I use a 1TB Crucial X8. Has worked great for storing video files while I edit. Connects to my laptop via USB C so is very fast.
Late to this, but I tend to use Western Digital or Samsung for external drives. never had a failure so far.
I use cloud for some stuff, but tend to encrypt first before uploading. I don’t trust any cloud provider with anything and i definitely don’t trust google, meta or Amazon, as they have both shown themselves to be as untrustworthy as it gets (how many worldwide investigations are currently lodged against those companies related to spying on customers and generally not giving a shit about peoples privacy). Even mundane stuff like photos. If you want to keep it private, don’t upload it anywhere. If you do, then bulk upload and use strong encryption. Assume anything you upload unencrypted can be accessed by any employee of the company you use, so keep anything personal out of the cloud. If you don’t understand what the cloud is and isn’t, you should probably research OpSec and securing Cloud based infrastructure. 
Never had problems with Samsung T5 or T7
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Just to add - I use Samsung T7 for backups. I have one for Time Machine, two for personal backups, another for general usage.
My personal ones are the “Touch” versions, which use a thumbprint to unlock the drive (you also setup a backup password in the Samsung app). If you’re concerned about the security of your files on an external SSD, this is the easiest way to do it.
@PitchFader was asking about cloud vs offline backups. If the data is important enough, have both! Remember that “The Cloud” is just someone else’s computer. If Google/Apple/etc decide they want to shut down your account (for some imagined infraction) then you’ve just lost access to everything in there, unless you’ve backed it up locally.
The golden rule for backups (going into the weeds here a bit!) is the “3-2-1” rule. Make 3 copies of the data, on 2 different storage mediums and 1 is off-site. If you’re really paranoid (like me) you keep a secured copy of your most important data at work.
Amazon Prime day is coming up soon, there will definitely be deals on storage for that. As to the Sandisk Extreme, I’ve known a few people with them and they’ve not had any complaints. As has been said, the vast majority of happy customers probably won’t post reviews on Amazon, etc.
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Totally agree 
This story in The Register that was published a couple of weeks back just reinforces what I worry about regarding privacy. But then if you put Amazon or Android based smart systems into your house, you have for all intents become part of the Truman show. 
Shut your door, close the curtains, never go out
Disconnect your router, and never use the internet or a mobile phone ever again
Sorted 
By the way, anything can be hacked…
@PitchFader I’d be more worried about that Sincoder file or the Dronehacks .exe that’s on your local network
Looool
I’m cool with it Wayne mate, where there is what is as you said above, as anything there could always be a risk, risks everyday, I’m not bothered, believe it or not for once 
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Jumping in on the ‘cloud’ discussion. We’ve recently gone for the Microsoft 365 ‘Family’ service. My wife missed the ‘Office’ applications as I’d tried to get her to use Libre Office suite, because it is free, and just as good. We both needed some cloud space for back-ups.
Microsoft 365 Family is £79.99 per year, but, you can have up to six ‘family members’ and each get 1TB of space each. If you simply create a second email address for yourself, you have 2TB, then a third email… etcetera. Up to 6TB of cloud space, plus all the ‘Office’ suite, is a bargain.
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This is worth a read:
Something to note, iCloud is not a back up service, it’s a synchronisation service (so you have the same stuff across all your devices.
If you delete it on one it deleted on them all.
I do find it a real benefit to know that if my MacBook dies, I can buy another, and pretty much everything will be restored from iCloud:)
Thanks mate, I’m already aware of this, with my most important bits backed up 
I think the 1TB and upwards have had problems and Sandisk were denying it for months. I’m sure they’ve updated fw fro them now.
I run the 500gb, no problems it’s great. 
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Thanks ady, yes I’ve not ordered yet, also the 1TB is a long wait, I was actually contemplating on getting the 500gb as it’s in stock, but for an extra £10 ish you can have the 1TB, I did read somewhere it had issues, maybe while there selling them cheap 
I have a 2TB one of theses
Wow they are cheap today 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT2000X6SSD9-X6-Portable-SSD/dp/B08FSNKNSV?tag=gadc0e-21&th=1
That was thinking on a few sites.
Like I say I have the 500gb and hammered it, actually contemplating buying another
Joining this late.
The Samsung T7s are probably the best in terms of high performance. Wait for Amazon Prime day if you have prime. I only really use it as my project drive for Final Cut stuff so it’s not eating up my local stroage when working on FCP projects.
Cloud can seem expensive depending on how much storage you need. Ironically had an email this morning from Apple saying my 200GB is increasing to £2.99 a month next month, but, it’s £2.99 a month. It’s less than the cost of a pint! I only really use it for photos and a few app settings back ups incase I ever need to recover my iPhone.
Home storage I have a NAS with 5TB available. Set up as a RAID and then also further backed up to an external drive. Have been using NAS’ for years. Never had any drive failures and they get battered as have Docker containers running Plex and torrenting automation stuff, but you do need good quality drives. Initial outlay of this is also expensive, but once it’s setup, assuming you don’t go over your storage needs you should be sorted for several years and you’re in control.
The only thing you really need to be savvy about imo with home storage is your backups, and this includes your external drives anyway, you NEED TO BACKUP and more importantly where you store it. Ideally off site!! If the house goes up in flames, what you going to do?
My gaping hole at the moment is I only have one drive for backups. Ideally I’d have two and rotate them, and always keep one at the office. At the moment I’m having to remember to bring it home, do the backup and take it back to the office for safe off site storage of all my data I don’t want to lose (media I can re-download like films, I don’t include in the backup)
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A very unconventional way of getting LOTS of cloud storage for freeif you need it for a short period of time (and I would treat this as temporary) is sign up for a Microsoft 365 Developer account.
It comes with 20 users on a E3 plan (I think) each user gets 1TB of OneDrive Storage.
20 users with 1TB of storage at your fingertips!
I’ve had my M365 Dev account for years, they’ve never closed it, I just have a single ‘app’ in there, doing nothing, but I’ve used the onedrive stuff as cloud storage to send large files to people.
God forbid, yes that I understand, as with my music, which some is irreplaceable & always kept copy’s of site.
Was having this discussion the other day
Thanks 
I’m not proud to say, a few weeks ago I deleted one of my photo libraries off the MacBook Pro, while moving big libraries around. It’s my main one I use for all my family and leisure photos, and has photos going back to the 80s up til as recent as May this year. I only noticed a few days ago.
I’m relieved to say, I was able to restore from a backup on a 2TB external disk, all done within about a couple of hours.
It takes extra time to do backups, and (for example) to not delete files off drone SD cards until I know there’s at least one backup. but it’s so worth it, and it’s reassuring to have a plan to follow when I’ve made a mistake.
(Software was Apple Photos app and Time Machine, external disk was spinning hard disk, and backup rotation includes a copy held in a locked cupboard at work.)
Jeeez that was very lucky !