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External vs Internal HDD for backup purposes?
(alien.top)
We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.
An internal drive only protects you against drive failure. If the device is physically/electrically damaged or lost, so is your backup.
An external drive can be stored separately, and retrieved using a separate device if necessary.
An unpowered drive will also last longer usually.