How often should I change my external drive

[Computer0304]

Well, there's not that much other reliable choices in my opinion here in Korea.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, there's not that much other reliable choices in my opinion here in Korea.

What choices do you have?

 

[NSA]

Things like the photos and other small but important things can also be backed up on cloud sites, like Mediafire, or Mega.co.nz which gives you 50gb free. External drives last quite a while in my experience, but I also keep ritualistic backups, and more backups of those backups, but cloud storage is still a good idea because when you store it there, it's stored in multiple places, so yes say you upload a 1gb file, it's copied over many storage areas so you can't lose it really if you back up in the cloud

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Things like the photos and other small but important things can also be backed up on cloud sites, like Mediafire, or Mega.co.nz which gives you 50gb free. External drives last quite a while in my experience, but I also keep ritualistic backups, and more backups of those backups, but cloud storage is still a good idea because when you store it there, it's stored in multiple places, so yes say you upload a 1gb file, it's copied over many storage areas so you can't lose it really if you back up in the cloud

Mega has had a checkered history and their web designers and tech help are incompetent. If you use IE, you will not be able to use Mega.

Not all cloud backup services use geographic redundancy, (as far as I know, none do for personal plans). I would treat any paid cloud backup service (other than high priced business services) as a single backup and provide your own redundancy. Multiple cloud services could be used to get redundancy but that would require fast, truly unlimited internet access. Also, I would trust only paid cloud backup services so that would get expensive in a hurry.

 

[Computer0304]

Well there is Sony, but I can't trust that because I don't know who the drive itself is made by. I think the Samsung ones are made by Seagate or at least use similar components inside because Samsung had their HDD division sold to Seagate a few years ago. WD drives can't be found anywhere reliable either. There is a WD website for Korea, but it doesn't list any online stores for WD products.

Edit: One thing that is confusing though is that the Samsung section of the Seagate and the main Samsung website have different hard drives for some reason...

 

[Computer0304]

Um... is anyone going to answer? I have decided for now that I will wait until at least the end of the year assuming all the people on other sites have had bad luck with their drives lasting only 2 years. Are Samsung drives good enough? I am not going to get their external SSD though as it is too expensive.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Um... is anyone going to answer? I have decided for now that I will wait until at least the end of the year assuming all the people on other sites have had bad luck with their drives lasting only 2 years. Are Samsung drives good enough? I am not going to get their external SSD though as it is too expensive.

Answer what?

Your most recent post (#25) doesn't contain any questions.

It's already been explained that any brand can be fine or you can have a terrible experience with any brand.

Don't agonize over it.

Buy on the basis of price, price per gigabyte, vendor support, ease of RMA if a drive is dead on arrival, and possibly benchmark speeds if speed is a big issue with you. But don't get in a lather over which is "good" or "reliable". You're rolling the dice regardless of what choice you make.

Obviously, avoid any models with known design defects, but those are quite rare.

I've had great luck with Samsung drives, but that shouldn't mean anything to you. I'm a sample of one.

If 11 people on this forum tell you they had good luck with brand X, that should mean virtually nothing to you as well.

Warranty might mean something, but you have to decide if you are willing to send a drive containing personal and private information back to a dealer or manufacturer. I wouldn't, so warranties mean nothing to me--but that's a personal choice.

 

[Layback Bear]

We have no idea what you can or can not buy in South Korea.

When I did use a lot of hard drives both Seagate and WD served me well.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Warranty might mean something, but you have to decide if you are willing to send a drive containing personal and private information back to a dealer or manufacturer. I wouldn't, so warranties mean nothing to me--but that's a personal choice.

One can always wipe a failing drive before returning it to the vendor. If the drive is too dead to wipe, the vendor isn't likely to want to fool around with trying to get to your data. Also, one can always encrypt their personal data on a drive. If someone is really paranoid about it (not necessarily a bad thing, btw), a really, really strong electromagnetic field (like a MRI scanner?) will wipe a HDD.

