External Back Up and Cloud recommendations

[Sharlene]

Hi there. I'm sure this has probably already been ask here more than once (I tried searching), but Brian. I'm looking at buying a new 5TB (or higher) external back up drive. Are there any brands that are renowned to be more reliable than others? (I own a PC). Also what cloud backup have you had success with? I did find this one with a one off payment: https://www.pcloud.com/cloud-storage-pricing-plans.html?utm_source=techradar&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=best-cloud-storage&subtag=trd-7093459011549531455

[Brian]

pCloud seems to be at the top of the "2019" lists. I'm sure someone else will claim that spot in 2020.

I personally stay away from the "Eco-Friendly," "Green," "Low-Power" hard drives, as they tend to not be very reliable. The hardest part is finding one. Often you will have a cheap & crappy case, with a low quality drive. For my Mac, I use a G-Drive Enterprise Class. It's not cheap, but for me, worth every penny. I realize that not everyone wants to spend $600 or more on a EHD, so I went searching and found this one that looks interesting:

Western Digital 8TB - Black $199.

Both Best Buy and Amazon carry the same drive, same price. The reason that I like this drive is that it specifically mentions 7200RPM for the speed. That is the number to look for besides the capacity. If it doesn't list it, more than likely its the slower 5400RPM drive. Typically, the Western Digital Hard Drives that are 7200RPM are the "Black" line of drives, as compared to the "Blue" and "Green" Drives. I would purchase a "Blue-Class" WD in a pinch, and avoid the "Green" drives like the plague. The difference between a dead Green drive and a working one is about 3 weeks. Those suckers still drop like flies, and the box stores sell bunches of them. Why? Because they are cheap. Again, I want my HDs to consume power and be reliable. I will gladly waste the extra 60 or so watts of power (or whatever,) have it last and not end-up in a landfill. I will also pay the extra $60-$100 more for my peace of mind and sanity.

We might have to reformat / re-partition that EHD, but it's pretty straightforward and can be accomplished in about 5 min with a built-in Disk Utility in Windows.

Other drives that I personally avoid? Seagate. I can't stand that brand. I've had a few actually Smoke on me, right in front of my eyes.

As for Cloud, remember this: All the Cloud is...is someone else's Server/Computer. Personally, I don't use a cloud service, other than the Microsoft OneDrive I get with my Office365. I do have a second external hard drive that is a clone of my main drive and is kept off-site. Regardless on which one you might choose, be sure to read the fine-print. Some services, like BackBlaze will delete your files on their server 30 days after you delete the file locally on your computer. This prevents their servers from being dumping grounds. That said, there does seem to be a new Business Class Service, called BackBlaze B2. Dropbox also has a business version, called Dropbox Professional. Of course, there is Google Drive and OneDrive from Microsoft. It really depends on WHAT you are storing to the cloud. The entire EHD you are talking about? Or just a few files? Do you have clients that you want to share stuff to? (Digital Downloads, etc.) Then a basic cloud service probably isn't what you are after and you are looking towards the "Business" versions of a Cloud Service.

Then there is something called a NAS, which stands for Network Attached Storage. Basically, it's your own personal "Cloud," and there are many options available from the Cloud Services that talk directly to your NAS and automatically sync files. The downside? Cost. You usually purchase the NAS unit, then Enterprise-Class Hard Drives, (i.e. Western Digital Gold) and you will need AT LEAST TWO to start with, plus the cost of the NAS Unit itself. I like Synology NAS units, as they are easy to setup and get going. Plus, there are plenty of YouTube videos giving you step-by-step instructions on how to get going. A great source of info about NAS Units is on YouTube: SPANdotCOM. Give a few of their videos a watch. I personally like how NAS units auto-sync with Cloud Services.