Updated 2 years ago

We all know Moore’s Law. I would like to add one to the lexicon:
The enthusiasm you have for collecting new releases in music, film and games is directly proportional to how much hard drive space you have left.
Preparation
Currently, the best value is to work in three 8 terabyte “chunks.” As of this writing you can buy 8TB Seagate external drives for as low as $139USD on Amazon (February 2020, probably MUCh lower when you read this. The fundamentals will remain the same, however – see below)
Note, this will shortly be replaced by a 10TB “chunk” as 10TB is currently $179. The best price point will probably evolve from 8TB into 16TB, since a migration to greater overall storage implies buying all this three times over for the backup. Think in multiples as you expand. I am at 8T; your mileage may vary.
Split your hard drives into thirds. I personally have 24 terabytes total, split into 3 8 terabyte chunks.
Of this, 8 terabytes is actually used, and the remaining 16 terabytes are backup, split between an 8TB external drive daily backup connected to your PC, and a separate 8TB external drive monthly backup that isn’t normally connected to your PC.
1
1/3 is your basic hard drive storage in your PC. At current ideal cost levels, this is 8 terabytes.
2
1/3 is your first external backup. This is connected to your PC with USB-C and runs daily. You can use Windows’ native backup service, or a third party service like Macrium Reflect, or use a bat/cmd file such as:
:: Runs at 5am every day (if the PC is powered on) & triggered by Save.vbs, which runs it silently :: Note!! - you can't just /mir B or E to A witout a subdirectory!! Has to go to a distinct folder or it will erase vast parts of A!!! :: No quotes needed around drive letters but be sure there is a \ :: Re-add /R:1 powershell -c (New-Object Media.SoundPlayer 'B:\Music\Misc\Sound FX\Backup VBS Sounds\Backup Initiated.wav').PlaySync(); robocopy C:\Bat A:\C\Bat /mir robocopy C:\Windows\Fonts A:\C\Fonts /mir robocopy "C:\Program Files (x86)\SystemScheduler\Events" "A:\C\System Scheduler Backup" /mir robocopy "C:\Users\Machinelf\Pictures" "A:\C\Pictures" /mir robocopy B:\ A:\B /mir /R:0 /FFT /A-:SH /XD $RECYCLE.BIN "System Volume Information" MMOs /xf msdia80.dll robocopy E:\ A:\E /mir /R:0 /FFT /A-:SH /XD $RECYCLE.BIN "System Volume Information" MOBAs powershell -c (New-Object Media.SoundPlayer 'B:\Music\Misc\Sound FX\TransferofDataComplete.wav').PlaySync();
Customize to your liking. Note I included a sound file to play when it’s done.
The associated vbs file, which runs the above code silently, is:
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell" ) WshShell.Run chr(34) & "C:\Bat\Save\Save.bat" & Chr(34), 0 Set WshShell = Nothing
Put these in a special place and have Task Scheduler run these regularly, ideally late at night.
3
The last 1/3 should be yet another external HD that is only occasionally connected to your PC, and normally kept in a safe place like a closet or lockbock.
Finally, on top of all this, save your most important docs on the cloud, such as Google Drive or DropBox, and ideally, for smaller docs, also synced to your phone.
What do you do with your old drives, as you upgrade to greater and greater “chunks?” Why, give them to friends, of course.
