best long-term storage for photos and other documents i desperately need to back up years' worth of photos and design files but i want to make sure that they are safe forever. i've been reading about the inevitability of hard drive failures, so what's my best option? burn everything to like a hundred cd's, save data to usb flash drives, or buy multiple hard drives and duplicate my backup that way? best long-term storage for photos and other documents i desperately need to back up years' worth of photos and design files but i want to make sure that they are safe forever. i've been... » Read More best long-term storage for photos and other documents i desperately need to back up years' worth of photos and design files but i want to make sure that they are safe forever. i've been reading about the inevitability of hard drive failures, so what's my best option? burn everything to like a hundred cd's, save data to usb flash drives, or buy multiple hard drives and duplicate my backup that way? « Show Less
1080259
Have at least 2 copies of your files. Preferably 1 offsite in case of physical damage to your living quarters. I personally have an external drive that I use as the backup to my internal drive. Most important thing is to have redundancy regardless of what you use (CDs can scratch/go bad, USB sticks can have the NAND go bad etc etc.). If you have 2 copies, you're good to go unless you have some disaster destroy your place. If offsite storage isn't a possibility, a firebox is a decent alternative.
1080260
Good question. My IT brother says to use 2 external hard drives & back each of them up periodically, but keep one off-site. Other opinions/ideas?
1080261
WD says the component design life of a WD drive is 5 yrs. Does that mean after 5 yrs the hard drive is not going to work?What's the use of keeping 2 copies or more if they are going to die after 5 yrs, or am I misunderstanding what WD is saying about their hard drive design life?
896421
It depends on how long you wish to save the footage. Generally the hard drive is adequate since once there is not an incident there is no need to save the footage and it can be written over. You can download footage of interest to the through the USB onto a flash drive, etc. The drive space can also be extended using the motion sensor feature in that only if there is motion the footage is recorded. I don't use this feature and the drive can store almost 30 days of footage. The only limitation is when it begins to record over old footage it erases the entire drive and begins again so old footage is lost. It depends on how long you wish to save the footage. Generally the hard drive is adequate since once there is not an incident there is no need to save the footage and it can be written over. You can download footage of interest to the through the USB onto a flash drive, etc. The drive space can also be extended using the motion sensor feature in that only if there is motion the footage is recorded. I don't use this feature and the drive can store almost 30 days of footage. The only limitation is when it begins to record over old footage it erases the entire drive and begins again so old... » Read More It depends on how long you wish to save the footage. Generally the hard drive is adequate since once there is not an incident there is no need to save the footage and it can be written over. You can download footage of interest to the through the USB onto a flash drive, etc. The drive space can also be extended using the motion sensor feature in that only if there is motion the footage is recorded. I don't use this feature and the drive can store almost 30 days of footage. The only limitation is when it begins to record over old footage it erases the entire drive and begins again so old footage is lost. « Show Less
956889
Connect it to your computer and copy all documents, music and videos to WD element, that easy. Best part when your computer dies all your document, music, etc. are saved and can be retrieve when you get a new computer.
496139
Like most external USB drives, I'd not rely on it for long-term backups over one year. Augment it with a cloud product that is acceptable for the type of data being backed up (i.e. personal, confidential, commercial, etc.). In my experience, none of the disks used in these devices are high-grade, and in commercial applications, we'll go to a NAS with RAID.
1728998
2 years max. If you leave it on all the time or travel with it, probably just over a year. It's not clear to me your exact setup - if this is a backup of a laptop or a desktop and if this is a disk that stays in one place or travels with you. Sadly, of 2 different brands of disks I have purchased in the last 3 years, most have them have failed around the 1 year mark. (I had a pair of Iomega disks fail within a week of each other at the 1 year mark, a WD disk I bought 6 months ago just failed) My general backup strategy is 2 identical disks (currently 1TB) that stay in my home office where I store pictures, music, documents, etc.. 1 disk is a backup of the other. Anything important is backed up to the 2 disks that stay at home. I use my WD 320 to bring copies of files and music/films along with me on trips. Keep in mind that if you are using your WD 320 as a backup of your laptop and take it on a trip and your bag gets stolen or the disk gets dropped and breaks, you are without a backup.
