Backups USB flash drive or portable hard drive?

shiraz99

Which is better to use when running backups from a Windows 10 laptop; an external, portable hard drive or a USB flash drive, assuming the size of the original drive is no more then 500Gb?

cx6

What do you mean by better?

In terms of cost, a hdd is better as a 500gb flash drive will be expensive compared to a hdd.

In terms a speed, a flash drive is likely to be better.

In terms of ability to hide it in case of eg a breakin, a flash drive is better.

In terms of reliability, a hdd is likely to be better.

etc

shiraz99

cx6 said:

What do you mean by better?

In terms of cost, a hdd is better as a 500gb flash drive will be expensive compared to a hdd.

In terms a speed, a flash drive is likely to be better.

In terms of ability to hide it in case of eg a breakin, a flash drive is better.

In terms of reliability, a hdd is likely to be better.

etc

I suppose that depends if you're comparing a flash drive with an external, mechanical HDD or an external SSD which are largely comparable in price.

Why do you think an hdd is more reliable than a solid state flash drive, if anything I would've imagined the opposite would be true?

forgotmyname

Spinning rust HDD's can often get some data back when then start to fail.  Flash drives are OK until it fails where
it often does without any warning.  Made sure the kids backed up their schoolwork onto 2 flash drives and then
instantly backup to 2 more drives at home.

Had a couple of flash drives fail without warning.

Neil_Jones

shiraz99 said:

Which is better to use when running backups from a Windows 10 laptop; an external, portable hard drive or a USB flash drive, assuming the size of the original drive is no more then 500Gb?

Flash drives are low capacity and they are cheap for a reason.

And that reason is they're designed to be disposable.

They are designed more for temporary storage, and something along the lines of nice but not the end of the world if you lose it.  So you can take a document to/from work/friend/whoever that if you lose, no major major.