One of my hard drives has failed - again!

[David-G]

Another of my external hard drives has just bitten the dust. It’s a Toshiba 2TB" portable" model. Of my five external hard drives, two are now dead. I find this very worrying. How should I best proceed in order to preserve my data? I would be grateful for advice.

I should mention that I use a laptop. The drives are not permanently connected to the computer. They live in a cupboard when not in use. Only very rarely do I carry one about. They have had rather light use.

I have had a rigid policy of saving everything to two hard drives. So - hopefully! - I have not lost any data.

I am now wondering how best to replace the drive. Several questions come to mind:

• Are the larger drives (which I think are 3.5") perhaps more reliable than the "portable" one that I have been using?
• Any specific recommendation re manufacturers or models?
• I have seen a 2 x 2TB unit in Maplin, for about £250, which attaches to the router and is accessed via wi-fi; and which automatically backs up from one drive to the other. What are people’s thoughts about such a system?
• Are they really so unreliable? Have I just been unlucky?

It seems to me that where storage of data is concerned, reliability is all-important. The total failure of a unit after just a year or two’s light use is totally unacceptable. How do people recommend that I proceed given that my first priority is to store data reliably?

[richardfinegold]

Given your History, I would try Cloud Storage. More expensive, but less worries about permanent data loss.

[Frances_iom]

there are 3.5" units intended for server farms rather than consumer use which are supposedly more reliable - however suggest you check the statistics on this (some are quoted in various compter mags) - I wouldn't go for very recent technology (might well be nasty design faults still to be found) but suggest a generation maybe a year or 2 old and midrange in spec - usual longterm faulure modes are power supply glitches (probaly the cause of your 2.5" failures) , temperature shock (ie don't bring a drive in from the cold into a very warm room (or vice versa) and quite often in PC's + especially laptops poor thermal design of the housing and poor ventilation (ie no cooling which is usually done by forced convection) - try mounting drives on a large thermal mass and keep airflow clear - also failures usually occur at power up/down.

Long term archival storeage might well be better on mag tape (but here you are into 'professional' prices + sizeing)

[Frances_iom]

Cloud storeage is fine as long as you are happy to share your data with the various US + UK agencies (don't forget that Mickeysoft is still in dispute with US Gov that its servers in Ireland may well be searched at whim of a US court) - also all your archive is now at whim of the provider which may decide to go out of business (and best of luck restoring 2TB or more down 'broadband' in any reasonable time)

[David-G]

Thanks Frances. I would generally agree with your point about not going for the latest technology, but where drives are concerned I am not really sure what that is. I am thinking of going for a Seagate 4TB unit, they are about £100 in Maplin. Would that be "very recent technology" or would it be a safe choice, do you think?

[David-G]

New development! It was my fault, not the drive's! I had forgotten to plug in the mains lead to the powered hub that supplies the drives. And the USB power was insufficient to run two drives. All is now ok, I think... But I would still be interested in people's views on this topic - particularly, what you might think of a network-based RAID-type drive.

[PJPJ]

New development! It was my fault, not the drive's! I had forgotten to plug in the mains lead to the powered hub that supplies the drives. And the USB power was insufficient to run two drives. All is now ok, I think... But I would still be interested in people's views on this topic - particularly, what you might think of a network-based RAID-type drive.

My network-based RAID drives each have USB drives connected in case the RAID drives suffer complete failure.

[MrGongGong]

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

How about one of these? No disc motor to fail.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HyperX-DataTraveler-Predator-1TB-DTHXP30/dp/B00E65QM8O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429863627&sr=8-1&keywords=512+gb+usb+memory+stick

[gurnemanz]

When I read posts like this I tend to get a bit neurotic and have a quick remedial backup session. The main things I want to keep are docs, music (flacs, mp3) and photos, which I have on two separate external hard drives, hoping they won't both fail at exactly the same time. Luckily, most of my music is on CDs which don't fail that often.