1162992
Works great for me. Have 6. We are photography studio. Use them for storing images and templates used in daily tuning of studio. So they are plugged in/out often. We keep all our photoshop stuff on one drive, to keep off workstation. It is used with both workstations & laptop. Switching between the three often. Never issue. I do, however, replace those drives as well. If it's a drive that gets a lot of use, I replace it every 18 months. Just to be safe.
43197
It would be far easier to back up to an external drive and keep it off site. This saves the very long drive rebuilding process. You really should have more than one backup especially for important data, photos etc. RAID is not the same as backup.
476794
I would never argue that a single drive of any type will be reliable for storing important data over a long period of time. If that is your requirement you should consider a RAID 1 or 5 disk array, or at least buy two drives of similar speed and capacity and then use a program like FreeFileSync to keep them synchronized. Alternatively, the drive could be completely or partially mirrored to some type of cloud storage, which will be much slower to access but can still provide backup critical data.
888235
Does you computer have a DVD drive? Copy as many photos as the DVD disk will hold and move on to the next disk. Good safe storage in case you internal hard drive or that external drive fails.
30808
I have had no problems at all using this brand of CDs for photos that I want to give to a relative; but frankly it is a huge waste of office space to store photos on CDs. A better choice is to store photos on DVDs. An even better choice is storing your photos in the cloud. If you have an Office 365 account with Microsoft you can have as much as a Terrabyte of cloud storage; Amazon also has a real good deal with cloud storage for documents and photos. With cloud storage, you can always access your photos from anywhere.
602225
I believe USB 3.0 is compatible with USB 2.0, so even if you have a USB 2.0 port, it will work, it just won't support the transfer rate of USB 3.0. As for storing pictures for a long time, it is unknown, it will definitely not remove something itself, but for how long the flash itself will function, no one knows. The best thing is to keep copies at several places, hardly all of devices will break simultaneously.
686337
I use the 3 TB edition, and they are a good drive for secondary storage on your computer. Good value for your money. Of the 20+ that I have used now, only 1 has died on me, because I used it as a primary storage device for my video editing, and did not last as long. These drives work best when write a small amount of times, and then can read from them as much as possible to allow you access to all of your long term storage data.
250636
All vague answers to a vague question. What do you mean by best? I'd like to know how many photos I can store per GB memory.
1702428
Depends on what you mean "best with photos". Cameras themselves usually don't use flash drives, they use memory cards-you download the pictures to your computer from your SD or CF memory card, then you can copy them to a flash drive for portability. For snapshots, almost any flash drive of 4-8 gb will do. For pro or semi-pro use, bigger and faster is better. 64gb will handle almost anything except video. As long as you stick to name brands, you'll be okay.
629562
Agreed superrabbit, my Passport died after 8 months. Thank god I have backed up everything to my other Seagate drive that I use as a secondary backup to my mac. I am looking to get either Iomega or Seagate 500G drive soon for my primary backup unit.
1390987
My fifth generation's hard drive is on the way out after two and a half years. I had a 4th generation that lasted less than two years before the drive died, luckily covered by credit card extended warranty. I don't think these things are great buys if you expect them to last more than 3 years.
1702429
Marilyn, I have several SanDisk Cruzers of various sizes and (1) GigaWare Flashdrive. I have lots of photos on a SanDisk Cruzer and many, many music files on the GigaWare Flashdrive. I don't think you need to be too concerned about which flashdrive works best with photos unless those files are exceptionally large, opening the door to "access time" concerns. Most of my photos range from 500k to 4M and there's no problem. If I had photos ranging from 15M upward I still wouldn't be too concerned. My music files range from 20M to 40M and I have NO complaints about the access time, and I'd expect the same from a SanDisk Cruzer. My only advice to you would be to invest in the LARGEST Flash Drive you can afford at the time, and in the event the flash drive "acts up" shortly after delivery--get rid of it immediately. I've had NO problem with my SanDisk Cruzers or my one GigaWare Flash Drive. Hope this helps you out.