 

[Computer0304]

Ok, well I guess like always I am worrying too much. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Computer0304]

Sorry to bring this thread back alive, but did you guys mean it is good to have 2 backups which is 3 copies or 1 backup which is 2 copies?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Sorry to bring this thread back alive, but did you guys mean it is good to have 2 backups which is 3 copies or 1 backup which is 2 copies?

I'd guess most here would say originals plus at least 2 backups. At least 3 copies total of anything you wouldn't want to lose. Done in some alternating fashion.

With one of the 3 offsite. I would want at least one of my data backups to not be reliant on any imaging or cloning strategy---just an ordinary copy as if dragged and dropped with the mouse, with all files remaining in their original format--jpg, doc, xlsx, pdf, tif, etc.

 

[Computer0304]

Well, is it good enough to have 2 copies because currently, I can't get a new drive?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Well, is it good enough to have 2 copies because currently, I can't get a new drive?

In that case, it doesn't matter what's "good enough", because you apparently don't have anywhere to put a third copy. Do the best you can with the tools available that is consistent with your budget.

You're the judge of what's "good enough" anyway. Most people say 1 copy (no backups) is plenty good enough. Some people don't think 4 copies is good enough. Suit yourself.

 

[Computer0304]

Well I just want the opinion of multiple people. IMHO, two copies are enough since you would need bad luck for them to fail at once. The only way I can think of where you lose both at once is if your house burns down. Things like that happen, but not as often as you think. By two copies, I currently mean having a copy on one computer and another on a external drive. I only use the drive once every 1-3 months and I usually check for malware and viruses and the current health of the computer in case the something about the computer breaks the drive.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, is it good enough to have 2 copies because currently, I can't get a new drive?

Although most data experts recommend that your data exist in three places (the original and two backup copies), having only one backup is better than not having any backups at all. Generally, three copies (one original and two backup copies) are considered to be the bare minimum to keep your data safe but, if all you have is the one drive, it will have to do until you can save up for another one.

The reason for having three copies is all drives will fail sooner or later. Having more than one backup reduces the chances of losing your data because your only backup drive failed when you tried to recover data from it.

As far as having the bad luck of having a backup drive fail after the drive in the computer fails, I've had it happen. Having an additional backup saved my data from total loss. How much you spend on backups depends both on what you can afford and how valuable your data is to you.

 

[Layback Bear]

Computer0304 it's your choice. It the last two week you have received may good ideas from members. You have to choose what will work for you.
We can't make that choice for you.

Many members like Lady Fitzgerald make several backup and then their are some like me that just make one now and again.

Their is a good chance that Lady Fitzgerald or my method are not what you want to do. To be very safe with your data Lady Fitzgerald methods would be better than my methods.
There is also a chance your needs will be somewhere between Lady Fitzgerald method and mine.

We can not make that choice for you.
How many drives you have or can get we have absolutely no control over.
Once again that is your choice.

I really not sure how we can help you on this subject other than read read back through the thread to make sure you understand your options and make a choice.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

When I refer to most experts recommending maintaining at least three copies of their data (the original, one onsite backup, and one offsite backup), I'm referring to the professionals who specialize in data storage and recovery. Even though my own backup scheme is more extreme (and expensive), the scheme I recommend is the three copy one but will agree having only one backup is better than none. I've seen too many posts from people who have had a HDD that had the only copy of precious family photos, etc. on it die on them, then want to know how to recover them. The sad fact is, usually, they cannot be recovered and, when they can, it usually will take a professional data recovery service to do so, which will usually cost several hundred to several thousand dollars. Even then, spending all that will not guarantee recovery. Which makes more sense; spending a little extra now to protect your data from loss or spending an obscene amount later to try to recover lost data, with no guarantees that it will work?

But, don't take my word for it. Read here what a person who works with data storage and data storage devices for a living has to say about it. Any one who thinks my backup scheme is extreme should see what this guy does with his data (of course, he deals with a lot more data than I do) but he also recommends the three copy method with a mix of imaging and folder/file syncing.

 

[Computer0304]

Well, I decided that I will get another external drive later this year around Fall or Summer. Thanks all of you guys.