Topic: Best practice for backup external drives; connected and turned on or not?

[MakersMarc]

Thanks!

[Gordon]

if you mean leaving them turned on and connected I say no!  if you were to get ransomware it will encrypt any connected drive.

[Ronmac]

At least one backup should be kept in a secure, remote location.

[MakersMarc]

Unplugged, right? The reallly hard to replace stuff is on a 4tb, is have backblaze, and just ordered another 4b for local backup. Should that backup sit unplugged?

[heathen]

It's not a great idea to leave a hard drive unused and unplugged for a long period of time.  Occasionally writing some data to it will help refresh the magnetic stuff.  Maybe even re-write the whole thing from time to time.  Here's some info: https://blog.macsales.com/43702-we-bet-you-didnt-know-that-your-hdds-or-ssds-may-need-exercise-too

[MakersMarc]

Thanks Heathen. Great read and hugely helpful.