The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Lunam_Dominus on 2025-01-02 18:40:17.

I’m planning to buy some storage for backing up photos and files and I have 2 options that make sense to me:

1. Buy one, but generally better and more reliable drive (like 14TB EXOS x16 nm001g)
2. Or for the same money, buy 2 smaller and cheaper drives (like WD RED or something similar) and put them in RAID 1

I’d use it mostly for long term storage of data and backups, so it’d mostly sit idle in my pc. I’m wondering whether RAID 1 is overkill for me. I don’t have an unlimited budget and more space would be nice. I relied on a now 10 year old Seagate barracuda so I presume I don’t have the highest standards.

My life doesn’t rely on that data, I’d just be very, very sad if I lost it.