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Long Term Storage (rarely accessed) HDD vs. SSD or? And which models?

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techiemon

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2007
I have been putting this off for years and I am now ready to get serious about doing it. Although I have backups of most things, the thing that I always worry about is the long term storage of files and photos that I really need in the future and how well the drives will function after being in storage for years. I have read that HDDs fare worse over time, even if not used. Once data is backed up and then the HDD is put away somewhere, and not often used, I wonder how long it can last. Of course with new storage media and connections coming out, this poses another eventual problem and rebacking backups up eventually. The one big reason I prefer HDD over SDD is the fact that usually an HDD will give you some warning it is about to crash, an SSD just dies. But with long term storage, an HDD may also just die on start up. IF you drop it, maybe the same problem. I live in a wet environment. That is another issue.

I had considered backblaze as another option for quite some time, however, their method of backup is not what I want. Basically you back it up, but you cannot access it, you can only get a full backup or a HDD of whatever data you sent them, but you cannot just get single files or folders that are backup up. I find this to be less than useful for someone who just wants to back up files, documents, photos and videos that they created. I do not need an image of my system. Although I can see the benefits of it, that is not my main concern at the moment.

So... what method should I really consider. SSD or HDD? I am more leaning towards HDD, but...... which brand, and which drive? Backblaze has released its ratings, but I cannot really understand so well from their numbers which drive is actually less likely to fail. And their drives are constantly moving, whereas mine will not.

Suggestions?
 
How much data you want to back up? Also how much of a budget?

I would likely use an external HDD and can make multiple backups that way for the cost of a single backup on a SSD. Thats just my two cents. Could keep one with you and store one offsite with family or a friend.

Just something i found real quick
 
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Backcups on multiple external drives, stored in differentlocations (hdd or ssd) is a good start. Maybe take advantage of free / low cost Cloud storage(Google Drive, Dropbox etc).
 
How much data you want to back up? Also how much of a budget?

I would likely use an external HDD and can make multiple backups that way for the cost of a single backup on a SSD. Thats just my two cents. Could keep one with you and store one offsite with family or a friend.

Just something i found real quick

I have at least 2TB of photos. That will continue to grow. I probably have 100s of GB in files and documents that need to be saved. But the photos are the main thing I need to back up. I found out that Backblaze has a B2 service, but it seems they only give you 10GB for free and then it is paid by GB, I think it would end up costing me a ton more.

It seems like that LaCie is only the case right? and then I can buy my own drive. It seems nice. We get earthquakes here, and I always worry about flooding from typhoons.

Budget right now no idea, but I would like to keep it a bit reasonable. $100 a year... For externals I am not worried. Probably can do something for about $300 or so I am ok.

Backcups on multiple external drives, stored in differentlocations (hdd or ssd) is a good start. Maybe take advantage of free / low cost Cloud storage(Google Drive, Dropbox etc).

Yes, I know that multiple locations are advised and two backups at two different locations are advised, the problem his here is that the island is rather small, if a big earthquake happens the entire country will feel it. I do need an offsite backup option, but I don't really trust Google, Amazon or Microsoft. I have been reading they actually can and do read and look through your stuff, and Google has rights to take it and use it for their own purposes. Is that true? It seems impossible, but..... nowadays... I have to wonder.

For external HDD drives, do you mean a real external drive, or an internal drive put in a box for safety? Internals are much cheaper, but, I know there is some risk.

In addition how many years can I safely assume that those HDDs are still going to work without running them for years...?
 
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But if a big earthquake happens with enough force to disintegrate all your storage locations, then perhaps worrying about your backed up photos is least concern at that point. Survival would be more of a priority I suspect:shrug: ?
 
I am keenly aware of that UT. I am simply stating facts. Those who live in San Francisco would also face a similar issue. It is obvious personal safety comes first, but that is not what we are discussing here.
 
Well, i mean no offense or anything of that nature. Taco is friendly specie. I just believe a couple separate locations should be plenty of redundancy, the rest is out of your control. You certainly can't go overboard sensing your data all over the world in hopes of saving it. The more it's spread out, the more danger of it getting into the wrong or curious hands. Granted if data is sensitive.
 
I have at least 2TB of photos. That will continue to grow. I probably have 100s of GB in files and documents that need to be saved. But the photos are the main thing I need to back up.


Yes, I know that multiple locations are advised and two backups at two different locations are advised, the problem his here is that the island is rather small, if a big earthquake happens the entire country will feel it. I do need an offsite backup option, but I don't really trust Google, Amazon or Microsoft. I have been reading they actually can and do read and look through your stuff, and Google has rights to take it and use it for their own purposes. Is that true? It seems impossible, but..... nowadays... I have to wonder.

For external HDD drives, do you mean a real external drive, or an internal drive put in a box for safety? Internals are much cheaper, but, I know there is some risk.

