I am puzzled - HDD question

Maybe consider purchasing a brand new HD from a local computer source, cloning the refurbished onto the new HD, using the new HD as the internal HD, after formatting the refurbished HD, using it as an external backup HD.

zpoison said:

I received them less than one week ago from ebay


I got 11 X 6tb drives from the same seller, bought from him and had one hdd that died after 4 days of being plugged - to a external enclosure ( I believe its my fault because I "think" I accidentally unplugged it while transfering things onto it)

I've lost more than 4tb of music that time
The seller agreed to send me another one for free

Still have the dead hdd, I will return it to the manufacturer I guess

Will keep a look at Crystal Disk Info for monitoring and all that (I also have hdtune pro)

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Cannot plug them all at once for backup because my mobo is from 2009-2010 (4 sata ports + one optical sata port that I use for a hdd instead)

Maybe it would be better to sell 4-5 of the HDD to buy a expensive PC(800$+) to plug more HDD.
or a NAS maybe

I asked where, not when.

Unplugging a drive while still transferring data normally will cause data loss, not drive death. Reformatting a drive after that should bring it back (sans data, of course).

Generally speaking, you don't want to plug in all your backup drives all at once. In fact you shouldn't have all of them at home at the same time. For data to be reasonably safe, it needs to exist in three places. For most people, that means on the computer, on an onsite backup, and on an offsite backup.

Had my HDDs on ebay, the seller live in the US

I have like 6 X 6tb that are almost full

Online backup of 40tb would cost a lot I guess, but it would be nice
That dead HDD I mentionned, it just died , it stopped spinning
Maybe I will try to restore the files in it when it will be returned back from WD

I would trust Flea Bay HDDs only as far as I can spit upwind. Even though it would cost more, you would be much better off buying new drives with a decent warranty. The drives you bought have probably been around the block God only knows how many times and may not have much life left.

I said onsite, not online. An onsite backup, in this case, means a backup on a HDD that is kept at home. The offsite backup would be a HDD that is kept off your property, such as in a locked drawer or locker at school or work, at a trusted friend's or relative's house, or in a safe deposit box at a bank or credit union.

The best backups for data drives (not the OS and programs) is a duplicate of the drive. The best software for that are folder/file syncing programs. My personal choice is a free program called FreeFileSync. When set to Mirror mode, it will compare the source drive with the backup drive. It then will copy any new or changed folders and files from the source drive to the backup drive and delete any folders and files not on the source drive from the backup drive. FreeFileSync also has provision called Versioning that, if you choose (and I recommend it), will send folders and files deleted from the backup drive to a folder or drive that you designate. That will protect your data from accidental deletions and also allow you to retrieve earlier versions of files.

zpoison said:

Thank you very much
Are you aware if there is a way(a software or something) I could create a "picture copy" of my folders, without having to do a printscreen for everything

Not off the top of my head. However, you wouldn't need a list of your folders if you have a backup of the drive.

zpoison said:

Yes but backing up 40tb is very expensive

compared to backing only pictures or text of the folders

I think I'm gonna have to do it manually (printscreen)

maybe I could open a new thread and ask for this? in case someone would know how to do it.

Merely storing 40TB is expensive. It's like owning a car. Why spend x amount on a car if you can't afford to maintain it?