I'm seriously considering keeping all my files only on external hard drives.
My main computer is a laptop, and currently I back up the files on it to multiple external hard drives. I'm thinking of changing that, and keeping the files only on external drives. 2.5" drives in enclosures are small enough that it's not hard to carry two of them around and 320GB is cheap and more than enough for all of my files including pics and videos.
My only concern is reliability. Am I more likely to have a drive like a WD Passport or HP Simple Save fail than the drive in my laptop? Those are the two drives I've got right now, I carry them around in lightly padded cases inside a backback.
It comes down to:
- In general, are 2.5" drives in enclosures reliable enough to count on?
- Specifically, does carrying them around pose any significant extra risk?