[johnb]

The only external HDD I have had fail was a WD MyBook (many years ago). The plastic casing didn't provide enough heat dissipation and the electronics fried. Unfortunately, at the time, I assumed the HDD had failed and tried to format it, losing all the data, whereas in fact the HDD was alright, even though it had reached 57°C at least once in its life.

So, if a HDD does fail it might be the electronics in the enclosure that have given up the ghost, rather than the actual HDD, therefore it is always worth removing the HDD and checking it in another enclosure/docking station.

Rightly or wrongly, I prefer to buy the HDDs and enclosures separately so that I know what HDDs I am using. Also I always use 3.5" drives/enclosures with mains power supplies as I am nervous about relying on the power from USB ports (especially laptop USB ports), though using a powered USB hub should solve that potential problem.

As Frances has said, one of the problems with external HDDs is poor heat dissipation leading to over heating, so my preferences are for metal enclosures (whether bought separately or as all-in-one external drives), external drives that can be stood vertically rather than laid flat (to help with heat dissipation) and "green" or "eco" HDDs (to reduce the heat generated).

So far I have only used external HDDs up to 2TB and I have been using WD Green HDDs, which have never let me down (so far at least - touch wood). The "green" or "eco" HDDs are usually slightly slower to read/write data due to their lower rotation speed, but that doesn't bother me with a USB drive. (Additionally, there are WD Red drives which are specifically designed for NAS devices and which some people recommend - though I have no experience of them.)

I'm slightly wary of Seagate HDDs as I have seen quite a few reports indicating they have a higher than average failure rate - but many people like them.

[ChrisBennell]

I have made extensive use of external HDs. I have 3 WD and 1 Seagate, and none has failed in 4 years or so. I thought I'd lost the Seagate 2TB a few months ago, but I tried a different power adaptor which happened to have the same connection, and it worked again. No problem since then.

Now though, I prefer an IcyDock trayless SATA hot swappable rack (MB171SP-B) which sits in a server occupying 1 bay; this allows swapping in and out of any SATA 3.5 inch internal disk drive. I use 2 WD 2TB Green drives alternatively for backups. (Only £35 I believe it was). This provides a very flexible solution, and installing is the same as installing any other internal HDD. Swapping the installed drive is as simple as pulling one lever, and out comes the HDD from the rack.

[Dave2002]

New development! It was my fault, not the drive's! I had forgotten to plug in the mains lead to the powered hub that supplies the drives. And the USB power was insufficient to run two drives. All is now ok, I think... But I would still be interested in people's views on this topic - particularly, what you might think of a network-based RAID-type drive.

Hopefully this sounds as though you have avoided disaster this time. You could spend £hundreds or even £thousands trying to minimse the risk of data loss. You should try to evaluate what the data is really worth to you. The memory stick mentioned in msg 9 is very costly (IMO) but for some applications it might actually be cheap - it really does depend on the value you put on the data. You would still need a strategy for managing the backup data, and it could get complicated. For example, if you connect any form of volatile storage to a computer to make a backup or do an update there is a potential threat due to computer viruses - even for previously safely backed up data. You have to weigh that up against the cost and complexity of using multiple forms for data storage - optical discs which can't be rewritten for example, though they may deteriorate in other ways. Blu Ray drives might work.

I have limited experience of some of the tools in a domestic environment. Network based storage is not necessarily as fast as storage devices directly connected to one's machine. If you want to try network based storage I would suggest at least Gigabit rate connections, and a direct connection with cable. Even then you may be limited by the devices which are available, though that doesn't mean there aren't some good ones.

Things worth taking trouble to keep safe possibly include:

Critical business data
Personal information - family photos etc.
Difficult to obtain recordings - or special versions
Any art or music creations you or your family members have created

Otherwise much data can in fact be recovered more or less by other means. It might not be the end of the world if you do lose a commercial download, as the CDs may still be available, or you may have ripped from CD in the first place. That's just one example.