Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

My 2Tb WD Gold drive was $125 when I purchased it.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Initial cloud backup is long, subsequent changed/new file backup is quick.
You can have a dozen local backups, but if your house burns up or blows down, computer taken out by lightning or a nasty power surge...
Cloud is disaster recovery.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

All HDs fail - you just haven’t experienced it yet, but every week on UHH, at least one person writes in with a failed HD wondering how to recover their data. With consumer grade drives, you get what you pay for, and the reliability depends not just on the manufacturer, but at what facility they are produced. backblaze.com produces quarterly reports on the consumer-grade drives they use in large quantities, and last year there was a particular Seagate drive with a 34% failure rate in the first year of operation as an example. If you rely on HDs to store your data, then choosing enterprise class drives such as the HGST Ultrastar DC drive will give you the best reliability, BUT you need a back up AND an off-site disaster recovery copy if your data/photos are important to you. If not, then store them on the cheapest possible media.

Regarding data integrity (privacy) in the cloud, hackers aren’t interested in sorting through tens of thousands of photos and data to invade your privacy or find that nugget of information - they’re interested in corporate data bases with social security #s, credit card data, etc.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Here's what best reviews says..

httpss://m.bestreviews.com/best-external-hard-drives

Seagate and WD number one and two...

Q3 2018 backblaze used more seagate (unless I read it wrong) because of low failure rate. HGST weren't in service long enough at that time to rate. I didn't see Q4. This is what I read.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/2018-hard-drive-failure-rates/

Costco now has a 5TB for $99.... Prices are dropping.

I'm just a poor old man living in retirement, and try to get the best I can for my money...

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Seagate and WD are number one and two because they bought everyone else and there’s nobody much left. If you look back a year or two, you’ll note that HGST has consistently had the lowest failure rate over all their drives over long periods of time. Since WD bought HGST, they’ve discontinued their enterprise class gold drive series and now specifies HGST Ultrastar DC as their go-to enterprise class drive.

Being retired also, I completely understand budgets and while a new lens or camera is sexy, a new HD isn’t. But consider this - UHH members often spend thousands of $ to acquire camera gear that produces guess what, data, but often balk at spending a little extra on a quality HD to insure that same data survives. If you’ve already bought that drive, then I’d either make sure I had a good backup or I’d save up another $90 and buy a second one and mirror them (RAID 1). If you haven’t, take a look at the HGST Ultrastar series. Doesn’t have to be the latest DC series, any of their enterprise class drives are about as good as conventional HDs get, and a 7,200 RPM 6TB can be had for $100. Just my opinion.

Cheers

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

I did buy that drive Chris. I do have 3 b/u drives. This was a replacement. I will replace another in a couple of months. I had not heard of HGST untill joining here. I'll get that one next..

When I was working we did a daily, weekly, and a monthly back up, which were all done automatically at night after hours. First thing the next day, the daily was changed out with a new one. And the one removed was put in the fire proof safe......

BTW, I also have one of the first (I think) USB hard drives by datastor by protec, 20 GB. It's 20 years old, and still going. I use it to take some documents with me when I travel, to work on instead of the cloud, which is not always there when I need it while traveling. I only use it, maybe, monthly now.... Just fun seeing how long it will last.

Cheers to you too. And it may be just your opinion, but I respect it......