In case anyone needs a lot of storage, 4-terabyte USB3 disk drives are out. I saw them this weekend in a local store.
Can 6 TB be far behind?
Roger
In case anyone needs a lot of storage, 4-terabyte USB3 disk drives are out. I saw them this weekend in a local store.
Can 6 TB be far behind?
Roger
Roger:
What is your personal take on when you would trust the new size drives? I believe it was the 1.5 TB drives that had some real reliability issues early on . Plus, I still fret about the " all the eggs in one basket" even though I am good about backing up.
Cheers
Randy
I want a 6TB solid-state drive for < $99!!!!!!!
Thanks for the head-up Roger.
I think you should be worried if you store only a single backup, however if you have at least 3 backups with two on-site and one off-site then you greatly reduce the chance of catastrophic data loss. I believe the 1.5 TB issue was related to certain Seagate drives (most evidenced on the newegg listings showing very low scores for Seagate 1.5 TB drives), I personally have not had issue with a 1.5 TB Western Digital. I think the other thing to keep in mind is to keep all your data backuped up to the latest generations media device whilst keeping the old hardware as you transition so you do don't ever run into the issue where you can't access your data because you no longer have the hardware to access your old media (notably floppy disks, then zip disks).
It's coming John, just don't hold your breath. Seriously, I recently read about new technologies the could really change things. One is RERAM, a new kind of resistor that can act as a memory cell and replaces the function of 6 transistors (or something like that) and works a thousand times faster than current memory and in a smaller package with less heat.
Roger
Randy,
You ask a very good question. One can only tell after a product has been out for a while and people report their experience. Over the years it seems like most manufacturers have had bad products, like the 1.5 TB drives Chris mentioned. I agree with Chris: have at least 3 backups and keep a couple off site. I run 5 backups:
1) I back up my cards to a portable usb drive (I'm currently using 1.5TB drives). I never erase and reuse the drive. NTFS file system
2) backup to another computer system in my house (I keep the machine off most of the time). Linux machine, EXT4 filesystems
3) 3 sets of USB disks at least two of which are kept off site. All EXT4 file systems.
Linux has a nice disk utility that constantly monitors disk drive health and reports if a drive is showing problems. It has worked well: I have seen this year 2 drives whose health was deteriorating and I was able to copy my data off before they failed. I have a number of 1.5TB drives of the less than stellar reliability (bought them before I knew of the problem). Linux reports most of them have a few bad sectors, but otherwise OK and they have been stable. I will eventually replace them.
Roger