Question Is buying an extenal HDD/SDD the best fit for this issue?

[drwhykk]

Hello,

The longer story is as follows:

My daugther has a Mini ATX PC we build her with 750GB HDD which shes pretty much filled up at this point with school work and video games. My wife is going to have to start working from home remotely and we don't want their workspaces to overlap and we really can't afford to build a second PC at this time.

The solution I was considering was buying an external 1TB+ HDD/SDD and letting my wife store all her work files and family pictures/videos on it. Then I would create two profiles on the computer with their own passwords. This way when my wife has to work she can plug in, do her thing and then when shes done she can unplug the external and doesn't run the risk of my daugther erasing anything, going through her stuff or installing things on it.

Is this a good way to handle this situation? If so, what should I be looking for in terms of external drives?

Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, but you also need another drive for actual backups.
External HDD/SSD has a way of falling off the desk and breaking.

 

[ElectrO_90]

I think your suggestion is good, but also install/use Google Drive or Dropbox to back up as well.
This helps keep the price down

 

[drwhykk]

I think your suggestion is good, but also install/use Google Drive or Dropbox to back up as well.
This helps keep the price down

Is this a good idea for family pictures and/or work files? I've never been much of a cloud guy but that could just be misinformed paranoia.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Is this a good idea for family pictures and/or work files? I've never been much of a cloud guy but that could just be misinformed paranoia.

Well as long as you use a decent password - then you should be fine. (decent anti malware/virus checker/firewall) - I use 20+ character passwords
I've never had a problem and I use it for everything and so do my friends. All depends on paranoia levels and how delicate the information is.
For my work, it doesn't matter if things got stolen, its just accounting of my customers and work I do, it's not high level security stuff. Plus photos of me and my dogs etc

 

[USAFRet]

Is this a good idea for family pictures and/or work files? I've never been much of a cloud guy but that could just be misinformed paranoia.

I'm not much of a cloud guy either.

Basic rule: 3-2-1
At least 3 copies, on 2 different media, at least 1 offsite. (cloud, or another drive 'somewhere')

Read in here:

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

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