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I only bought an ext drive one time and it's a WD Element and it's working for years using it about 10 times per month for system images. The other external drives used for data backup are repurposed internal 2.5" drives. These are small and don't require a separate power supply. And by the way all these ext drives are unplugged and off during normal PC use. That prevents potential malware from infecting backups.

I have about a dozen Western Digital Passports (4Tb & 5Tb) and they have never failed me.

For basic home backups, HD are cheap and easy. Portable 4TB drives go for about $100 so you can get two drives for rotation for the same price as one SSD for that storage.

Excellent video Leo. I would like to add a few things: 1. If you're infected with ransomware it will probably encrypt any attached storage (such as your backup drive). You should therefore probably rotate backup drives and not use them for anything other than backup (i.e. don't have them mounted unless you're running a backup). 2. The shelf life of an SSD is much shorter than that of a hard drive. If there is any risk that your backup will be stored for a year or more, a hard drive is a better choice. 3. Two of my backup drives rotate between a fireproof safe in my basement and a security deposit box in my bank. The SD box is too small to hold a 3.5" drive, so that set has to be 2.5"

My first computer had a 40 mg hard drive and the drive still works. It's just a drive that sits on a shelf to remind me where I first started with these computers. I actually started with a VIC 20. LOL That's a long way back. Your advice is right on the money. Things are changing to fast to recommend a particular drive.. Excellent informative video. Thanks Leo.

If you're traveling get ssd not hd, no heads to crash, no bearings to hurt, and available in capacities that exceed anything you can get in 2-1/2 inch.

For travel pictures, I use a USB hub that has an SD card reader slot - and a built in SSD. Saves space, more rugged, and by keeping data on both SD card and SSD I have more cnfidence in backups. I have also been known to copy SSD data to a USB stick, and mail it home on holidays. Just In Case.

I installed a couple dozen WD drives (on my own PC, and others'); internal, external, NAS. In all for over 500 000 drive-hours (POHs). Not one failed so far*. OTOH, got 2 Seagates which BOTH failed within three years. Never again. YMMV. *) At one time one of them (a 2.5" Elements) started to make a ticking sound, often the preamble of an imminent failure. That was 2 years ago, the ticking stopped, and the drive still works.

The external drives I use most are 2TB NVMe M.2 in an external caddy. Small, light, fast.

WD. Concur with previous comments, they just keep working. Thanks Leo.

As I found out to late make sure to test your backed up data is readable and performs as expected.

As a computer operator, decades ago, I learned the value of redundant backups; I make three full backups of my machine every month; that way, if one backup fails during a restore operation, I've got two more attempts to succeed.

I find that Toshiba tend to be very good. Seagate tends to have problems with the connections where it connects then disconnects. I had to transfer all the data onto another drive before it failed completely.

Perhaps my setup is a bit complicated, but here it is. I have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) and I store most of my user data there on drive 1. I have an automated backup which copies changed working files files from NAS drive 1 to drive 2. I also collect lots of downloaded stuff on NAS drive 1, which is not automatically backed up. I occasionally do full drive backups of my computers to NAS drive 2. I periodically copy everything from the NAS to my portable drives. These are mostly refurbished name brand enterprise drives. Two are in drive enclosures, but I've found a SATA dock to be convenient for others.

Just a reminder. Many HDs come with backup software, which I consider as bloatware. Therefore, I reformat the drive before using it. I have used WD and Seagate brands for years without any problems. problems

The bigger the storage, the more data to lose. I wouldn't travel with a mechanical spinning drive. Remember the early days when you had to "park" the drive head before moving a computer?

Great guidance as always. Any thought about backing up multiple partitions and/or multiple internal disks onto one external HD, assuming it has the capacity? Is there a back up software that would be easier to use with this approach? I'm assuming it would mean a separate disk image being created for each internal Disk and/or partition.

External hard drive at 500 GB, usb-connectable for about $40, found & bought about a decade ago. Other specification I not remember; but although seem a bit slow, is workable.

I use 3 external hard drives for my AOMEI backups. 1 usb flash drive, 1 TB 2 1/2" usb powered and 1 TB 3 1/2" powered.

Lots of great advice. Truthfully I wish I consistently use a hard drive to back up my main PC. Actually might get another 8TB or 14TB external Seagate to do the backups. But have not seen them at Costco for a while. Usually they have discounts there and Seagate supposedly offer a 3 year warranty on the device and data recovery. I DO NOT get sponsor by them or affiliate with them. I do image my main pc a few times a year. And just got a sturdy 10 hard drive container case so I can put a hard drive on an external enclosure, make the backups, remove the case and put the drive away for safety.

I use two 8TB hard drives for backup. I store them in a fireproof small safe box. I can keep four full monthly backups with weekly increments between them. I keep the drives in a cheap keep case inside the safe box and use a hot swap drive bay in my computer to back up. Been doing it for years. Sure beats those old tapes.

