The world of data storage has moved at an incredible rate over the last few decades. Formats have come and gone, from LPs to tapes, mini-disks, floppy disks, hard disks, and solid-state. Now we even have massive data centers across the globe dedicated to keeping our cloud storage safe.
It’s a fair question to ask then, in an age of cloud-based technology, are external hard drives worth it, or will we soon be seeing them relegated to the pile of lost formats such as the Betamax?
The simple answer to that question is yes, external hard drives are still worth investing in at the moment, and although the technology behind them is likely to change, it doesn’t seem that there will be a slow-down in the need for external storage in the next few years to come, even with cloud-based storage subscriptions coming down in price every day.
The Space Conundrum
As our reliance on technology and computing has increased, so has our need for bigger-capacity hard drives; not only that, they are becoming smaller and smaller in size and weight.
Thanks to the incredible invention of the microchip by IT engineer Jack Kilby way back in 1958, computer technology has been able get smaller and lighter. The only technology that hasn’t properly caught up is battery technology, but there are many firms working to improve battery technology too!
Hard drive technology has seen a steady increase over the years though: five years ago, a 500GB hard drive would have cost a pretty penny and would have required an external power source; whereas a 5TB (5,000GB) hard drive will now fit in your pocket and can be powered by your laptop whenever and wherever you need it. For anyone who has ever done video editing, this is a huge bonus.
The selection choices is vast, too. Small, lightweight, portable, and versatile hard drives come in a variety of sizes from a tiny 250GB right up to 5TB. If you were happy for your hard drive not to be so portable and don’t mind the requirements of an external power source, there are many companies making external hard drives right up to 12-14TB in capacity (12,000–14,000 GB), which is more than enough space for the everyday user, and even plenty of space for most industries requiring high storage capacity (such as video editors) to store their assets and backups easily.
This is great news for laptop makers too—with most laptops coming with internal hard disk drives of around 500GB–1TB, they can begin to move away from hard disk drives to solid-state drives. Solid-state drives are much more expensive to produce, and thus new laptops that do have solid-state drives are likely to be at the lower end of storage capacity (around 500GB).
Backups and Security
This is not always a problem, though. One of the main worries about storing all of your data on your device’s hard drive is the issue of security. Anyone who has ever studied a masters in data science online will know that most companies and most individuals do not take security as seriously as they should.
Malware can spread through the likely sources of phishing programs but as the NHS in the UK found out a few years ago, ransomware is also a huge problem, the severity of which we seem almost unable to comprehend.
Malware and ransomware are terrible issues that can cripple computer systems and cause data loss costing millions, but so can rogue updates. Only very recently, Microsoft released an update for Windows 10 that saw many users losing data on their hard drives. Usually, this happens when Windows “forgets” where the data is and it can be recovered fairly easily, but for some poor souls, ”forgotten” data can either not be found again, or when it is found the recovery only manages to recover corrupt data, which is an absolute nightmare for those involved!
Anyone who has ever been around computers for personal reasons or for work reasons will always remember the mantra “back up, back up, back up!” and many of us will have automatic cloud backups running near permanently. This gives us some peace of mind, but when you give your data security over to a cloud service, you must be absolutely certain that the service will not change and that their security levels are very high.
There are devastating news articles nearly every day about cloud storage services being hacked or that user details are leaked online to be discovered by hackers on the dark web. This may be nightmare-inducing for many, and it also may be a good reason to steer clear of cloud services, but another good reason to reconsider the cloud as your only backup is the worry that services can change at the drop of a hat.
You may believe that your $7.99 a month subscription for 2TB of cloud storage will be ok and that you will always be able to pay this, but what happens if the company you are paying suddenly decides that your service is now going to be $13.99 a month, or even $70 a month?
The worst case scenario would be that you lose your job, and then even $7.99 a month is suddenly a price you can’t justify spending. What then, will you lose your digital life? All of those photos of your kids when they were little, copies of your important documents, maybe even your work documents that could be useful for getting a new job.
When we put this into perspective, the very idea of cloud storage suddenly becomes a lot more concerning, and many people will begin to think that a more physical type of storage backup will be worth it.
Cloud Vs Hard Drives
One of the huge benefits of cloud storage over external hard drives is undoubtedly the portability of your storage. Even though hard drives are getting smaller and smaller every day (even micro SD cards can now come in storage sizes of up to 1TB), they still require extra weight and an extra wire in your backpack if you want to plug them into your laptop.
With cloud storage this isn’t a problem—simply log in to a browser and have access to all of your files whenever and wherever you need them.
Only, that’s not entirely true, is it?
Whilst the likes of Google and EE would love us to believe that internet access is available everywhere, in truth, only around 60% of the world’s population have useable internet access, and by useable that is speeds that actually allow users to use commodities such as cloud storage.
When we drill down further though, even that statistic doesn’t tell the whole story. China is possibly one of the world’s most populated countries, boasting a population of around 1.3 billion, 765 million of whom are online. China’s internet, as the rest of the world knows, is now the same as everyone else’s internet access, restricting users through the Great Firewall. This is the same as other countries such as North Korea, and with the GDPR regulations across the European Union that came into force in 2018, much of Europe has seen its internet usage change, too.
Whilst they may be slightly more weight in a backpack, and they are not particularly drop-proof, waterproof, or fireproof, it’s clear that hard drives have a clear benefit over all other forms of long-term storage and backup, and are likely to for many years to come. Thanks to their ability to be stored in most conditions and very small degradation over time, external hard drives are the perfect medium for your backup, especially if you back up and then leave it in a drawer until next week!
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