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Ask HN: Best Storage for Large Personal Backups?
I currently use iCloud for my 1TB of personal photos and videos but lack a physical backup.
What storage solutions (brand, model, configuration) do you recommend?
- jmwilson 3y ago1 TB is not a lot, so the answer is probably snapshots to an external hard drive. Together with cloud backups, you have 3 copies of the data on different media and in different locations, which is very robust. 10x that amount and maybe you can start thinking about tape.
- sys42590 3y agoPreviously, I used https://freefilesync.org/ https://freefilesync.org/ to sync my digital life to external USB storage (now I use an equivalent script that's even more hands-free). I recommend two drives (or more) of which one is always off-site, ideally not in a car due to extreme temperatures. Of course, all drives should be encrypted with a strong key (use whatever suits you and your OS: File Vault, Bitlocker, VeraCrypt, LUKS, etc.). Encryption should be done in a way that the drive can be decrypted on a freshly bought computer if needed. Depending on how much data loss you can accept, you can run a physical back-up weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever suits you, just set a reminder in your calendar.
- workfromspace 3y agoThank you for the answers so far. However I wanted to ask which specific disk brand and models you are using or recommending.
- sys42590 3y agoIt's advantageous to use different brands to protect e.g. against firmware bugs. You also might want to check https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q2-2023/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q2-...
- workfromspace 3y agoThank you. I never thought of firmware failures. And this website looks very useful, since my biggest concern is durability of the disk.