Would love some input

Hi

I am a professional historian and trying to decide what external hard drives to buy to archivally store digital photgoraphs.

While I like the idea of a RAID (so I can back up two copies at the same time - which I think would be safer then backing up the same image twice, separately), I just can’t afford this. Also, I would prefer to use more smaller capacity drives (eg: 1T) then one big one – just in case.

So I think my question is, which portable hard drives should I buy? I have a Mac (though as I understand it, I can reformat a PC drive for MAC, too, right?). I also understand that all metal drives are preferable to plastic. Is that right, too? I also think I’d prefer USB rather then Thunderbolt.

Any suggestions? The Passport Studio? Air? Anything else?

THANK YOU!!

There are a lot of 1-2 TB USB 3 drives that are quite cheap. But when it come to archive important data, well, some kind of raid like a Drobo is quite safe but expensive.

I would say if you can afford it 1-2 WD My Passport 2TB drives and one cloud storage.

Backblaze is a great cloudstorage and not so expensive if you pay for several years at the time. There are others as well, search for cloud backup or storage. Why on a cloud? Well if your home is destroid or burglars you will at least be able to get back the data and at same time you can also backup your entire computer including external drives.

 So, minimum in my point of view (best and in the long run cheapest):

1 external of 1-2TB drive (there are other brands beside WD but to be safe buy a well known brand)

1 cloud storage.

or

2 1-2TB drives, one is a copy of the other and stored alsewhere but where you store the other. (requires a lot more effort on your side to keep the drives up to date)

Yes, all normal drives can be formated for Mac or PC or both.

Mac: Mac OS Extended Journal 

PC: NTFS or older (FAT32 can be used by Mac but can’t use files larger than 4GB in either Mac or PC)

Both: ExFAT

THank you!

The Cloud makes me nervous. Not that I store anything terribly “confidential,” but what if suddently everyone has access to everything on it? It doesn’t feel private neough for me.

Two questions, if I go with the two 1-2TB external drives, I am curious, is there more risk of damaging my images by dragging them to storage twice, then if I just dragge them once to a RAID system? (NOt that I can afford this, I’m jsut curious.)

Also, I am considering buying the WD My Passport AIr becasue it is aluminum vs. plastic. Do you think this makes a differencei n terms of static or het?

THank you!

Sorry for the typos. I meant “static or heat?”