At present, I have 3 externals. One is a Simpletech 3.5" I bought in 2008 that is still going strong. Thought it used a WD drive, but it appears it actually has a Hitachi drive in it. I don't access it much as it's all storage, divided into video, photos and music (or audio) partitions. It's full for the most part, though photos and video partitions are not. Then I have 2 WD passports (2.5") mechanical external drives, one 500GB that WAS to be for backups, but the software from WD, I could not figure out if it actually saved, or backed up anything, or not, so abandoned things all together, however, did a clone of my HD using the then free Macrium Reflect and it did great in 2019, until I tried to restore my boot drive a couple of years later after a cleaning, not realizing initially I may have swapped SATA cables and the image got horked. That went that. Now, I have 2, 3.5" mechanical drives at 500GB each, both used, and from 2013/14, but to start off, it'll do. I will get cases for them eventually, but have an adapter that has a power supply, good for IDE/SATA drives for now, and I have a dock that can accept 2 drives that is connected to the desktop, and can do an internal clone of one to the other. I also have two Dell computers, one a laptop, the other a desktop (both business workstations, bought used. So one drive for each. Software will be EaseUS for backups and cloning. in 2008, I did tons of research on my first external, looking for defects, poor design etc, and one, a Hitachi had major issues on the 1TB and higher capacity due to poor ventilation cooling so the drives overheated, some had defective controllers, others bad USB cables (a bad batch at that time), and how frequently they were found defective, and if they had the capacity I was looking for (500GB), LaCie didn't go beyond 350GB being one example. In the end, the Simpletech (now owned by Hitachi) won out as it while not perfect, had the fewest issues overall than just about everyone else, and came in a 500GB capacity. As I said, it's been holding up, though in recent years, it stays powered up and connected, but I rarely access it unless I'm looking for something in particular going back several years that is on it.

G Technology is WD while LaCie is Seagate. Neither uses any other drives. Also, from an IT professional, any device your computer’s OS can see is not a backup. If you can see it in File Explorer or Finder, ransomware can also see it. Backups need to either be stored on a NAS, with unique credentials stored in the backup software, or cloud backup. I’ve seen the results of an external drive as backup. Not pretty.

I have five WesternDigital external hard drives and have never had a problem with any of them.

Is this odd. I never delete anything. Over the 20 years digital I now have over 50 external. hard drives. My older hard drives are 500 mb. Note that my older hard drive cost far more per bit than the new ones. This also may be odd. I always keep my SD cards. I have a number of compact flash drives. Now not to forget about my thumb drives. I use them for backing specific groups of pics. Even with all the backups that I have I can find pics. The age of the hard drive helps. Not finished. I keep my old computers and have many pics on them. Why. My wife and I travel a lot and I am always taking pics of kinds of things. This year my wife and I will be visiting Iceland for are 8th time. Many cruses and trips to Europe. Russia twice. Most National and State parks. No job. Retired 20 years ago and love to take pics. My wife thinks I have OCD. What do you think? Want a pic of something different I am you guy.

Way too complicated, the FIRST thing that counts is the type of interface in terms of speed, there are things like eSATA (6Gbit/sec), USB 3.0 (5Gbit/sec), USB-C 3.2 10 GBit/Sec. SECOND the type of HD such as M.2-SSD, mSATA-SSD, SATA-SSD or just the regular hard disks. THIRDLY, one can opt for the standard single external hard drive or a docking station (multiple use). In short, everyone has their own personal choice.

Thanks for making this video. I was curious if your opinion changed since the last time you talked about this years ago. I was thinking of sending in this question myself.

wd elements 4tb 5400prm drive using here

Hi Leo - thank you for your videos! I have my files backed up on a nas and almost all of my work is stored under Onedrive with pictures being replicated in Google and/or Amazon. None of this is an incremental backup though. I would like to combine the backup of my computer with the onedrive contents if not as one entity (the whole system at once as presented by file explorer) then at least as one job (and incremental for the pc and an incremental for the onedrive)? I was thinking of a schedule a little more aggressive than yours like keeping a few dailies, a few weeklies, a couple of monthlies and all the yearly (is this overkill?) Do you have a video where you show how to set that up (probably :))?

From 2021, G-Technology is rebranded by Western Digital into SanDisk Professional. Western Digital is a solid choice, but like any brand, they have bad years.

I knew I would love this video

My take home message from this is that the rotating discs still can be good as a backup. I bought one recently, not realising it was a rotating disc. I paid just over a £100 for 4TB WD drive. Then I searched for SSDs of this capacity and they were at least twice the price for this capacity. I went with one, also because the mentioned portability and size. My next one may be a HDD again, if it really doesn't matter as much. A fun fact: I bought a Sandisk USB, what I thought was 64 gb capacity, went to create a bootable usb for my computer that needed anything larger than 32 GB and it failed... that little bastard was just 32 GB. But on the package, the item itself and description of the website (Currys), it was 64 GB. Got a refund for that, but it puzzles me how this company (Sandisk) and their distributor (Currys) could get it so wrong. Was it just one off or was there a whole batch that was faulty?

This was quite helpful and a refreshing change from the typical ai generated, amazon affiliate link laden content currently plaguing this platform. Thank you.

I will be RV full time and I thing hard drives don't like it and the only way I know is to put my files on DVD, yes it will be long to save my files but at least it won't break. Do you have another suggestion ? I love your videos

I have bought a Seagate recently, and my data disappeared when transferring. I am desperate. Any way to restore it, please????

From the thumbnail, I thought you might be recommending good 8-track players!

Another great video from Leo "backup " Notenboom.

Leo, you have not addressed the performance reliability and dependability factors between hard drives and SSDs. Are SSD's not clearly way ahead on those considerations?

Good stuff, again.

Before i start watching this video i am very sure that the first answer is: Wel, both yes and no or .. no i cant 😂

I wasted my time watching this post .... although this guy mentioned that brand name quality is CYCLICAL, and mentioned waht he was using, HE NEVER MENTION AN ACTUAL BRAND THAT HE WOULD RECCOMENT TODAY!

Can you please help me I got locked out my Xbox account

What a waste of time hearing this useless discussion.