I'm tired of replacing HDDs

[Your PCMD]

Yeah, I was talking about the mechanical drives.

Yeah, I dont even stock mechanical drives anymore. Its rare that I even replace one with another. I only stock SSD's now and the added benefit is they take up way less room on the shelves.

 

[Sky-Knight]

The Golds are actually Hitachi drives, which are famous for longevity. At my favourite supplier (Canada Computers), Golds are $10-$15 more than Blacks, but I'm surprised the difference is so small. Each to his/her own, but I'll take Golds over Blacks if they're for me, and Blacks if they're for a cost-conscious customer.

Even my most cost conscious customer knows the difference between desktop grade, and server grade. The sustained performance is substantially better too... because if you're stuffing a platter into a machine these days, you are doing it for large files. The use case for black is drying up.

And on the 6tb and 8tb disks... the golds are usually cheaper.

 

[Experien]

I need a drive to do the odd data recovery work, I would like a 4tb (to be safe on space) but my budget is 125$, I think I will sacrifice space for quality and get a wd gold vs a wd blue. Almost no one have a drive bigger than 1tb to recovery data, and if they do, with the money I will receive I buy a bigger one. ahah

 

[sapphirescales]

Yeah, I dont even stock mechanical drives anymore. Its rare that I even replace one with another. I only stock SSD's now and the added benefit is they take up way less room on the shelves.

What do you do when a client walks in with a computer with 1TB+ of data? Sell them a $700 SSD? That's a tough sell, even for me. And what about desktops? When a client walks in with a desktop that has important data (documents, pictures, etc.), I like to set them up with a SSD and two identical hard drives. I set it up so that one of the drives has all their data, and the other drive stores their backups. I also sell them an external hard drive and tell them to back it up once a month and then UNPLUG it so if they're hit with a cryptolocker they don't lose everything.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

What do you do when a client walks in with a computer with 1TB+ of data? Sell them a $700 SSD? That's a tough sell, even for me. And what about desktops? When a client walks in with a desktop that has important data (documents, pictures, etc.), I like to set them up with a SSD and two identical hard drives. I set it up so that one of the drives has all their data, and the other drive stores their backups. I also sell them an external hard drive and tell them to back it up once a month and then UNPLUG it so if they're hit with a cryptolocker they don't lose everything.

I've only ever had one customer need more than 500 GB of space for a computer. In that case it was a desktop and we did and SSD and mechanical for storage, but for us it's not really an issue.

 

[TechLady]

I'm a big fan of Google Backup and Sync (successor to Google Drive) for residential. So many have a Gmail account and haven't bothered to install it. The default is Documents, Pictures and Desktop which pretty well covers it for most. A couple of clicks and great free backup. I try to check with every residential client if they have an Android phone then of course they can instantly get B&S.

This is pretty much what I've been doing. SSDs when I can, and Google for backup (they have a new backup thing in the works, too)

 

[Your PCMD]

What do you do when a client walks in with a computer with 1TB+ of data?

I dont stock mechanical HDD's but thats not to say that I dont have any.

I have 2 Toshiba 1TB drives in the back for cases when I need them. Those are considered "on-hand" and not "in stock" on the shelf for consumer purchase.

As far as "backup drives", I have about a dozen 1TB WD and Seagate laptop drives (brand new on the shelf above the bench and again, "on hand") that I pulled from new laptops and replaced the drive with an SSD. I in turn take those and use these to make external backup drives on an as needed basis.

Google for backup

Goggle is expensive. 1TB for $100/yr is more than Backblaze or iDrive. iDrive is $69 a year for 2TB and $99 a year for 5TB while Backblaze is $50 a year for "unlimited" storage.

 

[Diggs]

Goggle is expensive. 1TB for $100/yr is more than Backblaze or iDrive. iDrive is $69 a year for 2TB and $99 a year for 5TB while Backblaze is $50 a year for "unlimited" storage.

That's a bit simplified. Google is free and available for anyone with a Gmail account and 15 GB fits most residential users well. Besides "Backup 'n Sync" Google offers "Drive Stream" (aimed at business) with their cloud services that support teams and owner-less files and folders for groups. Saying Google cloud storage is expensive compared to Backblaze isn't comparing apples to apples.

 

[Your PCMD]

15 GB fits most residential users well

In some cases perhaps. But here for me at least, 15 GB isn't even a 10th of the space people need for their 5 million pictures. I'm exaggerating of course, but you should see the issue I have here. Besides, people here are ignorant to the fact that Google (on their mobile devices) auto uploads when on WiFi and fills their quota pretty fast IF they don't keep check on it, which most do not.

 

[Diggs]

Remember - Google will back up all/unlimited pictures free if you allow them to be compressed. This isn't much of an issue except for photogs and artists that want original quality.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

I get many that ask me about a certain computer and say its 1tb "that means its faster right"

Unless you have lots of photos on the drive, that'll always slow it right down.