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Hello tech report forum,

As you guys can see from the title I am looking for some external storage that is safe and strong. I have started getting into cryptocurrency trading and the number of codes, pass phrases, Secret sentences, private keys and everything else you get I need to be putting them somewhere safe. As I have been a laptop owner for many many years and owning desktops before that I know they have a tendency to go wrong and break, if this happens I will lose everything so I have to be as safe as possible and back all of this up as much as possible. The external hard drive is kinda going to be like a safe and then it will be locked in a safe shortly after.

At the moment I am storing all of my passwords etc on a USB drive but this has got to change the chances in something going wrong are far too high for me. So, in terms of a solid, safe, strong, hard drive I think I have come to the right place to find one. I have something in mind along the lines of this http://www.for-sale.co.uk/external-hard-drive I would really appreciate it if you guys could throw some links my way of what you use for an external hard drive and then a little write up of why you like the product. This will make me sleep so much better at night. Really looking forward to speaking with you all.

If there is any other information that you need please let me know and I will get back to you.

Thanks

No drive is guaranteed not to break. If you have valuable data, you need to keep multiple copies in multiple physical locations.

WalterW wrote:

Hello tech report forum,

As you guys can see from the title I am looking for some external storage that is safe and strong. I have started getting into cryptocurrency trading and the number of codes, pass phrases, Secret sentences, private keys and everything else you get I need to be putting them somewhere safe. As I have been a laptop owner for many many years and owning desktops before that I know they have a tendency to go wrong and break, if this happens I will lose everything so I have to be as safe as possible and back all of this up as much as possible. The external hard drive is kinda going to be like a safe and then it will be locked in a safe shortly after.

At the moment I am storing all of my passwords etc on a USB drive but this has got to change the chances in something going wrong are far too high for me. So, in terms of a solid, safe, strong, hard drive I think I have come to the right place to find one. I would really appreciate it if you guys could throw some links my way of what you use for an external hard drive and then a little write up of why you like the product. This will make me sleep so much better at night. Really looking forward to speaking with you all.

If there is any other information that you need please let me know and I will get back to you.

Thanks

I guess what I'd do if I was worried is get three rugged external 500GB HDs turned into a three way mirrored ReFS Storage Space.

The only drives I've ever had really break were extremely old or dropped.

i would do as jbi said - multiple copies in multiple locations
i would use multiple storage types also just to be sure one doesnt fail as well as different brands

back them up 3 (or more) times on usb flash/bluray/ssd/hdd (12 or more copies in total) and put a copy of each medium in 3 seperate locations and have at least one batch interstate
all of them in a safe in a cool area

so for example
brand x usbflash/bluray/ssd/hdd at home
brand y usbflash/bluray/ssd/hdd at friends house
brand z usbflash/bluray/ssd/hdd at someone you knows house interstate

you data should be relatively safe then imo

Paper is a pretty fail-proof storage medium for the items you mentioned.....

DPete27 wrote:

Paper is a pretty fail-proof storage medium for the items you mentioned.....

not all that useful if the crypto key is 4-5 pages long (or longer)

just brew it! wrote:

No drive is guaranteed not to break. If you have valuable data, you need to keep multiple copies in multiple physical locations.

What JBI said.

I'd elaborate and say that encrypting the data as an archive and storing it in multiple clouds *in addition to multiple copies/locations* is probably a good idea. 100GB is $2/mo pretty much everywhere.

just brew it! wrote:

No drive is guaranteed not to break. If you have valuable data, you need to keep multiple copies in multiple physical locations.

This. If you have just one copy, there's nothing preventing you from accidentally deleting/overwriting your only copy while you're working someday. There's also no guarantee that if your house/apartment burns down/floods that the copy will still be good.

Keep at least two backups in different locations that are updated on a periodic basis and make sure that they work.

The previous suggestions of friend's house is one possibility. Otherwise, your desk drawer at work, or parents' house (if convenient) would also work.

While doing this, I'd probably recommend encrypting all of those drives, just in case a coworker or cleaning staff decides to grab it (yeah, not likely, but possible), or that friend turns out to not be such a good friend.

Most folks dont need to go to such extremes.

Just create a new google and Microsoft account.
- Put good 2-factor authentication on the accounts.
- Print out back up for the 2-factor and keep copy in house, and a copy of Google in MS One Drive, and MS in Google Drive.
- Put copy of keys in each place.
- Make sure to have a checksum saved also, and maybe audit every 6months to verify the only copy is still valid. And to keep account alive...

- Dont use the accounts for anything else.
- Dont log into accounts from kids computers, best bet is to buy a used Nexus 5X, re-image with factory image directly from Googles website. Install the One Drive app and update phone. Only use to check money's.


Re: ReFS and ZFS, will only fix bitrot issues if the machine is on.... not cold storage.

I would suggest WD, but yes no storage is regarded as strongest, they can all break. And don't move them around