything to a second drive, with important stuff also backed up on BackBlaze.

bikerguy

I have four of the "cheap" drives that Gene dislikes. My 1TB drive is about10 years old and still works perfectly, due to its size, it has been relegated to travel use only. I have a 5 TB desktop external drive and 2 4TB portable drives that I have been using for 3 1/2 years without any issues. All of my data is backed up twice, if a drive finally goes bad, I will replace it and move on.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

For travel or home use? This is the first question to answer. If for home for for something bigger than you think you need; double what you thing your need for a start. Also consider something that will tolerate two or more drives and supports RAID devices. I use RAID 5 devices and will be moving to RAID 6 as soon as Soft Raid XT upgrade their support. Hard drives are inexpensive compared to the mental anguish of losing a life time of photos.

If for travel, go light. A 2 to 4 TB SSD can be purchased from multiple sources. I bought San Disk SSDs because they have a bright color. I could never find my original Samsung SSD in my backpack as it was exactly the same color as the inside of the pack.

317tman Loc: Indianapolis, In

I don't disagree that expensive enterprise drives are more reliable, but to me it is cost vs time & discipline. I back up everything onto 3 WD passport drives. They are 3 to 8 years old and while I've had no failures someday I will. However with both my files and pictures backed up on three drives a failure is not an issue so inexpensive drives works for me. Regardless of the drives you select, dual drives are worth it as any drive can fail. You must routinely spend the time to perform the back ups and some experts recommend three back up copies, keeping one offsite.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

Samsung makes a solid state drive \ a tiny little thing. Pricey, but much better than a mechanical drive like the WD elements which is much cheaper, but has all the drawbacks of any mechanical device. Solid state (SSD) is the way to go!

hcmcdole

I bought two 4 TB WD drives a few years ago. I took both with me to download photos to on a trip to Thailand two years ago. Good news is I backed up photos to both drives every evening and the memory cards were formatted and ready for the next day. Bad news is one of those drives crashed on the trip home so do protect your hard drives when traveling the best you can. I thought by carry on, they would have been fine but I thought wrong.

I bought a new drive (same make and size) at Best Buy a day or two after we got home and had it duplicated overnight (several hours). Last year in Maui I just downloaded the photos to the internal SSD and left the mechanical drives at home. Less weight and less worry. Moved those files over to the mechanical drives after I got back home.

Lots of great affordable tech these years but there are still risks in everything we do. Minimize that risk the best you can.

On another note I found my old Sony MiniDV Handycam movie camera in my closet a few weeks ago and had to buy a charger/power adapter to see the old movies (some of the people have passed since I used this years ago). Now I wanted to move the mag tapes to disk but how to do it?

Luckily I still had our old PC tower in a closet upstairs (XP vintage) and it had a Firewire card that came standard and Sony only uses Firewire (that I know of) to copy mag tape to the hard drive. Unfortunately I could not find my Firewire cable from my previous system so I had to buy a new cable. Thank you Amazon!

Eighteen tapes (each an hour long) of video tape was around 14 GB of disk storage and I was able to copy all that to a memory card to transfer to my newest laptop with all the external drives hooked up via a USB hub. That took a weekend to remember to change each tape out and start the transfer. I need to break those files into smaller scenes. GRRR! Great tech comes with its own challenges.

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

Can't recommend a brand, but I'd definitely get a SSD.

photobug.2

I had a western Digital 4T external Drive, Had a lot of photos stored on it . One day it decided not to work anymore. Very PO'D and nobody could get my photos back. I am sure there is somewhere I could send it to, but it is very expensive. I presently have a 2T Sandisk SSD external Drive, but also place my wanted photos in the cloud (PCLOUD). Best To You.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

A sad story that is repeated regularly on this forum. Not many failed spinning disks are recoverable at a price that’s affordable if possible at all, and I would venture that very few failing ones are discovered in time to save the data. The important thing is you’ve made a choice to keep an off-site disaster recovery copy, and I would suggest a local backup in addition.