what do you think it the most reliable ext hard drive?

I forgot to add, "the cloud" is, for most people, a sucker's bet. Calling it "the cloud" doesn't change the fact that it's just a server farm belonging to someone else. It's not anything new or magical, it's just marketing. Compared to local storage, it's slooooow, it's expensive, and it's essentially offering your data to a stranger as a hostage. Sure, the agreement you sign with them states (probably) that your data remains yours, but it also states that the agreement can be modified by the vendor at any time.

I use a 1.5 TB WD My Passport Ultra to back up my files in real time. No problem to date, about two years. I haven't got any error messages and set up initially was minimal. I like that I don;t have to deal with it. It seems to do it's job. It's so quiet, every now and then I get concerned and check to see of it's backing stuff up - and it is.

 

Any throughts on the My Passport Ultra units?Should I replace them at some time and use the old for archival?

 

As I read this, I interpret it as your ONLY backup is this WD drive attached to your computer.

If you have a house fire, or a computer theft, you LOOSE EVERYTHING. At which point, you have no backup.

This is why I say to get the backup OUT of the house, to some place safe, like the bank safety deposit box.

 

Take a periodic backup and get it out of the house.

I do mine once every 3 months.

On top of this, I take project backups.

 

How important is it to preserve your data/image files?

Your backup strategy should reflect the importance of those files.

You need two back-ups, with one off-site or on the cloud. Are you doing that? (Just because a drive is quiet doesn't mean that it won't fail tonight).

Good point. No, I don't use the cloud. But my kids and family pictures I gave to my kids in the form of digital slide videos. The rest will get lost if the house burns down. Of course, being an old codger, what would I do with all the old photo albums predating digital? I could scan them. But I don't think it's worth all that trouble. Does my kid want to look at my wife and my cruise to the islands and elsewhere?

 

We discovered 43 fifty foot 8mm film videos taken by my father-in-law. I asked my wife to go through them and label them in some sort of order so we can scan them and label them. She still hasn't done it. It's over a year or two. I did digitize my own 8mm films and gave them to my nephew and daughter. I think this can be overdone. No one's going to be interested enough to look at all these old photos and films. I think there's enough of them around with others to satisfy memories.

Edited April 7, 2018 by AlanKlein

Does my kid want to look at my wife and my cruise to the islands and elsewhere?

Depends on the kid. I periodically get great joy in going through my parents old snapshots, even more when my grandparents are in them. Just yesterday, a cousin of mine emailed a bunch of the family some pics he and his sister discovered up in a shoebox in the closet of all of us from way back when. I loved not only seeing them but sharing the memories with brothers, sisters, and cousins.

 

Below is one of me in high school with Grandma and my little cousin, Jonny, probably at a Passover Seder at my aunt’s house. I got it in the email last night around 10 and went to sleep with a nice, warm feeling.

 

I’d spend a reasonable amount of time and energy preserving even what you may think are mundane pictures for future generations. I would neither obsess about nor dismiss the idea. You’d be surprised at what grandchildren and great grandchildren or nieces and nephews will be moved by.

 

Good point. No, I don't use the cloud. But my kids and family pictures I gave to my kids in the form of digital slide videos. The rest will get lost if the house burns down. Of course, being an old codger, what would I do with all the old photo albums predating digital? I could scan them. But I don't think it's worth all that trouble. Does my kid want to look at my wife and my cruise to the islands and elsewhere?

 

We discovered 43 fifty foot 8mm film videos taken by my father-in-law. I asked my wife to go through them and label them in some sort of order so we can scan them and label them. She still hasn't done it. It's over a year or two. I did digitize my own 8mm films and gave them to my nephew and daughter. I think this can be overdone. No one's going to be interested enough to look at all these old photos and films. I think there's enough of them around with others to satisfy memories.

 

What about other files; taxes, inventory (for insurance), etc.

 

As Fred said, some of us find it interesting and fun to go through mom and dad's old pictures.

What about other files; taxes, inventory (for insurance), etc

 

I keep my off site backup files - home inventory, taxes, Quicken, etc. as well as images - on flash drives in my safe deposit box. The safe deposit box is in a bank branch 15 miles from my home (the bank did not have an available box closer). Any natural disaster probably would not destroy both my home and the bank. I make the off site backups once a month. The financial data should fine; I can always get current statements from the financial institutions to bring a 30-day out of date data base up to date.

 

I would not mind storing images in the cloud, but I want my financial data under my control - that means either in my home or if it is out of my home under lock and key and I have the only key.

Another point I want to make is warranties on drives don't mean the drive is more reliable. It simply means you are paying for the warranty. Yet another argument I have with account reps when a client is trying to save money. It makes little sense to me to buy an expensive drive with a cadillac warranty when I can buy two drives with a basic warranty for the same price and keep one in a box ready to go. If you want to pay for a third party tech to replace a bad drive with 4 hour support windows than so be it - your'e paying for the potential labor - not the part. At least call it what it is (cough Dell / HP).

 

I try to RAID 1 desktop systems when I can for clients where any potential down time will be disruptive and they have a heavy local application install. Problem is with the proliferation of SSD most people don't want the extra expense of two SSD's in their desktop. At least backup your main system drive to something. Again, software that does this is free for desktops.

Gary and Fred make good points. My cousin sent me some old 8mm movies on DVD's that his father took that I had never seem before. There were movies of me as a baby and my older sister and my parents moving around. They were quite nostalgic. I think I will just send the 43 8mm movies out secretly and surprise my wife with her family movies. I think that's a good idea. Thanks guys for posting your thoughts.

I had 2 of my father's 16mm films converted to DVD.

He had not seen them in decades, cuz his 16mm projector had died, and he wasn't going to buy a new projector just for 2 reels of film.

I'm glad he got to see the converted films before he died.