Do I need a storage upgrade? Looking for most reliable outboard storage

[MakersMarc]

So I amazingly got my "new to me" Lenovo T440 all set up and all my post software downloaded for free. Nice computer thanks for all the suggestions.

One question: I have all my recordings and a lot of ripped GD live releases on a three year old Passport Ultra. Noticed the warranty is three years. Should I be upgrading or what? Not a Cloud guy but want to minimize chance of loss.

Thanks!

[heathen]

Remember there are two types of hard drives: those that have failed and those that will fail.  It's only a matter of time.  Get everything backed up ASAP.  How you go about backing up your data is up to you...there are a lot of options.  The easiest is probably to just get another external and copy everything onto it.

[adrianf74]

So I amazingly got my "new to me" Lenovo T440 all set up and all my post software downloaded for free. Nice computer thanks for all the suggestions.

One question: I have all my recordings and a lot of ripped GD live releases on a three year old Passport Ultra. Noticed the warranty is three years. Should I be upgrading or what? Not a Cloud guy but want to minimize chance of loss.

Thanks!

Look at investing Hard Disk Sentinel Pro.  It runs with very little load but constantly monitors the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drives or SSD.  It's a life-saver in that if a drive is getting ready to fail, you'll know well enough in advance and have time to replace the bad drive. HD Sentinel Pro will also read the status of USB drives as well but only while connected.

As Heathen said, there are only two types of drives; that's VERY true.  I've got some drives that are six or seven years and doing well and had a few others that didn't even make their first birthday.  And as far as brands, everybody's had their experiences.  I've had EVERY brand of drive fail on me over the years so a drive is a drive in that aspect.

Hope some of this helped.

[MakersMarc]

Hugely helpful thanks!

[twatts]

I've got all my junk of several HHDs...

But after I lost my Trey Archive, I signed up for BackBlaze.  Now I have all my stuff backed-up on line... 

Not perfect, but its better than losing my Trey Collection again...

Terry

[nulldogmas]

I back everything up to both a second (really fourth) external drive and to the cloud via BackBlaze. I've come close enough to losing everything not to want to chance it.

And while obviously you don't want to buy a total piece of crap, any backup drive at all is more important than what kind you get. After all, the odds on your backup drive failing at the exact same time as your primary drive are pretty remote.

[heathen]

And while obviously you don't want to buy a total piece of crap, any backup drive at all is more important than what kind you get. After all, the odds on your backup drive failing at the exact same time as your primary drive are pretty remote.

Unless they're both installed in the same computer, which would (at least marginally) increase the chance of both failing at the same time (for example, from some sort of virus or other malicious software).

[beroti_music]

And while obviously you don't want to buy a total piece of crap, any backup drive at all is more important than what kind you get. After all, the odds on your backup drive failing at the exact same time as your primary drive are pretty remote.

Unless they're both installed in the same computer, which would (at least marginally) increase the chance of both failing at the same time (for example, from some sort of virus or other malicious software).

Exactly. Or a huge power failure. Happened to me and fried both the hard discs in my pc. Luckily I had 2 extra back ups on external hard discs.

[nulldogmas]

Exactly. Or a huge power failure. Happened to me and fried both the hard discs in my pc. Luckily I had 2 extra back ups on external hard discs.

That's why you want a cloud backup as well. Even an external hard drive backup won't help if your house burns down.

[beroti_music]

Exactly. Or a huge power failure. Happened to me and fried both the hard discs in my pc. Luckily I had 2 extra back ups on external hard discs.

That's why you want a cloud backup as well. Even an external hard drive backup won't help if your house burns down.

correct. Or store at different locations.

As a 3rd backup I burn my edited masters on m-disc blurays and leave them at another location.
Not ideal but not that bad either.

[beroti_music]

I do audio and multi-angle video. As much as I like storing it all in the cloud it's not an option with this amount of data (50+ GB per show)

[MakersMarc]

Thanks all! The Backblaze suggestion is great and for my needs not expensive. 

[morst]

Backblaze itself recommends the 3-2-1 strategy.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/

"A 3-2-1 strategy means having at least 3 total copies of your data, 2 of which are local but on different mediums (read: devices), and at least 1 copy offsite."

[beroti_music]

Backblaze itself recommends the 3-2-1 strategy.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/

"A 3-2-1 strategy means having at least 3 total copies of your data, 2 of which are local but on different mediums (read: devices), and at least 1 copy offsite."

That's what I try to do as well. 2 local and 1 offsite (on mdisc)

[gormenghast]

What would you guys recommend for cloud storage for say at least 2tb?  This is mainly photographs I really don't want to loose and so far--knock on wood--I've only lost one hard drive and this was way back in the early years of my digital photography.  The music I taped is spread out all over but mainly with friends and friends of friends.  I wasn't much for post work and found it tedious to track shows and upload so much of what I have is either on DATs or on the 2tb drive.  Anyway, this thread reminded me I need to buy another hard drive and back up my 2tb drive that is about maxed out.