Question Hard drives for backups in 2024

[MalcolmKK]

Hi All,
I hope you are well.
I have seen that sticky thread about backup disks but it's an old thread.
I am looking for some cheaper drives as a backup solution for my NVMes in case it dies.
I am thinking about a couple of 3.5 HDDs (up to 10 Terabytes). I set them up in software RAID1 configuration for redundancy.
There is also the idea to shut them down while not in use so they are not constantly spinning to reduce the wear.
Please advise
Thank you

 

[Eximo]

Depends how you go about it.

3, 2, 1 rules are the general guide. 3 Backups, 2 types of media, one off site backup.

Raid 1 is actually about up time, not really a backup. Basically you lose no time if a drive fails, but if you accidentally delete data or the system hosting the drives corrupts them, you lose both at the same time.

A NAS is also a decent way to go about it. Keep your working files on the NAS and rely on network performance. If the main system dies, you still have the NAS.

I practice a milder version. Live system (SSD), local hard drive backup (SATA HDD), external offline backup (External SATA HDD) that remains unplugged when not in use. I also keep important documents on a rotating set of USB flash drives that I replace every few years.

So I risk both drives for ease of availability, but perform semi-irregular backups of stored files and system images.

That third step could be cloud storage, or physically removed to another location to properly follow the 3:2:1 rules.

 

[USAFRet]

Nothing wrong with HDDs for backups.

Price per GB, that is the way to go.

RAID 1, however, not so much.

You act against fail by having more than 1 copy of the data. RAID 1 just wards off (mostly) against physical drive fail. It does nothing for all the other forms of data loss.

 

[MalcolmKK]

Ok, thanks
I already have offline backups of older stuff in place.
I need some more frequent backups (weekly) of more recent stuff and extra space.
So how I want to play this is two HDD not in RAID but mounted and dismounted whenever the backup job runs.

What disk manufacturers and models do you recommend? Brand new, refurbished?
Thanks

 

[Eximo]

Seagate Ironwolf or WD Red Plus in 10TB are listed as CMR drives. SMR drives are to be avoided if you want performance.

I believe my last purchase was a WD Red Pro 4TB drive. But I don't keep too much in terms of bulky files.