SSD Drive Back up question

Posted 9th Jul 2023

Hi Everyone, probably been asked many times before and chatted about on different threads but I just thought I'd ask seeing as tech has moved on so quickly.

Basically I have several mecahnical HDD, many small 500gb upto 20tb for my largest size, its getting to the point where speed and also reliability are becoming an issue.

I would like to back some of this up and I'm thinking of moving to SSD technology, question : is this the correct way to go for backups?

Say I buy a 2.5" Samsung SSD Pro Drive and use in an external caddy how long is data likely to retain as I know this was an issue when they first made the shelves.

I've backed up to optical removable media in the past such as DVD but they have degraded and lost data after a few years.

Some of my files are too large for Cloud backup and I'd rather have a "physical" back up stored to hand without any monthly sub to worry about.

Whats peoples thougts on this and what does everyone use for general backup

Cheers

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9th Jul
Only true safe way would be to pay for cloud storage. Having over 20tb of data goes beyond most people's personal amount. Try deleting a few holiday photos you'll never actually look at again (edited)
9th Jul
You are just duplicating your data on a device that will eventually fail. I guess it depends on how important the data is. Duplication is a start, ensuring those drives are offline after you backup your data will help. Cloud storage is a good solution as it removes a lot of the cost/overheads/maintenance from you and with the right provider there are no file size limitations. I used to use DAT, but ran out of capacity and became increasingly slow...
9th Jul
Scary! Even if your 20tb is only currently half full I shudder that your files are not currently backed up properly - if your files do not exist at least 3 times then you have no backup.
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9th Jul
I have backups of backups mate but just all optical HDD (Everything I have is backed up)

My question I was asking is would SSD be a viable option to replace spinning technology
9th Jul
I would like to add another view. When I've had mechanical drives fail, I lose maybe a handful of files but most are recoverable. When I lost my one SSD I lost everything all at once. Now I have had several mechanical drives start to fail compared to only one SSD, but it was the totality of it that puts me off having it as a backup.

Oh, and DVD has been my worst storage medium for backup, I've pretty much lost everything I've ever stored on DVD. 10-20 years is all I'm getting out of DVD.
9th Jul
That's because that's not what a backup is - ideally you will have multiple formats in diverse geographical locations. Sadly that costs money and 20TB is a lot even in 2023!
9th Jul
Remember SSDs are still more expensive than spinning hard drives.
9th Jul
Also note that an SSD in isolation is NOT a backup solution either...