[REQUEST] Data Backup - Flash Drive or External SSD?

[Appletax]

Right now, I am using a Western Digital 1TB MyPassport external hard drive to backup customer data.

I am ready to upgrade to faster storage.

I am on the fence between this SSD flash drive and this external SSD.

The flash drive has a lifetime warranty and the external SSD has a 5-year warranty.

Which would you choose?

I really like the small size of the flash drive. It's not as fast as the external SSD, but it's still a massive improvement over what I have.

Edit: got this:

 

[HCHTech]

In the field, you mean? For fieldwork, I'd get the fastest thing I could afford. We use external SSDs. I've even mounted an internal SSD when time was critical. Time is money.

 

[NviGate Systems]

Don't use the flash drive, they often have inferior speeds and if it crashes and burns, recovery could cost you BIG.

I'm not familiar with the external SSD, if it's a custom silicone fab or repackaged e-waste. Those things freak me out. I want an enclosure where I know what controller it uses and I know the drive I am putting in.

Back when I was retail, I was very specific about how I backed up my client data. I had a specific machine that had multiple RAID arrays all mirrored, not of that parity junk. I wanted redundant backup with an option in an emergency that I could break a RAID set and quickly get data even if the server was toast. Every machine that came in for N&P had a FULL backup of the entire drive. (Not a full sector by sector but a complete copy of all partitions etc)

When the other techs followed that routine, we never lost data. We only used faster drives to ferry info back and forth between server and client machines, we never used them as backup mediums.

I'll tell you the reason for this. One of our retail stores was (wait for it) using used hard disks to backup client data. Some of these drives were OLD. I had the misfortune to get the one that had client data I needed to copy and it was experiencing Smart Imminent Death! That wasn't enough for them to change ways though. Once I left, no one used the backup server, so who knows what went on after.

Also, ignore warranty, for shop use it's meaningless in the sense that when it breaks and it has data on it, it's already too late.

If you are doing on site backups, there are external USB RAID solutions that use two SSD, might be worth the investment.

 

[Diggs]

Flash drives are slow and unreliable. Go with an external SSD.

 

[Appletax]

Flash drives are slow and unreliable. Go with an external SSD.

Even the fancy SSD flash drives like the one I linked?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Even the fancy SSD flash drives like the one I linked?

The flash drive has 380MB/s write speed the external drive doesn’t mention write speed but its read speeds are 2.5 x faster than the flash drive.

 

[Appletax]

The flash drive has 380MB/s write speed the external drive doesn’t mention write speed but its read speeds are 2.5 x faster than the flash drive.

There's a newer version of the external SSD that I found that has read and write speeds of 2 Gbps

 

[Diggs]

I don't know if it is my luck or it's common but I've had some cheap flash drives start throwing errors after a month or so of doing nothing but sitting on the shelf untouched. I've had some of the best ones do it after a year or so.

 

[Appletax]

I don't know if it is my luck or it's common but I've had some cheap flash drives start throwing errors after a month or so of doing nothing but sitting on the shelf untouched. I've had some of the best ones do it after a year or so.

I bought a fancy, fast 256GB Patriot Memory flash drive and it died immediately. I am all about reliability when it comes to data so I think I'd be best off getting myself an external SSD instead.

Thoughts on SanDisk external SSD vs Samsung external SSD?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Note that read or write speeds are only as good as the bus you plug into. If you can pull the drives and attach with SATA or PCIe cards for M.2 you'll have faster transfer rates.

 

[Appletax]

Note that read or write speeds are only as good as the bus you plug into. If you can pull the drives and attach with SATA or PCIe cards for M.2 you'll have faster transfer rates.

Right. Won't be massively faster if backing up, say, a laptop with a 5400RPM HDD. Would be a huge difference if the customer's PC has an SSD/NVMe.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Right. Won't be massively faster if backing up, say, a laptop with a 5400RPM HDD. Would be a huge difference if the customer's PC has an SSD/NVMe.

Not if there USB port is slow. That will be the bottleneck.

 

[Appletax]

Not if there USB port is slow. That will be the bottleneck.

Of course. USB 2.0 is torture lol.

 

[Diggs]

Thoughts on SanDisk external SSD vs Samsung external SSD?

I'll always go with Samsung. I used to use a lot of SanDisk when the price premium for Samsung just wasn't worth it but these days there's hardly a difference so I stick with Samsung. My external drive in my pack is a Samsung Evo 860 in a generic USB 3 case.

 

[nlinecomputers]

My point is that 3.1 speeds are often not met. The specs says 10gbit. I've never seen that IRL.

 

[HCHTech]

My point is that 3.1 speeds are often not met. The specs says 10gbit. I've never seen that IRL.

Yep - I wish the mfgs were made to disclose the specs of the reference machines they use to get those numbers. I'd read those...

 

[Stever]

Presumably a 1TB drive is for backing up a machine on site, in an ideal world you would back it up to 2 different devices, that way your reputation is covered if one decides to fail at restore time.
Depending on the age of the drive that you are backing up, there is the option to recommend clone and replace.
Pulling the old drive, clone at SATA speed rather than variable USB may well be faster
at that date
Again Presuming that the backup is to prevent potential data loss if things go wrong due to something that you are about to do to the drive, the customer should already 2 backups, one on site and another off site as should have been previously advised or set up for them.
Having to use customer provided backups would be embarising !
To get back to the original question, use whatever device that you have faith in !

 

[Markverhyden]

I've even mounted an internal SSD when time was critical. Time is money.

^^^^This

I've always had a spare spindle, and later SSD, to toss in a customer machine while onsite. Anything over a USB bus can be painfully, and expensively, slow. Especially when the customer keeps looking at their watch after you've been onsite for two hours.

 

[labtech]

100% go with the SSD external drive.
Flash drives have the lowest quality chips inside, hence wearing out the quickest.
That SanDisk SSD external drive you linked is small in size. You will like it.
Either way, since both are flash based, thus with limited write cycles, they will die.
So, the colleague's suggestion to have 2 of them in your bag is a good idea.

 

[frase]

I never backup onsite - boring sitting there forever. I take the system with me back to workshop and backup from there. using a standard 2.5 external WD 1TB drive with FABS and Macrium.