Long term backup: ssd or hdd?

[rjalex]

Wife's mac is a 2016 256GB SSD macbook. She does not use timemachine. I have a license to carbon copy and want to buy her an external HDD to which periodically I (she won't remember) I could save her Documents folder just not to be caught totally off guard the day her internal SSD may croak.

So this would be something used every season or so and then just kept in a drawer as a minimal insurance.

For this specific use case, which does not need high speeds nor frequent use, would a "traditional" external 3.5 HDD suffice?

Thanks

 

[apostolosdt]

Your status indicates use of a non-SSD ext. Such HDD are cheaper and quite reliable nowadays. I do the same with my Time Machines on a number of heavy-run Macs without problems.

Also, keep in mind that SSD ext. are not for continuous write/erase purposes

 

[A1423]

I have WD RED PRO "regular" drives in my NAS, with a portable 1tb SSD to take with me to back up and have backups of my computer "on the go". With my new computer, I may modify that slightly to a 2TB SSD,

 

[rjalex]

Thank you!

 

[Madhatter32]

An external HDD is a good, cost effective option. I use them for back ups without issues. However, I use two for redundancy, which is a much better approach for "insurance" purposes. I use both Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Get a 2.5" SATA SSD.
256gb should be fine.
These are DIRT CHEAP.

Amazon.com: 2.5" SATA SSD 256gb

Amazon.com: 2.5" SATA SSD 256gb

www.amazon.com

Then, put it into an enclosure like this:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

www.amazon.com

As you already have a license for CCC, use that to clone the wife's internal drive to the SSD.
Run it once a week or so to incrementally update the backup.

As easy as it gets.

 

[Madhatter32]

OP:

Get a 2.5" SATA SSD.
256gb should be fine.
These are DIRT CHEAP.

Amazon.com: 2.5" SATA SSD 256gb

Amazon.com: 2.5" SATA SSD 256gb

www.amazon.com

Then, put it into an enclosure like this:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

www.amazon.com

As you already have a license for CCC, use that to clone the wife's internal drive to the SSD.
Run it once a week or so to incrementally update the backup.

As easy as it gets.

I agree. If I was buying today I would go with an SSD because they are optimized for APFS formatting as preferred by MacOS.

 

[rjalex]

Thank you all!!!