External storage options

I could use some advice from the seasoned tech experts around here.
I’ve got a massive mountain of documents I need to archive. Up until now, I've been relying on 15GB and 30GB thumb drives, but I've run into a recurring nightmare: those drives fail, leaving me stranded without my most important files.
Can anyone suggest a reliable way to store everything that doesn't involve the constant risk of a flash drive dying on me?
Thanks for the help.
Jeffrey Lee10

Cloud storage?

Take Google, for instance—they’ll toss you 15GB just for showing up. When it comes down to actual security, I’d bet my life on a thumb drive or some old DVD failing long before Google suddenly goes bankrupt and disappears overnight.
If you look at the other big players—ranking them roughly by how much you can actually trust them—you’ve got Microsoft giving you 5GB, Dropbox sitting at 2GB, Box offering 50GB, MediaFire with 18GB, and Mega at 50GB, and so on and so forth.

Now, if you're dealing with documents that absolutely nobody else is allowed to lay eyes on, you don't just upload them blindly; you encrypt them first using something like AxCrypt, or you just toss them straight into a TrueCrypt or VeraCrypt container to be safe.

Another classic move is using external hard drives, especially if you don't leave them plugged in all the time. They rarely fail on you when you actually need them...

gentlecyclist16 said:Cloud storage?

Take Google, for example—they give you 15GB for free. As far as security goes, you're way more likely to have a thumb drive or a DVD die on you than have Google suddenly go bankrupt.
The rest of them (ranked roughly by reputation) offer different amounts: Microsoft gives 5GB, Dropbox gives 2GB, Box gives 50GB, MediaFire gives 18GB, Mega gives 50GB, and so on.

If you've got documents that absolutely nobody else should see, just encrypt them first using something like AxCrypt, or toss them into a TrueCrypt or VeraCrypt container.

Yeah, 15GB is free. If you run over that limit, you can just make two accounts (or however many you want).

100GB costs about $2 a month, 1TB is around $10 a month.

You can also encrypt and compress everything with 7-Zip.
It supports AES 256 encryption; you just set a password when you create the zip file.

Personally, I’d probably look into Mega—I've heard their cloud service is solid, and honestly, who else is just handing out 50GB for free? Most other providers seem to hover somewhere between 10 and 15GB, much like what our friend here mentioned.

Bryan Taylor6 said:Another old-school move is using external hard drives—especially if you don't leave them plugged in all the time. They tend to fail much less frequently that way...

Honestly, that’s my exact headache. My drive is constantly connected because my setup is always changing—it's just how my work goes. Because of that constant activity, things die on me quite often. Is there any way to link two drives together so that when I update one, the other mirrors it automatically? I need that data redundancy for peace of mind. Or is there a risk that both could just give up the ghost at the exact same time?
On top of that, I have 1TB of free space on Microsoft OneDrive, plus a paid tier. If it isn't too much trouble, could someone weigh in on the reliability of cloud storage? What's the actual consensus on its quality and the risk of losing everything?

Sure, you could set up a RAID so you have two drives acting as clones.
But let's be real—that’s not a bulletproof safety net. If you spill coffee over both or some thief breaks in and grabs the whole rig, you’re still screwed.

Are you talking about Microsoft OneDrive?

It's a solid move, pretty much like Google Drive, maybe even better depending on how you look at it.
You just install it on your PC, and you've got a local folder syncing perfectly with a mirrored folder in the Cloud.
Definitely a step up from relying solely on physical hardware.

BTW, if you're with T-Mobile, they actually offer a Cloud storage option that gives you 1TB too.

It all comes down to how much you're willing to shell out for security. Besides using the Cloud, setting up some RAID drives in your PC (or an external setup) is a solid move. You could also look into some pro-grade gear like this:

https://www.lacie.com/us/en/

The company behind this has been doing heavy-duty solutions for ages; they were actually picked up by Seagate, so you're getting Seagate Pro Enterprise or IronWolf Pro drives inside. They offer top-tier protection against environmental damage, and most models come with a 2 or 3-year warranty plus their Rescue+ data recovery service baked right into the price.

If you’ve got the cash to burn, grab a RAID setup—which is basically insurance in itself—and tack on three years of data rescue just in case life happens. If that isn't enough for you, I don't know what is... 🤷