Best HDD/SSD/other alternative for long time data(personal photo and videos) storage?

Just another human

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Dec 19, 2015
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My phone's storage keeps getting full mainly due to family photos and videos so i was thinking of maybe getting a hdd or ssd to store them for the coming years specially for my younger brother. Right now i am keeping them on my pc but it is really old and might experience problems anytime soon or maybe not but it is sure is risky.
So can you suggest which hhd/ssd would be best for storing them or any other alternative i should use.
(also i dont think i'd be able to pay for online backup services; i'm still a student)
Thank you :)
 
Solution
The best thing to do is to back up things periodically to an external hard drive which are relatively inexpensive. Something like the following Western Digital (WD) 2TB external drive for $70 should be sufficient.

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Passport-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B01LQQHF2W/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1514322973&sr=1-3&keywords=wd%2Bpassport&th=1


A better, but more expensive solution is something like the following WD 4TB RAID external drive for $260 which should be configured in RAID 1 mode (mirror). It is a pretty basic RAID device which is why it is inexpensive compared to others in the market. I has two 2TB hard drive for a total of 4TB. However, when used in RAID 1 mode, the actual capacity is 2TB in total. That...

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
The best choice for long term storage is multiple physical copies with a cloud (or other off-site) storage. You need to protect against not just hardware problems, but also theft, fire, water damage, etc. That is why the off-site storage is required.
 
I would keep them on your pc but periodically (weekly or any time you copy a new batch off) back them up to an external drive (seagate or western digital - doesnt have to be fancy). If possible, store the external away from the PC.

Cloud is best but can be cost prohibitive.
 
The best thing to do is to back up things periodically to an external hard drive which are relatively inexpensive. Something like the following Western Digital (WD) 2TB external drive for $70 should be sufficient.

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Passport-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B01LQQHF2W/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1514322973&sr=1-3&keywords=wd%2Bpassport&th=1


A better, but more expensive solution is something like the following WD 4TB RAID external drive for $260 which should be configured in RAID 1 mode (mirror). It is a pretty basic RAID device which is why it is inexpensive compared to others in the market. I has two 2TB hard drive for a total of 4TB. However, when used in RAID 1 mode, the actual capacity is 2TB in total. That is because in RAID 1 mode the same data is written to both drives. Should one drive fail, you still have data on the other drive. You would need to buy a new hard drive and install it so that the mirror can rebuild itself. However, as a student $260 is likely a lot of money.

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WDBFBE0040JBK-NESN-Desktop-External/dp/B074R31BNS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1514323208&sr=8-7&keywords=raid+1+system

Cloud storage could be used to some important files as well, but if you do not want to spend any money at all, then the amount of storage you can have access will be limited. Below is a link to some of the best cloud storage services for free. Mega offers the most free storage capacity at 50GB. I do not use such services so I cannot give you a recommendation.

https://www.thebalance.com/free-cloud-storage-1356638
 
Solution
There are several free, if limited, cloud options, as has been said.
Also, you can backup to an external HDD or usb pen drive.
And finally, you can burn the data to DVD or Blu-ray discs, which for archival purposes is the longest lived provided you take some care of the physical discs because there's no degradation and no reliance on external storage.