WD Elements 5TB HDD & My Backup Strategies

I’ve bought a new 2.5 inch WD external hard drive, so I thought I’d run some performance tests -- and then take the opportunity to detail my off-site and wider backup strategies.

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My previous video “Cyber Security: Backups & Encryption” video is here:

And my video on my 10TB 3.5” WD Black Hard Drive is here:

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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:58 External Drive Options
03:49 Speed Tests
06:46 Off-Site Backup
12:45 Keeping Data Safe

#WDElements #Backup #Offsite #explainingcomputers

[EdwardKilner]

Whenever I find a YouTuber who speaks factually, concisely, and seems to remember there are things such as pace and pauses and periods, then I subscribe. Thank you for a fine video, well produced, and well presented. Why younger YouTubers rush through a poor script at breakneck speed confounds me.

[pixelsafoison]

You really need to make a proper NAS video, explaining what are the options, what RAID is, the difference between using an SBC and a computer as the brain of the operations etc etc. I mean, you're one of the best tech channels out there. You're humble, dedicated to your work, and always do your very best to help humanity as a whole to become more tech savvy - In a world where everything is dumbed down this is more than a welcome addition and to be honest, even when I think that I fully "master" a subject you always find ways to make me learn new things, be it acronyms or simply open source software that I didn't know existed.

You have impacted my daily life in so many ways that I cannot even begin to say how exactly. You have the mindset the internet used to have all those years ago, and that the new generation will never have. You do things just to help out others, selflessly.

Thank you for making the world a better place :)

[dogastus]

Everyone that owns a computer should watch this video. A lot of people don't bother with any backup because their data is there most of the time. They only learn when it's too late!

[terpcj]

I use several of these to keep my computers backed up. Seeing a drive with "TB" always fills me with awe, especially considering the price. I still remember back to around 1980 when a new-fangled 5-MB(!) HDD from Seagate would set you back ~$2, 500 USD (about $9, 000 today). As we were all still using floppies (8" and 5-1/4") on maxed out 64K machines, it was astonishing that anyone would need that much storage on a pc.

[jamesdye]

As an older person I always have a sad when any tech goes by the wayside. I do, however, upgrade as needed. That said, I appreciate the time and effort you put into these videos, and I always learn from them, thank you.

[bufordmaddogtannen]

I like your approach to backup, however I'd also like to point out - since many people in the comments seem to be unaware of this - that those WD external drives have a huge drawback: they are not standard drives with a SATA connector attached to a USB to SATA bridge board. The latter is now integrated in the drive PCB as a way to save WD a few cents per drive.
If anything goes wrong with the flimsy micro USB connector, it will not be possible to extract a drive from its case and connect it directly to a PC to access the data.

About the Seagate ST4000LM024 drives, whilst they do still use a standard SATA connector, these are also 15mm thick, so they would not fit in your removable hdd "cartridges".

[davocc]

Something I feel is very important - I strongly (and I mean STRONGLY) recommend adding checksum files to your backup set. That way you can specifically identify any data loss that occurs from media degradation and/or copy problems. In about 2012 I had to convert roughly 1300 DVD-Rs over to HDD storage and they had all been written carefully with checksum files, I was able to automate a process to read, validate and even eject each disk which made it a ping'n'swap arrangement for much of the cycling. The result - sticking to phthalocyanine discs worked VERY well, I was able to affirm that only one azo disc had lost any files at all and even then only a few small ones (the checksum failed for those, I was just using a simple md5 or similar method).

Second thing I would also implement *without exception* - a full surface test of any new disk (or disk that has been pressed into new service) with a manufacturer's diagnostic sweep. Yes it takes up to a couple of solid days to run this - the Seagate one can run (Seatools in windows) on multiple drives concurrently and the WD Data Lifeguard tool may be able to but I can't specifically recall at the moment. This test of the disk surface HAS shown up DOA drives about 4 or 5 times in my experience - though some newer SSD failures have been much sneakier and hard to find (Integral P series SATA SSD which finally threw errors when testing with Linux's testdisk utility; prior to that it was failing after being imaged from a working boot drive after about 8-10 hours use).
I test all discs that I have with some middling frequency, some say these tests aren't always indicative of failure and while that is true it's far far far better to have run it than not.

