Are External HDD's 'safer' than Internal?

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[H]ard|Gawd
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Meaning, if the PSU dies, would an internal HDD be more likely to be fried than an external HDD connected via USB 3.0?

They're both powered by the PSU and finding an external HDD with its power supply these days for cheap is hard.

Then there's the issue of a power surge that could kill that as well, so a UPS system becomes necessary.

What do you guys think?
 
Meaning, if the PSU dies, would an internal HDD be more likely to be fried than an external HDD connected via USB 3.0?

They're both powered by the PSU and finding an external HDD with its power supply these days for cheap is hard.

Then there's the issue of a power surge that could kill that as well, so a UPS system becomes necessary.

What do you guys think?
neither is safe.

A 12v transformer based PSU for a small hdd is very "safe", but in reality the issue is rarely the power supply. The drives themselves just die. Its what it is. Back-up systems is key.
 
But to actually answer your question without reminding you to backup as you should already be, I’d trust my mechanical drives to my high quality power supply within my pc before I trusted it to a cheap power converter plug.
I have a few backup usb drives in external enclosure but they are only used for cold storage backup or large file transfers. Everything else goes on my main pc box.
 
But to actually answer your question without reminding you to backup as you should already be, I’d trust my mechanical drives to my high quality power supply within my pc before I trusted it to a cheap power converter plug.
I have a few backup usb drives in external enclosure but they are only used for cold storage backup or large file transfers. Everything else goes on my main pc box.
ironically in my experience mechanical drives just work, and keep working. SSD's while way better than they were 10 years ago, are not reliable (in decades) like mechanical drives are. I've had several drives survive catastrophic system failures, just plug them into a new mobo and suddenly balance has been restored to the force.

as for the cheap plug, the high quality supply in your pc has to convert 120vac to 12vdc, and at something like 500W+. The cheap plug just has to do 30-50w. at that power level its easy to be reliable and cheap. I would have more faith long term in the little wall wart than your $300 psu, so long as you dont try to draw more juice from the wall wart than it can provide. Its just the old, High Power, Low Cost, High Reliability, pick two.
 
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ironically in my experience mechanical drives just work, and keep working. SSD's while way better than they were 10 years ago, are not reliable (in decades) like mechanical drives are. I've had several drives survive catastrophic system failures, just plug them into a new mobo and suddenly balance has been restored to the force.

as for the cheap plug, the high quality supply in your pc has to convert 120vac to 12vdc, and at something like 500W+. The cheap plug just has to do 30-50w. at that power level its easy to be reliable and cheap. I would have more faith long term in the little wall wart than your $300 psu, so long as you dont try to draw more juice from the wall wart than it can provide. Its just the old, High Power, Low Cost, High Reliability, pick two.
I honestly don’t think it’s about power conversion or heat transfer as much as it is about the QUALITY of the components inside.

When Seasonic slapped a 10 year warranty on a platinum psu, I think they meant business. PSU failure is not common even amongst mid grade units.

External hard drive failure due to power supply issues? I don’t know how common that is. I know heat can cause failure. But all said, I’ve never once in 25 years in this hobby lost a power supply in a pc let alone a hard drive to one. I have had external hard drive failures many times. But I do backup, so there’s that. Just my experience not a real answer.
 
I use cloud backup, but I do have some external SSDs that I manually backup files to from time to time.

The key is that I don't leave them connected to the system. So once a week (or if I make good progress on something) I will connect the drive and do the backup.

Should be fairly safe from power surges or in the event of a hack/ransomware. But of course, it is a manual process so not ideal but it's sort of the last resort (since I assume my cloud system will work).
 
I use cloud backup, but I do have some external SSDs that I manually backup files to from time to time.

The key is that I don't leave them connected to the system. So once a week (or if I make good progress on something) I will connect the drive and do the backup.

Should be fairly safe from power surges or in the event of a hack/ransomware. But of course, it is a manual process so not ideal but it's sort of the last resort (since I assume my cloud system will work).
I’m glad you mentioned power surges. As important in all of this imo is the quality of the power coming in, but also a nice UPS with power conditioning. That probably would negate many of the issues that would cause a failure for either hard drive types.

I agree I also never keep my external drives connected. They go back in cold storage after a backup.

Can you recommend a good cloud backup?
 
I've been using Spideroak One and I've been happy with it.

It is pretty flexible, you can sync multiple machines, download files from the web, everything is encrypted, and doesn't seem to slow down the computer.

They also have a Linux client app, but I'm using Windows currently and haven't noticed any problems.
 
I’m glad you mentioned power surges. As important in all of this imo is the quality of the power coming in, but also a nice UPS with power conditioning.
Good call. I've been meaning to get a UPS for a while but never had one. Just ordered one now, you can never be too safe.

We had a few short black outs here recently. Also my cat stepped on the surge protector on my spare system and blew it out.
 
If you've spent a couple thousand on a gaming rig then at the very least you should have a UPS. I find those power blips to be the most annoying. Here you are in the middle of something important and *blip* the power goes out and then back on in a couple seconds but just enough to cause the computer to reboot. Even if the power stays off longer than a few seconds you then have time to finish what you're doing and shut the computer down gracefully.

I recommend the larger ones with the LCD display like one of the Back-UPS 1500. The display will show you the load, time remaining, and other interesting info without having to be connected to a PC. It also lets you turn off the sound. When the power goes out and the UPS switches to battery it starts to beep which is very annoying. If you're sleeping then it wakes you up and if you're awake then it's pretty obvious that the power has gone out so an annoying beep is not needed. Also, the larger battery gives you more time to finish what you're doing before shutting down.

I have about 8 UPS devices right now, including one for the modem and router. Power goes out but the internet connection remains alive (usually).
 
I ended up getting the APC Back-UPS 1000. It gives me about 15 minutes on the desktop, or like 5 minutes while playing a game.

Probably should have got one with a little more power, but this one is fine for now and was affordable ($135).
 
Are External HDD's 'safer' than Internal?
The opposite.

External hard drives...
1) have worse power supplies (circuits and/or components used)
2) often have worse connecting electronics
3) are attached by cables that move much more and are more likely to be damaged
4) have a lot higher chance of being dropped or knocked, especially while in use
5) have far worse air flow around them
6) vanish from where they should be
7) ...
 
I’ve gotten to making custom harnesses that convert the 12V wires on the 4 pin molex connector of a PSU into a long DC power cord…usually a 2.1mm or 2.5mm DC barrel ending. That way you are getting the same quality of power everything else in the computer gets.

You can get a ATX PSU power switch and have a dedicated power supply to power multiple external drives if needed. I have one that powers 4 external optical drives and 4 case fans.
 
Anecdotal but...80% of the hard drives I get in for data recovery are externals.

Get a NAS.
 
But to actually answer your question without reminding you to backup as you should already be, I’d trust my mechanical drives to my high quality power supply within my pc before I trusted it to a cheap power converter plug.
I have a few backup usb drives in external enclosure but they are only used for cold storage backup or large file transfers. Everything else goes on my main pc box.
Which is the right thing to do if you have a tower case with space for more drives. But laptop drives. My last laptop was a Lenovo with an "ultrabay." It came with an optical drive, but you could also get a caddy for an HDD or else a second battery. Back then I used all three choices, especially on business trips. My current Lenovo laptop lost the ultrabay, so my only choice is an external HDD. Much less convenient, especially when you traveling.
 
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