Flashdrive vs SD card for backup (advice please!)

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turbochargd

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Hi guys, im looking to keep important files backed up somewhere other than a cloud drive or external hdd. Cant afford SSD so im considering Flashdrives or SD Cards. What would you recommend? Any specific brands to consider?
 
It depends whether you want your backups on a flash drive or memory card. A memory card seems slightly more reliable to me, as I have had flash drives randomly start giving major issues.

You could backup for free if you just used a different cloud service to your usual one. Mega is a great option. Very secure and 50GB storage space.
 
Have your backup in two places:
- full backup external hard drive
- duplicate the most important files also on the flash drive

Then you don't need to worry about quality of the flash drive.
 
20gb to 50gb (pics,clips,documents) hence why im considering either flashdrive or SD card...
 
turbochargd said:
20gb to 50gb (pics,clips,documents) hence why im considering either flashdrive or SD card...
Click to expand...

What's wrong with just having an external hard drive used for general purpose backups? Quality 64GB memory cards and flash drives aren't cheap.
 
Bryn said:
What's wrong with just having an external hard drive used for general purpose backups? Quality 64GB memory cards and flash drives aren't cheap.
Click to expand...

Quality in terms of memory cards pertains as much to speed as it does to anything else. Since you can pick up a 32gb class 10 SD card for under R200 it's not really a bad option as long as you buy two.

I had a 128gb Verbatim usb stick I bought in September die on me the other day and it was a bit of a schlep to back all that stuff up onto a second device but it had to be done. One copy on one device isn't a backup, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

I've got a stack of 20+ hard drives that I have to remember to spin up and check on a regular basis - if I could move all of that onto something that didn't rely on moving parts I'd be a much happier camper.
 
turbochargd said:
Hi guys, im looking to keep important files backed up somewhere other than a cloud drive or external hdd. Cant afford SSD so im considering Flashdrives or SD Cards. What would you recommend? Any specific brands to consider?
Click to expand...

In personal experience memory cards and flash drives are so unreliable it's not even funny just 2 days ago my 64Gb Samsung drive failed on me.

Memory cards gets corrupted so often.

Rather save up buy a 500Gb harddrive not a desktop drive look for a western digital red/purple or Seagate equivalent and pop that into a 3.5" enclosure
 
bwana said:
Quality in terms of memory cards pertains as much to speed as it does to anything else. Since you can pick up a 32gb class 10 SD card for under R200 it's not really a bad option as long as you buy two.

I had a 128gb Verbatim usb stick I bought in September die on me the other day and it was a bit of a schlep to back all that stuff up onto a second device but it had to be done. One copy on one device isn't a backup, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

I've got a stack of 20+ hard drives that I have to remember to spin up and check on a regular basis - if I could move all of that onto something that didn't rely on moving parts I'd be a much happier camper.
Click to expand...

No moving parts:
http://www.wootware.co.za/samsung-mu-ps250b-t1-series-250gb-usb3-0-external-solid-state-drive.html
 
turbochargd said:
20gb to 50gb (pics,clips,documents) hence why im considering either flashdrive or SD card...
Click to expand...

Pics and clips, backup to Google Photos for free. Plus point is, that it's accessible from a lot of different devices.
What's the size of the docs, I guess it should be a small percentage of all that.
 
beans100 said:
Pics and clips, backup to Google Photos for free. Plus point is, that it's accessible from a lot of different devices.
What's the size of the docs, I guess it should be a small percentage of all that.
Click to expand...

Uploading to Google photos isn't without potential pitfalls, especially if he shoots raw files and/or has a slow or capped internet. He might also not be keen on google's licensing terms.
 
bwana said:
Uploading to Google photos isn't without potential pitfalls, especially if he shoots raw files and/or has a slow or capped internet. He might also not be keen on google's licensing terms.
Click to expand...

I just re-read his OP, saw he prefers to go with flash or SD. I probably read to fast, or the subsequent post had confused me. Don't know why I thought he's open to cloud backup.
In any event, 20 to 50GB is going to be quite a few flash drives, also going to be costly. 50GB divided by 8GB equals 2.25. Rounded up equals 3. At R50 per 8gig (specials cheap stuff), that's R350. This sollution, don't give any redundancy. So, flash drive or SD backup isn't a very good idea/option.

Where's the days when a ZIP drive was a good investment. Will dual layer DVD's do the trick. Will get about 10 for R60.
 
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