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[Xdrive05]

I retrieved a 2TB WD My Passport from my safety deposit box yesterday, got it home and discovered that it's dead. I ordered it brand new about five years ago, but I have literally only used it about a dozen times (about twice a year) to back up important family photos and such. It has been in a completely dry, climate controlled setting at my bank. Now I'm getting all kinds of device errors, and while Windows Disk Manager "sees" the drive, I can't actually format it without getting errors.

So now I need a good long-term portable solution that's at least 2TB. What is actually reliable over long periods of time? I don't care about speeds or performance, just reliability so that this doesn't happen again. I'm about to give up and use cloud storage, though I have my security concerns about that.

I see that portable SSDs are now a thing, but I hesitate to pay $250+ for just 2TB of storage. But is that likely to be the most long-lasting solution compared to mechanical drives?

 

[AlteredForms]

WD are pretty much the market leader of external storage, so I’m surprised to hear one of their products not working due to extended storage. Could it have been due to extreme temperatures or magnetic fields? I have a Buffalo Ministation myself and it’s been working seamlessly since 2017.

 

[eddie4]

easy, print out all your documents and pictures.

jk

get an HDD that's rated for a NAS, they will last much longer. Just get a 3.5" HDD, I think they're built better, I know they're clunky but if you're leaving it in a deposit box, it shouldn't matter.
Barracuda, IronWolf, WD Blue, WD Red, etc. and get a decent external enclosure for the 3.5" drive


I have a NAS for my files with RAID and my most important files I copy to two external 3.5" drives that I keep in my safe.

 

[EverydayBeast]

If your hard drive is healthy obviously that but I like cloud.

 

[AlteredForms]

WD Blue, WD Red, etc.

WD Blue and Red, are you some damn amateur? WD Black and Gold babbyyy!

 

[TrueLegend]

Go cloud, both HDD and SSD are less reliable in terms of corruption. In terms of security against data theft, both are more reliable than the cloud. Pick your poison.