[Fortuna]

I have quite a lot of data that I need to store and never lose, so I wanted to ask you computer peeps what kind of hard drive to use. I plan on using a 3-tier backup system, or at least that's I'm calling it. I store all of my immediately necessary data on one of these. I'm using a larger 4TB WD Blue HDD for longer term storage that is connected to my PC. But, I'd also like a very reliable HDD that I can store everything on, make periodic backups to, and mostly leave it unplugged as a sort of cold storage option. I'd like to avoid an NAS setup because that would mean upgrading the network in my house with a switch and I don't want to go to the trouble. I looked up some cloud storage plans, but I'd be spending $30 a month or more ad infinitum, so I'd like to avoid that too. Basically, I'm just looking for the most reliable HDD you can get.

[Tumeni]

I have quite a lot of data that I need to store and never lose, so I wanted to ask you computer peeps what kind of hard drive to use. I plan on using a 3-tier backup system, or at least that's I'm calling it.

Background

I'm running an ancient Dell PC with a 60Gb SSD running the OS, and three 2Tb 3.5" internals filling the remaining SATA ports and also being driven from one of the PCI slots.

The PC started out life with a single 500Gb internal, I think, and in stages, I move to 1Tb, then 2Tb, then multiple drives.

I have, currently, four external drives; standard USB-style portable drives. Again, I started out with one external, of 320Gb, and moved through 500Gb, 1Tb, etc, until I now have a 1Tb, two 2Tb, and one 4Tb in the "stack", as I call it. Moved up as space was needed, and as finances allowed. I don't tend to pick one drive and stop there. The 1Tb got moved to the 2Tb as I upgraded, etc. 

Recommendation

The internal and external drives are a mix of Samsung, and Western Digital. Previous drives have all been a mix of these two manufacturers, and I would recommend either in an instant. I've probably moved through a dozen, maybe 15 or so.

As I recall, I've only had one drive that began to 'misbehave', shall we say - and I was still able to make a copy of all but a couple of files, before reformatting it; whereupon it seemed to work fine, passed all tests, but I wasn't going to take the chance with it, and moved on to next size up.

[xasop]

The most reliable HDD you can get is multiple redundant hard drives. I have a similar requirement for offline backup storage, and I have three Seagate Archive 8 TB drives and a disk cloner. Every so often, I clone the master disk to the others for redundancy (I also rotate which one is the "master" to spread the wear).

With this setup, you can go all in on data density and not worry too much about reliability, because it doesn't matter if one of them fails.

[Iceman]

I use samsung and Seagate for all my work data. The samsung has impressive speed when I need to pull data and work directly from it. Keep another back-up offsite in case of theft/water damage/fire If its stuff you absolutely cannot afford to lose.

[Shane]

I too need external storage for video files. 

Was looking at SanDisk 1TB portable SSD, but seems a bit pricey. And the 2tb version is $350 dollars.  I suppose for storage I could go much cheaper but figured an SSD with high transfer rate and durability may be useful

[Dr Van Nostrand]

I use samsung and Seagate for all my work data. The samsung has impressive speed when I need to pull data and work directly from it. Keep another back-up offsite in case of theft/water damage/fire If its stuff you absolutely cannot afford to lose.

I don't know why but I've always had some kind of thing against the online backup services like Google or I Drive. If they are charging $30 a month I would hope I get mountains of terabytes for that price. My webhost ($20-$30/year) has unlimited disk space with most of their plans so I get all the offsite back-up I can eat. (and I always get my money's worth at a buffet.) From time to time, I FTP data up to the webhost as back ups.

Of course, there are things that suck about this. FTP is slow and a hassle. My webhost, Hostgator, sucks ass for customer service and sucks generally. I can't have root privileges on my own web server. Having to restore local files from a webhost really sucks.

I've been running this for many years. Maybe I should get with the times and do something like you people are talking about.

