I need an external HDD to archive a lifetime of files and i want it to be good. Help!

[Mollocephalus]

Let's start by saying i already own two external hard disks, one of 2TB and one of 1TB. i am looking for something a little more than that so everything i have can fit on one high quality hard disk. This disk should always be disconnected and i want to keep it just in case something goes wrong with my computer or my other hard disks. Now, i am completely ignorant about this matter. Does anyone have some suggestions?

[EzExZeRo7497]

Fission wanted to post this but he's banned:
one "high quality drive" is a terrible idea because regardless of what it is advertised as, you are banking on the fact that it isn't going to fail and you have no recourse when it does. refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID and use multiple hard drives for proper redundancy.

[Mollocephalus]

I'll do just that, thanks

[choof]

if you don't want to shell out money for a RAID controller, the best route would be RAID 1

this way, if you lose one of your drives, you can simply swap it out and it will automatically start copying to the new one


also, don't forget cloud services, you can store all of your files on a file server (they will have way more redundancy than you will ever have) and pay a monthly fee to make sure they don't lose them

[Ghakimx]

Firstly, you need to know a bit more about what you want:

1. Is this an internal or external hard drive?
2. What is the capacity you are aiming for?
3. What kind of computer are you using it for? (Desktop, laptop)

So for the first question, if its an internal hard drive, you should combo it with RAID for higher speed and reliability. I am unable to explain more about RAID technology, so I'll skip that topic. If its an external hard drive, there are also 2 types;

1. External Desktop Hard Drives
2. Portable Hard Drives

If its the one that is mainly used for storage and will stay on location, on your computer, then a desktop drive is what you want. Its less expensive and has higher storage capacity for price, but of course, you can't really lug it around and it requires external power.

Portable drives however are meant to share data with. This is the best solution in my opinion, since I can play SM anywhere.

Second question, since you already have 2TB and 1TB respectively, another 1TB or 2TB is fine, since its quite cheap already. Don't need to be a 4TB holder unless you're doing film.

Third, if you're using a desktop, then a desktop hard drive or portable is fine. For laptops, portable seems to be the only viable option.

Hope this helps you out!