Hard drives and cloud-based tools are becoming increasingly essential for safeguarding digital lives, but their reliability varies greatly.
Backblaze, a company that stores over 1 exabyte of data, has released statistics on hard drive longevity. According to the data, the lifespan of hard drives is more dependent on the model than the manufacturer. Despite this, sticking with well-known brands like Seagate and Western Digital is recommended, as they often offer better customer service.
In the event of a drive failure, good customer service can be a significant advantage. For instance, a reviewer at Backblaze had a brand-name drive fail after just four months, but the company replaced it without hesitation.
When choosing an external storage drive, some models are more reliable than others. Western Digital hard drives have been a popular choice among reviewers, with the 8-TB model and the 5-TB My Passport Ultra being notable examples.
Since backup software typically runs in the background, drive speed is not a significant concern. However, it is recommended to get the largest backup drive possible, as incremental backups can save disk space by only backing up files that have changed since the last backup.
A good rule of thumb is to get a backup drive that is two or three times the size of the drive in your computer. This ensures that you have enough space to store all your files.
