External backup options - SSD vs Flash?

[Fuzzmuncher]

I've killed 2 regular externals over the last decade... both with catastrophic results. As a result, I'd like to switch to some form of solid state backup.

With flash thumb drives being so cheap & the infrequency of backups, would they be a viable option? Or would I be better off getting an external SSD drive? Read/write times aren't a big concern of mine, just looking for something reasonably priced that I can back up to once or twice a quarter.

Thank you.

 

[Blain]

SSD

 

[KingFatty]

I bet the error protection on SSD drives is way ahead of any thumb drive. I'd go with SSD.

However, based on prices, shouldn't you just get a redundant disk setup so you don't even care if drives fail? I mean, why not buy 6 hard drives for the price of one SSD? Then just throw out the hard drives as they fail, and come out ahead still?

 

[Blain]

However, based on prices, shouldn't you just get a redundant disk setup so you don't even care if drives fail? I mean, why not buy 6 hard drives for the price of one SSD? Then just throw out the hard drives as they fail, and come out ahead still?

Spinning platters require more power plants to be built... making mother earth cry.

 

[KingFatty]

Spinning platters require more power plants to be built... making mother earth cry.

 

[Zap]

I've killed 2 regular externals over the last decade... both with catastrophic results.

Did they contain the ONLY copy of your data? If so, then it wasn't a backup.

For important information, the actual media doesn't matter as much as having multiple copies.

It might help us with recommendations if you tell us HOW MUCH data you will be backing up, and HOW OFTEN.

 

[Blain]

It might help us with recommendations if you tell us HOW MUCH data you will be backing up, and HOW OFTEN.

That would lessen of the adventure of the thread.
We are like dentists here... slowly extracting one tooth at a time.

 

[postmortemIA]

I've read by few sources that SSDs will loose the charge and consequently the data if kept powered off for for significant time, like years, even months.

 

[Blastman]

I would consider getting 2 500GB HDD's and back up to both them when you do a backup.

2 USB 3.0 flash drives would work also, but the cost/GB may be prohibitive if you are backing up > 64GB of data.

 

[Cerb]

I've read by few sources that SSDs will loose the charge and consequently the data if kept powered off for for significant time, like years, even months.

So will HDDs (I've had it happen). Consumer flash is rated for 1 year. The means when it hits its rated P/E cycle count, it should hold data written to it at that moment for for at least 1 year, without exceeding its error spec.

Note that Sandforce drives with smaller sizes (FI, 120GB instead of 128GB), Crucial's M500, and Toshiba's new THNSNH series, have additional error correction going on in them. For SF, I'd get a Toshiba or Intel, since they usually put better binned flash in their own drives, compared to what they sell to 3rd parties. Generally, I would do that, anyway, though, SF or not.

Backups that aren't checked up on and remade at intervals aren't worth having.

 

[Fuzzmuncher]

Did they contain the ONLY copy of your data? If so, then it wasn't a backup.

For important information, the actual media doesn't matter as much as having multiple copies.

It might help us with recommendations if you tell us HOW MUCH data you will be backing up, and HOW OFTEN.

You're absolutely correct. That's a large part of my decision issues. I've been told (perhaps erroneously) that SSD is the most stable form of the hdd/ssd/flash options. However, for the price of one large SSD, I could buy a redundant pair of flash or hdd drives.

I try to back up my photos/videos bi-weekly, but once a month is more realistic. Usually about 10-20gigs at a time.


From this thread, it sounds like I'm better off just backing up to two large HDD's?

 

[Zxian]

For any bulk storage that doesn't require concurrent access/throughput, spinning disks are still your best bet. All hard drives eventually die - that's just a fact of life.

Your backup solution should have enough redundancy to handle at least one drive failure, preferably two.

 

[ElFenix]

You're absolutely correct. That's a large part of my decision issues. I've been told (perhaps erroneously) that SSD is the most stable form of the hdd/ssd/flash options. However, for the price of one large SSD, I could buy a redundant pair of flash or hdd drives.

I try to back up my photos/videos bi-weekly, but once a month is more realistic. Usually about 10-20gigs at a time.


From this thread, it sounds like I'm better off just backing up to two large HDD's?

if you're backing up stuff that is constantly being rewritten i'd keep at least one HDD locally and also have a cloud backup service. if you're backing up stuff that is where the change is additional files i'd burn some blu rays and also have a cloud service.

i wouldn't use an SSD for backup. the price ratio isn't there and i still don't trust the things that much, even if there is less to go wrong than on a spinning pile of rust.

 

[Zxian]

if you're backing up stuff that is constantly being rewritten i'd keep at least one HDD locally and also have a cloud backup service. if you're backing up stuff that is where the change is additional files i'd burn some blu rays and also have a cloud service.

I wouldn't trust BluRays. I use Crashplan for my cloud backup solution, but the only time that I'd want to restore from there is if I had a local disaster (fire/flood/EMP/etc). You'll get notification fairly quickly if a hard drive has failed (i.e. it's no longer available as a backup destination). You'll only go to notice a Bluray disc failure when you go to check the contents (and who's going to load every backup disc they have on a regular basis?).

To the OP - buy an external hard drive, set it as a backup destination for Crashplan, and be done with it. Set-it-and-forget-it. You'll get a notification email if your system can't do it's backups for three days, and a backup summary email once a week (you can do these more or less frequently if you prefer).

 

[Fuzzmuncher]

To the OP - buy an external hard drive, set it as a backup destination for Crashplan, and be done with it. Set-it-and-forget-it. You'll get a notification email if your system can't do it's backups for three days, and a backup summary email once a week (you can do these more or less frequently if you prefer).

Much appreciate all the advice. I think I'll try this one for now. Makes perfect sense to have backups in different locations and the price is cheaper than I expected.

Thank you everyone!

 

[Zxian]

Just a note about Crashplan - you don't need to sign up for their service. The only thing you pay for is the ability to backup to their servers.

You can set a friend's computer (presumably in another house or city) as a backup destination and get the same effect. Almost all features are free to use.

 

[jkauff]

If you're going redundant, you might want to pair a HDD with a cloud backup service like Carbonite. The advantage there is that Carbonite supports versioning, so it keeps earlier versions of updated files.

 

[Zxian]

So does Crashplan, even on your local backup drives.

I haven't seen anything that Carbonite brings to the table that would make me switch.

 

[jkauff]

I wasn't familiar with CrashPlan, it looks pretty good. Any total size restrictions on "Unlimited" (I used to use JustCloud, but they complained once I hit 2TB) or upload speeds?

 

[Zxian]

Haven't seen any issues yet. I've used it to create a backup archive of my movie collection which contains some 35GB MKV files. To my knowledge, "unlimited" really does mean "unlimited" for their cloud storage.

 

[Red Squirrel]

For backups I'd personally go with 2-3TB green/cheap drives. It will be cheaper, even if you duplicate the info across at least 2 drives, and it's not like you really need that much performance for a backup. Even reliability is not THAT important as what are the odds of all your backup drives failing AND your source? I have a bunch of old 1TB drives I use as my secondary backup solution. Primary is just backing it up to the same raid (obviously not a good solution on it's own, which is why I have the drives)