Definitely not the right place for this, but I’m yet to find the right place. I need an SSD/HDD that can store about 10 years worth of family photo and video. I was looking at that Samsung rugged SSD, but it’s a little above my price range right now. I’e like to have at least a terabyte for future photos so I don’t have to worry about this again for a while. Any reliable options?
On top of any local thing you do, you should strongly consider some type of cloud backup. (BackBlaze has a good price.) Even if you have 2 redundant drives at home that you backup to, what happens in the event of a fire while you are out? Those drives are now equally roasted. If you care enough and can take the cost, you should always try to have a backup thats at a separate location from your home/primary storage.
Actually, the main reason I’m doing this is so we can switch away from our Verizon plan, which includes cloud storage. All the photos are there now, but Verizon has been fucking us over for like 10 years and I’m sick of paying for a bunch of bundle bullshit I don’t use.
Noted, though cloud storage and cloud backup aren’t the same. BackBlaze is $70/yr for unlimited backup. Regardless, the main point was just to make sure you’re aware. Many people try to use an external drive as backup for data they really care about without realizing how vulnerable that setup can actually be. As long as you know, then anything after that is your call.
It depends a lot on how much space you’re using, how much you need, and the conditions that you’re storing the drive in.
10 years doesn’t really say how many photos there are. It could just as readily be a very small number of photos, or a very big number of photos.
If it’s just going to be sitting in a box on the shelf, an HDD could still work reasonably well, but if it’s going to be in a bag/bumped around, you might want the tougher SSD. The HDD still has the best price per TB value (may differ depending on your country/local market), but for 1TB, the difference is negligible (you’d be looking at maybe $10 - 20 total difference).
The best place to store it is more than one place. No product can replace this essential procedure.
handy site for finding the lowest price per TB HDD/SSD
There are multiple options
- Cloud storage is popular these days (has it’s disadvantages)
- External HDDs (portable, but needs care when moving as simple drop can damage it), I had good results with WD drives
- External SSDs (overkill for cold storage like you described)
- Internal HDDs (depending on your PC configuration, can be the best solution, if portability is not a requirement)
Also, for any storage, the 3-2-1 rule is recommened.
It states that there should be at least 3 copies of the data, stored on 2 different types of storage media, and one copy should be kept offsite, in a remote location (this can include cloud storage).
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What is your budget and how much space do you need? I’m seeing 1tb external drives on amazon for about 50 usd.
If you really need a budget option, you could get a sata usb cable and make use of any old hard drives laying around.
I also recommend backing up to a cloud for reliability.
Just buy two of anything and do regular backups. If one shits the bed you haven’t completely lost everything. They’re all going to die eventually, you just don’t want to get caught with your pants down.
Is a single physical drive enough, or maybe a NAS is a better alternative?
Samsung 2tb external drives can be had for 80-120$ on amazon. Their X6 and X8 models are nice. The price difference is the X8 is a metal case and comes with a USB-C to USB adapter.
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Have a look at an nvme ssd and an enclosure for it. I’m using a icy box one for mine. This way you can get 2tb storage for about 130€. There are a ton of options regarding enclosures. If your budget allows you should get two for additional backup security.
Seconding NVME with an enclosure. These don’t take up a lot of physical space and they’re fast. I just got a 1TB Samsung that was a return from Amazon for $38. Worked perfectly. In the US the 2TBs can be had for around $120.
You’re going to need to figure out what your storage needs are before you can choose a drive - 10 year’s worth isn’t very quantifiable in data storage terms. Find out the size in gigabytes of your image directory(ies) and then go for half again to double the storage capacity. Storage is cheap and you can never have too much!
Just be careful not to leave them unplugged for too long. An SSD can forget data if it’s not powered up for a very long time.