You could encrypt the files before you upload to the cloud. I would also just use external HDD since they are nicely contained and I have some that are 7 years old and are still working with no issues.
 
Well, i mean no offense or anything of that nature. Taco is friendly specie. I just believe a couple separate locations should be plenty of redundancy, the rest is out of your control. You certainly can't go overboard sensing your data all over the world in hopes of saving it. The more it's spread out, the more danger of it getting into the wrong or curious hands. Granted if data is sensitive.

Oh I know you don't, but hard to read people's thoughts through text. But thank you for the clarification. :) Yes, I know I should have multiple copies of everything and it gets pricey, but it has to be done. And I know the risk of spreading it too much could put the data at risk.

You could encrypt the files before you upload to the cloud. I would also just use external HDD since they are nicely contained and I have some that are 7 years old and are still working with no issues.

Two questions for you.. 1. What brand and TB size would you recommend for the external? WD? or HGST? or something else? 2. Which encryption do you recommend if using one of those big three? I would love to use Backblaze, but it is just not what I need. But they did tell me their price is like .005 per GB after the 10GB free. My math is not great, but I probably will need at least 2tb, but have asked them if it is a one time purchase or if i have to pay whatever that is monthly, waiting for their reply.
 
if you have atleast 2 TB of photos + other stuff I would get 3TB drives. Hopefully will do for a few years. All mine are seagate but you should read some reviews to see who has the best drives now.

As for encrypting I believe you can encrypt with Windows 10 Pro, then upload after that. I haven't done it before I just know it is possible and I am sure there are 3rd party apps that can do it aswell.

accord to google you could in theory store 3tb of data for $21 a month for ~ $250/year which would work out to buying 2-3 3TB external drives. Biggest pain about cloud storage would be uploading it all depending on your speed.
 
What brand and TB size would you recommend for the external?

I've recently seen "drive brand" threads on other forums, everyone has their preferred brand, I like Seagate and WD spinners personally. Shop for the most bang-for-the-buck.

No drives last forever, and the "best" drive out there can fail prematurely.

Certainly enterprise grade drives have a better longevity, and warranty. But, what good is a warranty if you lose your data? I like a drive that has a 3 year warranty, and of course have mulitple backups.

I even have some large capacity usb thumb drives I have music and photos stored...very portable.

I encrypt sensitive financial documents before uploading to the Cloud; the rest I'm not worried about.
 
I had a maxtor drive fail(250gb) it was quite old, but only used as backup, which I doubt even made it to 500 power on hours.
Also had Seagate(500gb) drive fail, also didn't see a lot of hours on it.

Right now I have wd external drive as backup which only plugs in when I periodically use to backup. Another backup is internal drive that works with PC. I also burned my videos to Blu-ray as backup#3. If something catastrophic ever happened and house burned down, all that data would be the last thing on my mind. I'd be grieving about my house the most. :(
 
I had a maxtor drive fail(250gb) it was quite old, but only used as backup, which I doubt even made it to 500 power on hours.
Also had Seagate(500gb) drive fail, also didn't see a lot of hours on it.

Way back at the turn of the century I had a WD fail, and an IBM Deskstar(nickname: "Deathstar") also. Just in the past two months I've had two SSDs fail, just barely beyond their warranty...an OCZ Vertex and a Crucial MX100. :shrug:
 
Yup, can't pick the most reliable drive..they might all go, hence redundancy requirement for important data:)
 
Have you thought about a Blu-Ray burner in addition to a hard drive. Blu-Ray discs can be read only and you can play them on other devices and computers without having to bring along your own equipment (fairly common standard). Some can hold 100 to 125 GB, but nobody knows how long they last. If you keep them in their cases and if you don't use them often (can be scratched), they are fairly safe storage and you can keep multiple copies in various locations.
 
Can someone interpret these please???? https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-for-q2-2018/



if you have atleast 2 TB of photos + other stuff I would get 3TB drives. Hopefully will do for a few years. All mine are seagate but you should read some reviews to see who has the best drives now.

As for encrypting I believe you can encrypt with Windows 10 Pro, then upload after that. I haven't done it before I just know it is possible and I am sure there are 3rd party apps that can do it aswell.

accord to google you could in theory store 3tb of data for $21 a month for ~ $250/year which would work out to buying 2-3 3TB external drives. Biggest pain about cloud storage would be uploading it all depending on your speed.

I was thinking of a 3TB or 4TB drive. But is there any reliability differences between a 1tb, 2tb, 3tb, 4tb 6tb and 8tb drive anymore? I remember about 6-7 years ago the 3tb green WD internals were failing like crazy and no one wanted to buy a 3tb disk anymore.

