How long should you keep an external HD?

[Axel PC]

How long should you keep an external HD? I've had this external for about 4/5 years now. I use it back up about 250 GB of photos, videos, and documents. What are you thoughts or tips about how long you should keep an external HD used for back ups? Oh yeah I know solid states have that benefit of no moving parts so should I consider getting one of those? Thanks!

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[Josephur]

Some hard drives just refuse to die and will last a long time, be a shame to terminate them early. You could use SMART monitoring software like CrystakDiskInfo to get a report on the drives health.. however that does not always predict backups.

 

[Axel PC]

Some hard drives just refuse to die and will last a long time, be a shame to terminate them early. You could use SMART monitoring software like CrystakDiskInfo to get a report on the drives health.. however that does not always predict backups.

I agree about wasting, I don't want to create unnecessary waste out there too by just throwing it away. I'll look into that CyrstalDiskInfo.

Any tips or advice on storage of it? I keep usually keep it in my night stand with other emergency items in case we have to leave. I can just grab that HD and not worry about taking my computer.

 

[AdrianG001]

How long should you keep an external HD? I've had this external for about 4/5 years now. I use it back up about 250 GB of photos, videos, and documents. What are you thoughts or tips about how long you should keep an external HD used for back ups? Oh yeah I know solid states have that benefit of no moving parts so should I consider getting one of those? Thanks!

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This critical question should come to mind for every business and individual with valuable data. The life span of a hard drive depends on many variables, like the brand, size, type, and environment. More reputable brands who make dependable hardware will have drives that last longer. If you read/write more data on your disk, your hard drive will age faster. Hard drives respond to the cleanliness of the environment, so stay alert for electrical issues and dust. And lastly, what Prosoft Engineering always says, make sure to have an up-to-date backup of your hard drive. To get rid of it most of the business seek for a reliable cloud service provider. Migrating to cloud can be a good option if you really want your data to be long term.


Regards,
Adrian

 

[ussnorway]

a solid state is good for boot drives but not for storage because the rust disc is still about 1/3 of the cost... just how many times a day do you want to look at the images on there?

online back ups are nice for important [non-private] data but thats iffy for private info and not cheep