Hard Drive for storage of photos ? Recommendation

[DrMoriarty]

€15.99 delivery makes it €76.98. Still not a bad price considering most b&m stores are still asking that much for a 1TB drive...

 

[tosullivan]

I backup my photos/music etc on to 2 different hard drives. There's always a possibility that one of them could fail, they are complicated bits of engineering. If one should fail, then I'd buy another and get back to 2 copies on hard drives.

And also keep really important photos on DVDs too. Can never be too sure.

I apply the same philosophy. I have two 1TB WD desktop drives and use synctoy regularly to back up all my stuff

 

[RMCF]

Do you keep them in two different physical locations, to protect against total loss due to theft, fire or flood?

to be honest, I don't, which may negate my whole idea! They will be at 2 different locations in the same house, which may protect a bit against theft, but a fire in the house and they are both goners.

I might start leaving some of my DVD backups of my photos at my parents address to spread the risk.

 

[RMCF]

I'm looking into this at the moment also. The online option doesn't appeal to me at all I have to say...especially for something like family photographs/videos...you have no idea who can see them and where they are being stored.

I'm planning to buy 3 x 1TB external hard drives from 3 differnt manufacturers. I'll keep one near my PC, one in the attic (wrapped) and the other at my parents place.This should do the job I think. I make that about 200 euro all in without a monthly charge. Does anyone see any shortcomings with this approach (apart from the commitment to making regular backups?)
Thanks,
F

To be honest, this is not really any guarantee that they won't fail.

You could buy 3 of one brand and have none fail, or 3 different brands and have them all fail. The failure rate of HDDs , despite what some might tell you, is very low considering how complicated they are.

I would always go with physical backups (DVD, CD) of really important things like photos etc as well.

 

[Complainer]

I'm planning to buy 3 x 1TB external hard drives from 3 differnt manufacturers. I'll keep one near my PC, one in the attic (wrapped) and the other at my parents place.This should do the job I think. I make that about 200 euro all in without a monthly charge. Does anyone see any shortcomings with this approach (apart from the commitment to making regular backups?)

Sounds way over the top to me. The chances of simultaenous failure of both your main PC drive and any one backup drive is tiny, if you keep the drives physically separate, e.g. one in work and one at home. Would you wear three (or even four) condoms when you play around?

 

[Firefly]

Sounds way over the top to me. The chances of simultaenous failure of both your main PC drive and any one backup drive is tiny, if you keep the drives physically separate, e.g. one in work and one at home.

You're probably right, but they're family photos & movies and they're very important to me. I'll look at DVDs as well.
By the way, I bought one of these and it came today via UPS

Would you wear three (or even four) condoms when you play around?

A friend of mine once said that sex with a condom on is like having a bath with your socks on!

 

[theresa1]

Just got a WD Elements 2TB external hard drive with no power on/off switch. It says it turns on and off with your computer. My question is - should i still use "safely remove hardware" or just power down my computer so i can safely unplug it?

 

[michaelm]

My question is - should i still use "safely remove hardware" or just power down my computer so i can safely unplug it?

Either is fine. You can probably just unplug it if you're not writing to or reading from it as it is probably 'optimised for quick removal'; (to check this right click on the USB drive icon in My Computer/Computer -> Select Properties -> Select the Hardware tab -> Select your USB drive and click on Properties -> click on Policies tab).

 

[theresa1]

Thank's - just had a bad experience with an iomega - got it from Amazon £90.74 (€108.02 on my c/card).

 

[michaelm]

got it from Amazon £90.74 (€108.02 on my c/card).

As an aside, I always pay for amazon.co.uk in GBP as that is invariably, slightly cheaper that accepting the offered euro conversion rate (in may experience anyway).

 

[Complainer]

As an aside, I always pay for amazon.co.uk in GBP as that is invariably, slightly cheaper that accepting the offered euro conversion rate (in may experience anyway).

How do you know exactly what fx rate will be used when the GBP transaction hits your credit card account?

 

[michaelm]

How do you know exactly what fx rate will be used when the GBP transaction hits your credit card account?

I don't. But I've made a note of the Amazon offered euro price on the past 20+ orders I've placed and the ultimate cost on my CC (when charged, converted from GBP and 1.75% FX fee applied) has been less on every occasion.