I also heard everyone pretty much left Seagate about 10 years ago and went for WD because all the SGs were failing miserably also. I have no idea what drives are better quality anymore. Where are the better reviews that I can read up now? Amazon is junk for HDD reviews.

I use Win 7, I have never updated my machine to Win 10 yet. Do not plan to until I buy a new machine.

Backblaze B2 service seems will cost me about 10 a month for 2tb of data. It is not bad. but then they send me this, https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217667468-B2-Security-and-Redundancy and quite frankly I don't understand anything about this nor how to do it, I find this kind of stuff very complicated to figure out. I need an easy solution that will encrypt everything on my machine before it sends it, or as it sends it to encrypt it. But again I am totally clueless about this part. HELP!!!! Uploading is not a problem, I can do it slowly, over a few weeks. Create different folders for different months or years, I am ok with that. My upload is not bad, and I can leave it to do it overnight.




I've recently seen "drive brand" threads on other forums, everyone has their preferred brand, I like Seagate and WD spinners personally. Shop for the most bang-for-the-buck.

No drives last forever, and the "best" drive out there can fail prematurely.

Certainly enterprise grade drives have a better longevity, and warranty. But, what good is a warranty if you lose your data? I like a drive that has a 3 year warranty, and of course have mulitple backups.


I even have some large capacity usb thumb drives I have music and photos stored...very portable.

I encrypt sensitive financial documents before uploading to the Cloud; the rest I'm not worried about.


Yes, I know. Seagate was good 20 years ago, then they sucked, then WD bad over 20 years ago, then it sucked, and then 10 years ago WD was better than SG, so now? Which??? Seagate, WD, or HSGT, or Toshiba or ??? I have no idea.............. Enterprise grade drives are more expensive. And as you said a warranty is not going to save your data. What I care is that the drive can be put in storage for 10-20 years with never using it during that time.

Again, encryption, I am totally clueless how to do it.

Have you thought about a Blu-Ray burner in addition to a hard drive. Blu-Ray discs can be read only and you can play them on other devices and computers without having to bring along your own equipment (fairly common standard). Some can hold 100 to 125 GB, but nobody knows how long they last. If you keep them in their cases and if you don't use them often (can be scratched), they are fairly safe storage and you can keep multiple copies in various locations.

Yes, I have one. but think about it.... Blue Ray can only do about 25gb per disk, I have more than 2TB!!!!!! And even at 100-125gb that's a lot of disks and a lot of time, and as you said, no one knows how long they will last. Originally a CD was supposed to last for 100 years, now they are finding after 10 years the ink is eating through the disk and killing the music. WTF! I do not think CDs are a viable solution for long term storage, I saved some... well... let's just call them "special movies" years ago on disks, they stuck to the insides of the CD folders I used to store them, it's wet here, and so.....of course that happened. and well, it sort of left marks on the discs and some of them don't run anymore. I do not think this is a good option as a backup.
 
What about printing out the photos? They'll last for a while if sealed up:)

:bang head :shock::rofl: dude.... I have 2TB of photos ++++ That's like more than 50,000 photos! There are some I want to print out, but I have to go through everything to do so, and I am not about do that right now. I also have film I need to have scanned and digitized as a back up also. That's going to be pricey, but needs to be done, and that is yet another 2-3k photos. I have no space for all those.
 

Here is what I got from that chart in the article.
I looked for the drives with a high sample size, high drive time and low failure rate. My results are:

HMS5C4040BLE640 = $438 USD ~9GB/$

ST8000NM0055 = $239 USD ~33GB/$

So the seagate drive is best GB/$ of the two but has a slightly higher failure rate. These drives are enterprise so they are way more money. I honestly feel like just getting a couple cheaper externals would be better.
Grab 2 of these and you would then have 2 copies of your stuff and be done with it. Almost impossible that both drives will fail at the same time. All for cheaper than a single enterprise drive.
 
Here is what I got from that chart in the article.
I looked for the drives with a high sample size, high drive time and low failure rate. My results are:

HMS5C4040BLE640 = $438 USD ~9GB/$

ST8000NM0055 = $239 USD ~33GB/$

So the seagate drive is best GB/$ of the two but has a slightly higher failure rate. These drives are enterprise so they are way more money. I honestly feel like just getting a couple cheaper externals would be better.
Grab 2 of these and you would then have 2 copies of your stuff and be done with it. Almost impossible that both drives will fail at the same time. All for cheaper than a single enterprise drive.

Thanks for that. But if the failure rate is higher, that seems not a good idea. I thought the whole purpose of the article was to help us understand which drives have a lower failure rate over time?

What I had considered to do is buy two different brands of external drives. I think I need 2x 4TB drives. One Seagate as you recommend here, and then another WD passport or mybook, I think both are HDD not SSD. I prefer HDD. At least with two different brands I separate some risk. It will probably cost me around 300 or so for the two of them.
 
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