If I want to buy an external hard drive...

[lucysmam]

Does it matter if it's at the cheaper end of the price scale as opposed to being more expensive? I'm guessing not, but not really clued up about these things!

Thanks 🙂

It will matter depending on what you want to do with it.

For example you can clean a toilet with a toothbrush, but other brushes are better at it.

I usually go middle or the road as I don’t want it to be cheap and fail, but don’t need the speed or bells and whistles of the more expensive ones.

Ok, so for backing up photos, videos and (maybe) a couple of music files, what should I be looking at?

Ahh I cringed internally at your post.

yes - which external drive you get does matter!

it’s not even about cheap vs expensive per se - it’s more about doing your research on reliability. There is likely a trend where cheaper SSDs fail faster, but there also has been mass reports of higher end SSDs having issues too. It’s not really a purchase where you just buy whatever. Literally read long-term reviews of the ones you’re considering.

Don’t think about what is most convenient today - you likely have an easy-to-access copy of the photos and videos on your phone or laptop. Instead think 5 years from now where the external drive might be the only way you can access those photos and videos as you may no longer have your current laptop/phone with those images saved. You would be devastated if your external drive failed and your only copy of your data was corrupt. Data recovery isn’t guaranteed, and your data may be lost.

The thing about external drives is that they can fail, overheat, get dodgy ports where cables stop working, have software or compatibility issues etc.

Personally I’m looking into the Samsung Shield range. I’d say avoid Sandisk as they have had mass issues. I’d also avoid any non-branded things. Definitely buy from a proper retailer with a decent warranty.

@657904I sorry! I have no idea & don't want to lose my many many photos and videos - my google drive is full, and my phone 🙈.

You make a good point about accessing/potentially losing access to them in the future too. I'm not sure what to do now - I would like to free up some space though. Do I back up the back up maybe? Somehow 🤔. Food for thought, thank you.

Buy more Google storage cloud space. They you don't need to worry about external drives and backups and don't need to go to a data recovery technician in the event of a failure. There are world leading companies out there like DriveSavers. But why worry and shell out money for data recovery when you can just have it all in the cloud.

If you want to store it locally please follow the 3-2-1 backup principal.

@YontyRhides as in upgrade my google storage instead of having them "here"?

(Sorry, tech is not my strong point!).

Yes. Yes. Just pay for the extra storage space. Saves you the hassle of managing drives and backups. The way Google and other big tech companies work is that they store your data in their data centres and have multiple multiple backups. So that you don't need to worry about it. They manage all the data stuff.

Ok, could I then take them off the phone? So I have the space to use there and then?

But still revisit them if fhe fancy takes me?

Sorry, I realise it's "back up your device for dummies". I honestly didn't think I'd face the 'problem' of having filled my phone storage!

Yes. You can take it off the phone and have it on Google drive/Google photos.

Thank you. I'm tired tonight after a school trip but will have a look at pricing & storage options tomorrow.

@lucysmam you need to buy a NAS drive (Network Attached Storage). This is a box, with 2 hard drives contained within which you can access from anywhere on your network. One drive mirrors the other, so your precious photos are backed up safely, and easily accessible.

There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube, but PM me if you get stuck and I'll walk you through it.

You can get NAS that attaches directly to your router, assuming it has a USB port. This makes your data accessible to all your devices. Some also allow you to remotely control your PC / laptop.

My thinking has always been, have loads of back ups on many different hard drives and keep them in different places.
Cheap and exp Hard drives can get dropped, damaged or lost.
Lots of backups... Not one super expensive one.

Cloud storage is the way to go but maybe a hard drive as well. I work on IT and see hard drives fail all the time. Cloud storage may seem costly but if you can't retrieve your photos they are gone. You can probably edit some. Do you need every photo? Phone storage? What happens if you lose the phone or it gets damaged?

Get a decent hard drive AND back up via a cloud subscription too if they're files/photos/documents you really don't want to lose. Better to have your backups duplicated in completely different "places" just in case.

As well as backing them up, have you thought of getting some printed off? Old school!