I’m keeping triplicate backups on external SSD media. My external hard drives are big and slow. Redundant backups are in an adjacent, disconnected, building and semi annually +/- in a safe deposit box.
Any downside to just using the SSD media?
Will they last? I have 20 year old hard drives that still work. Since flash drives tend to die at the worst moment, how about SSD?
How much of your old data will you ever look at again?
Interesting questions. Images and music files constitute my old files. Since retiring quite a while ago, all my old business files are long gone. Are you implying that hard drives are more reliable than a Samsung SSD because you have hard drives that continue to work after 20 years (assumed) occasional use? Thanks for your consideration.
The small space and negligible weight of SSDs are attractive for traveling.
For travel, I use the small notebook drives. Don’t care for SSD. They’re a solution looking for a problem.
As for my old drives, I’m a commercial artist, and used my computer and notebook for editing photos and videos–heavier use than 90% of users. I have a stack of seagate and toshiba drives that I’ve been using for data, files, backup.
I’ve also got SSD backup disks plus an old hard drive scattered in different locations. Throughout the past years, I’ve read about equal amounts of claims about longevity for either format. My thinking is that my backup drives are infrequently in use and not subject to day to day, all day stresses, so they are likely to last longer, and will probably manifest warnings when they are getting ready to give up the ghost. I prefer SSD because it’s faster, smaller and quieter.
I could be totally wrong about this, but I used to back up to floppy disks, then Zip drives, then CDs. I suspect that SSD is newer technology that will eventually eclipse hard drives before something else comes down the road. That’s one of the reasons why I chose SSD when I needed to replace two ancient hard drives. But I wouldn’t have thought about replacing them if one hadn’t have started making weird whooshing noises, and then the second started freaking out my MacBook Pro when I plugged it in. IMHO, if you’re not getting any warning signs, or running out of space, you might want to wait since prices keep coming down. And who knows what new stuff might be coming down the road?
My brother has a WD Q120G drive installed in his CRT iMac. I bought it in 2003. It gets wads of use and keeps on spinning. My USB flashes are all still good, just too slow to bother.
The OWC SSD in my MP1,1 running Mavs is 4yo and going strong as well.
I have a 2013 MBA with a OEM 256G SSD that takes a constant beating, also going strong.
You just never know when your number is up …
Thanks for the conversation. My initial query was whether to rely on SSDs for my backups. I’ve decided to make my current backups to SSDs and keep additional annual backups on hard drives since I already have them.
I did dispense with 8 external hard drives that I no longer needed by offering them for free, and found takers, to our local community message board (Front Porch Forum). So they’ll get a little more use before going to recycling.
Thanks again.
1 Like
The below is what I’ve heard so far, and I’d love to “learn better” if I’m wrong:
The risk with SSDs is that if they crash, they crash hard. Just recently, a co-worker of mine had an issue with her MacBook Pro showing the dreaded folder-with-question-mark icon, indicating that the machine couldn’t find the boot volume/OS. Alas, the SSD in her machine had crashed, and she lost all her data.
In contrast, you might have some bad blocks on platter drives, and you can still access the remaining data on the drive.
Until I hear that the above is all wrong ;), my approach is to prefer SSDs for everyday use, because they are so much faster than platter drives; and use platter drives for (off-site and local) backups due to their longevity.