For this type of configuration preparing a volume for offsite movement - I'm tending towards the use of a Pi with USB3 support that can write these files and perform sha256 recursive calcs at the same time or by script; this method offloads responsibility to the Pi from the main rig and you can simply run a sync program that live-copies changes if you want. I've seen some software solutions for this some of which can even detect large scale abnormal modifications consistent with the presence of malware encrypting a system; once again checksum creation from earlier cycles can really help with this.
Indeed - I think this configuration could be quite a useful video especially in a situation where you're sharing a medium with more than one user in a household. You could configure it for swap-out for the offsite copy, each client on the network simply sync'ing the nominated data files over; or if you're more keen having existing shared data folders there already, I've been doing that (USB3 2.5" based data shares off a Pi and before that a Rock64) for about 6 years, it's worked extremely well to be honest even with an eternal (Seagate) 2.5" spinner running 24/7. In that config the controller board of the Seagate 4tb actually died but I re-housed the internal 2.5" SATA drive into a new caddy and it's all ok again.

[DevilsHandyman]

I'm glad to see you are proponent of backups and a good backup strategy. I used to do backup software development for windows until 4 years ago and was in that position for 22 years. It is amazing how many people are reluctant to do any backups or consider a single backup good enough. I tend to limit how many copies of large files I keep but all of my critical files I keep multiple backups to the cloud and have saved myself much pain several times recovering files I accidentally deleted.

[GenialHarryGrout]

I have a 2TB WD portable drive which I have used for several years for my backups. At the time 2TB was the largest available and this drive has served my very well

[sbc_tinkerer]

Backup strategy is most important. Multiple backups as mentioned is critical for critical files. Speaking from experirnce, USB external drives should be the "extra" backup for lack of a better term. Always connected USB drives have been the ones to fail first. Using a rotating backup is fine for longer life but USB drives should get the backup and then be ejected and disconnected to get the longest life out of them. This is just my opinion from experience.
Nice job as always sir! Stay well and get through the week as best as you can.

[johncundiff]

Backing up and redundancy are very important to me! I have a few thousand computer customers and i constantly push BACK UPS! Great video Sir!

[SylphidUndine]

i remember my first WD Elements 2.5" external HDD was only 500GB back in 2012 and it still works. these drives are very handy.

[voldy]

I've been using this HDD for the past 5 years. Still works perfectly.

[FlightingVagner]

I agree with your final take on backup strategy. It is the key!
My approach is quite similar (except data size - my archives are much smaller).
I classify my data into following categories:
"mobile" (copy should be available on all my devices) - around 100MB
"laptop" (copy should be available on laptops and desktops) - around 200GB
"desktop" (only on desktops) - around 1TB
I classify my storage options in a following way:
"live" - data that I am currently using
"cloud" - Dropbox subscription as a backup and also automatic tool to sync between devices
"off-site" - WD Passport device that I use to take manual snapshots once a month and keep in a different place.
---
Regarding WD external drives. My first was WD Element 120GB that I bought more than 15 years ago. Never had any problems with it. It was a quite performant and reliable device. Now I use WD Passport 1TB and fully satisfied.

[mhackr]

Data backups are something that everyone learns the hard way eventually, in some way or another. It's highly important to have a good tested backup strategy.

Being a person who is is always dealing with TB's and PB's of data, it's always interesting to see what others are doing with their own critical data.

Great video, Chris!

[DaystromDataConcepts]

I'm a little surprised you didn't do a full block scan on the new drive prior to initial use. I always spend several hours performing an extended S.M.A.R.T block level scan as NTFS is awful at error detection. I've found that NTFS will happily write data onto bad blocks and you only become aware a file is corrupted when you actually attempt to read it back.

I came across this when verifying a backup written using AOMEI Back upper Verification wasn't the default option BTW, which is utter madness in my opinion). Anyway, the backup was done, but I was notified it had failed only because the newly created backup was verified i.e read back to ensure its integrity and it failed due to a spate of bad sectors.

There may be those out there running backup software without a verification option set and unaware their data may be compromised.

If some of those reading this comment out there are simply doing a COPY using Windows copy and paste, be warned that your data, if written onto areas of an NTFS filesystem formatted drive with bad sectors, will not fail. It's only when you try copying the file back or otherwise reading it that you will find it corrupted and useless.

[Chard]

Hard drives and storage have definitely gotten cheaper over time. I remember when for that $100, you could only buy a 500GB External Hard Drive, and a 1GB USB costs over $20.

[ahmad-murery]

My backup strategy is:
Copy what you think is important to a USB thumb-drive whenever you feel the need to do so.
this worked perfectly fine until my brain started taking weird decisions without me knowing anything about them 😁😎
Thanks Chris, that was really helpful

[mrgtmodernretrogamingtech]

I have a WD Elements 1TB from 2013 and still works like magic at 99% Health and 100% Performance in HD Sentinel. My very first one, a tough drive and a great purchase! Now it's almost full of Movies from you know where, heheh... Nice review sir!

[Bushidounohana]

Picked up a few of these recently for the same drive availability and pricing reasons as you cite here. Good to see someone far smarter than me utilizing the same product with satisfaction!