There is no HDD that is 100% perfect and will last forever. the M-DISC is supposed to last over 100 years but it's capacity is only 100GB and the discs cost $30. each I have 4 discs for what is personal and is most important to preserve.

 

Someone already said it, but sadly large and cheap SSDs (usually SATA3) are the next big victim of the AI inflation after RAM.
Bye bye Samsung, it was good while it lasted...

Talking about HDDs, I usually go for 2TB. Partly because of the mentioned disaster when a huge drive breaks, although it's totally fine having them as long as you double backups. And partly because I'm staying away from UEFI as long as I can. No UEFI means MBR with 2GB max capacity.

 

Have you considered getting a RAID 0 (or better yet, RAID 5) configured array?

 

That's a good solution, but requires several disks, typically a NAS box. And all the drives in the RAID set are running at the same time.
Never in RAID0 though, that's for speed and even less reliable. RAID 1, 5 and 6 are the ones to go for backup.

 

Since we moved on to 'what 3,5" drive is best':
For long time storage I try to avoid helium filled drives. Not that I had any negative experiences with those. I have plenty of 18-24gb drives and none of them had issues. It's just, I guess the helium could disappear over time and that could potentially make the drive fail. So for the most important stuff I stick to 6gh and 8gb drives without helium filling.
(And pairs of course and a pair of different manufacturers of course)

(Edit: and it's best to have the drive running every now and then because of the lubricant in the bearings)

 

I'm really an OG with my first PC in 1997...
So I remember at my home/mum's house I left my CD collection...
If you guys remember those CD days you could buy like a foldable CD holder with pocket-style so for each side you could put 4 cds...
So the CDs I burned in like 1997-2002 (games, mp3 collections, pictures everything) I checked them in like 2012 or so...
and some of my CDs got "oxidized" so holes appeared on some of my CDs they become unreadable...
So think about if you have CDs (I have no idea about Blu-ray discs) over time they'll erode
Can't remember the brands which gave up (holes appeared so parts of the CD dissolved) but I know TDK, Verbatim CDs & DVDs are very safe
I know how it is
I used to live 8 years ago in a horrible place in east London and one of my flatmate was robbed
I was very lucky at that time because I was broke as hell with just a smartphone and my crappy laptop from like 2013...
Yepp my flatmate's place was "cleaned up" his Xbox, iPad, etc the robber took everything but to be honest I think it could have been our landlord no joke because it happened before 3 PM while everybody were at work
Conclusion if you have to rent a room do not go for cheap/dodgy area houses

 

Been using WD HD for 20 years never had a problem. Just bought an 18TB from their site on Amazon they always seem to have one on offer, i got it for £275.

I have four in use 18TB 16TB 12TB and 8TB and about six back-up storage drives 8TB & 4TB, recently, folk on here reckoned that they are better, or more trustworthy for storage than SSD, and that you should 'spin' them occasionally.

Had to add the 18TB because of the fab Synchron stuff.

 

i bought one of these and i am very satisfied. Very solid and 5 TB is a good start.

WD_BLACK 5TB P10 Game Drive USB 3.2 Gen 1, 2.5 Portable External Hard Drive HDD
Compatible with Playstation, Xbox, PC, & Mac

$135 @ walmart currently

 

Last edited: Feb 4, 2026

I would suggest moving to the cloud. Find a reliable host and upload/synchronize you files. There is no 100% safe storage drive. I've been using Mega.nz for a decade now and I'm quite satisfied. Of course, there are other cloud servers worth the money.

 

I just purchased another Seagate Expansion Desk (8 TB 5400 RPM USB)
I got it to replace the same model from 2018.
It arrived dead. It was a bad USB interface.
I pulled the drive an installed it internally and it runs fine.

I had originally looked for an internal, thinking i might find a better deal, but alas the same old Seagate held the best price.
I have another Seagate Expansion (5 TB) that is from 2017 and I will purchase another 8 TB.

I choose 8 TB in my case as the price keeps it under the import fee, and I must order only one at a time for the same reason.
Otherwise I would have chosen a larger drive.
If this one arrives dead I will have to move one SSD off its drive tray.
I already have 5 HDDs + 6 SSD + 2 nVME inside this machine... but i have a 10 port PCIe SATA card, so I can fit 5 more drives.
But only 3 of those could be SSD, as I only have eight 3.5" trays total. The SSDs would have to be subject to velcro

 

It's always better-more reliable to buy a quality external case (IcyBox USB-C or USB3 external cases don't cost too much and are of good quality) and a drive/drives of your choice.

Buy multiple HDDs so if or rather when one fails you don't lose all the data. SSDs are not great for archival as they don't retain the data for as long as HDDs do, and good luck with buying 8TB+ SSDs. They are rare and cost much more than HDDs.

I'd suggest to buy one or few 4TB ones as most of them nowadays have 1 platter and 2 heads, which is better for HDD's reliability. Seagate Ironwolf drives are a very good budget option. 4TB is 1 platter/2 heads, 8TB is 2 platters/4 heads. It spins at 5900rpm which also contributes to its longevity. Ironwolf Pro drives spin at 7200rpm if you need faster HDDs and they are slightly more expensive.

Ideally, you buy one 4TB, or one 8TB drive and buy additional drives as/if you need them.

btw. has anyone noticed that HDD prices sky-rocketed, too?! About 2x the price ...
8TB Seagate Ironwolf is 278€ here. A client of mine bought it for 170€ couple of months ago.

 

Last edited: Feb 4, 2026

I've got a Mega.nz account, too. For you never know.
Stuff you simply can't afford to lose is best RARed with 10% recovery option into a password protected archive in a cloud, indeed. Cloud will let you know in a more meaningful way than SMART they are stopping their service.

 

So sorry for the slow reply, life happened

Just to reply I ordered a WD Elements 5tb.

Thanks everybody yous da best!

 

EXOS drives rule for this - relatively silence and ~250MB/s performance.

Using using these drive in a NAS, and I run Duplicati for backups because it allows me to compress and deduplicate, which has reduced archive size by ~30%. I was getting closer to 40% with Borg, but it was tedious to setup client devices.

IF you can afford a ZFS RAID (vDev mirror) system, its ideal because you can compression, deduplication, and auto healing of bitrot (it's a more prevalent thing these days with longterm high capacity archives).

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2026

I went the easy route.
My mother in law has a drive in her bedroom closet. Ever so often I get it and update it.
This btw is the fourth backup I have of my most important stuff. I'm not talking about some libraries I like. These are copies of the master image of my os, the apps and libraries I use on a daily basis, my presets, my taxes, invoices and so on. Basically everything that does not count as data hoarding (we all are guilty!). So if the house burns down I could buy a notebook and after about 2 hours I would have something I could work with.
If I had to give the drive to a friend I would have encrypted it with true crypt. (Yeah I'm still on that old version, vera crypt now)

I'd say that is the better solution.
You can't update the Blurays.
And no matter how safe firesafe is: 1 backup is no backup, several backups same location: still no backup

 

The hard drive can fail, and then you'll be staring into the abyss, making strange, desperate noises. Your neighbors will certainly hear your cries after Windows informs you that it doesn't recognize your hard drive containing your important data. If your house burns down, a fireproof kit for important documents, data storage devices, etc., will help!

HMF 2504580 Fireproof and Waterproof Document Box Assorted Sizes DIN A4 - A5 Black
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/HMF-Fire...=brandschutzkoffer&qid=1772548956&sr=8-7&th=1

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2026