Recently I have been debating about this thing exactly.
This is what I have right now.
- 2TB SSD in my rig.
- 4TB 7200 also in my rig.
- 1TB SSD in my old rig with old games and saves and a vids on it.
- 2TB 5400 in my old rig with who knows what on there anymore.
- 4TB external drive with all my created videos and important footage.
- 2TB external drive that backs up my most recent work
- 2TB drive for all my photos I have taken as well as video (more business related or personal)
- 2TB drive that I back up all my other important things, like contracts, files, more photos, D&D files, old client work, etc.
- 1TB drive for, well.. let's not talk about that one OK?
Yeah its pretty ridiculous.
SO my story real quick.
I decided to buy a 5TB drive to consolidate a few of my other drives. Puts vids, photos and projects on there that I don't use very often and just store it in a safe place. I can then put my old Computer to rest, tear it apart and sell my components. (I never sell anything that has a used hard drive in it).
Bought it for about 120.00 - it was Western Digital.
Hooked it up, and transferred all my special effects to the thing. Now in my previous experience, I do not delete anything right away until i am sure everything is ok. I have lost a lot of things by being over anxious to delete. I walked away while it was doing that. I was in my room when i could here this click click snap click click snap... I walk out and the 5TB is making odd noises.
The transfer was done and I imagine it was trying to go to sleep maybe? I safely unplugged it. Plugged it back in and I swear that thing wanted to take a fly by of the local airport. Sounded like a biplane. After some time working with it, the drive failed. It wouldn't recognize, made loud noises, etc.
Not going to get into the "help" that was offered by Amazon and the warranty dept. They wanted me to give them my number so WD can call me about the warranty and... I said. Ummm no. I am going to just take it to my local Kohls and drop it off. Get my money back. Which I did.
Moral of this long story, be careful with large capacity external drives. This is the second one that has failed on me. The 4TB I have has been a solid, but I use it maybe twice a year to put on old files I rarely use.
Cloud storage is the safest by far. I still have my backwards thought process about how long it will take to upload. Then I realize, hey I got 250mbps upload, shouldnt take too long really. I am so used to 20-30.
Anyways, way too long. It's early and I am just waking up so sorry for the long winded post.