[Fortuna]

The most reliable HDD you can get is multiple redundant hard drives. I have a similar requirement for offline backup storage, and I have three Seagate Archive 8 TB drives and a disk cloner. Every so often, I clone the master disk to the others for redundancy (I also rotate which one is the "master" to spread the wear).

With this setup, you can go all in on data density and not worry too much about reliability, because it doesn't matter if one of them fails.

I'll most likely do this. Thanks dawgs.

[Clyde Frog]

What's your current network setup? Is it a combo modem/router/wifi access point kind of device, like ISPs will give out? Or multiple devices, like a modem and then a wifi router? Which of those devices have Ethernet ports to connect downstream devices, even if they are already taken?

Here's why I'm asking. You can grab a 5-port unmanaged switch for next to nothing. Most people have a wifi router instead of having a separate device for those tasks, so I'll assume you have one of those for a moment. If your wifi router lets you connect even just a single LAN device to it, connect the switch there and have switch defer to the router for DHCP for anything you plug into it. That way you just added 4 new ports to plug stuff in (the 5th port being for whatever used to be plugged into the router), and you won't have to do a ton of heavy lifting in terms of messing with your current network setup. Netgear GS305 will do that, and it costs less than $15. Then you have room to plug in a NAS, so you can get some redundancy for when a drive inevitably eventually fails. 4 x 2TB drives in a RAID 5 will give you 6TB of usable storage that you won't lose even when a drive fails.

In general, best practices for backups is 3-2-1. 3 copies of your data, on at least 2 different types of media, with 1 of them being offsite. At the very least, get the 3 and the 2 part of that as best you can.

[Dr David Thork]

I bought a NAS drive with 2 red WD drives which are in raid 1 for 4Tb of backed up space. Pleased I was with my personalised backed up cloud solution just for me. A bullet proof way to keep my most important files available to all my devices without any fear of someone discontinuing the service or hacking my data. 

And then western digital sent the device an automatic firmware update and bricked it. I haven't been able to access those most precious of files for 4 months now. 

[Fortuna]

What's your current network setup? Is it a combo modem/router/wifi access point kind of device, like ISPs will give out? Or multiple devices, like a modem and then a wifi router? Which of those devices have Ethernet ports to connect downstream devices, even if they are already taken?

I have no need for the archival drives to be connected 24/7. I'd actually prefer that they weren't.

[Clyde Frog]

What's your current network setup? Is it a combo modem/router/wifi access point kind of device, like ISPs will give out? Or multiple devices, like a modem and then a wifi router? Which of those devices have Ethernet ports to connect downstream devices, even if they are already taken?

I have no need for the archival drives to be connected 24/7. I'd actually prefer that they weren't.

My NAS has a power button I turn it on about once a week to do backups, otherwise it's usually off. I know you said you didn't want a NAS though, you gotta do what works for you.

[Dr Van Nostrand]

I use samsung and Seagate for all my work data. The samsung has impressive speed when I need to pull data and work directly from it. Keep another back-up offsite in case of theft/water damage/fire If its stuff you absolutely cannot afford to lose.

I don't know why but I've always had some kind of thing against the online backup services like Google or I Drive. If they are charging $30 a month I would hope I get mountains of terabytes for that price. My webhost ($20-$30/year) has unlimited disk space with most of their plans so I get all the offsite back-up I can eat. (and I always get my money's worth at a buffet.) From time to time, I FTP data up to the webhost as back ups.

Of course, there are things that suck about this. FTP is slow and a hassle. My webhost, Hostgator, sucks ass for customer service and sucks generally. I can't have root privileges on my own web server. Having to restore local files from a webhost really sucks.

I've been running this for many years. Maybe I should get with the times and do something like you people are talking about.

Well, it finally happened. Those bastards at Hostgator are fucking with me. I've been using my webhost as backup storage and to drive and archive video files from my home security camera. Today, I got an email bitching that I'm using 354 gb. Apparently, there's something in the TOS that prohibits what I'm doing. "All files have to be related to active emails or webpage content." It took them 10 years to bust me but now I got to find a new cheap home for a third of a terabyte. 

Sucks...