SSD?

[Jim Byrnes]

On 3/5/22 17:26, Karl Auer wrote:
> On Sat, 2022-03-05 at 14:30 -0600, Jim Byrnes wrote:
>> Can an external USB SSD drive be permanently attached to a computer
>> without  causing it any harm? The reason I ask is I want to automate
>> back ups to it.
> 
> The short answer from Colin is "yes", the longer answer from Ralf is a
> very appropriate warning. You may find the bulleted list in this
> article of interest also:
> 
> https://biplane.com.au/blog/?p=359
> 
> Having a second copy of stuff in locally-accessible (or network-
> accessible) storage covers you for some kinds of problems, especially
> human error where you do something silly to the original. But local
> copies, including network-accessible copies in the same physical
> location as the computer, are going to suffer the same fate as the
> computer if it gets stolen, burned, flooded or fried. Even if off-site,
> network-accessible copies are just as vulnerable to malware (and human
> error) as the computer itself.
> 
> So do yourself a favour - buy three (or four or five or ten) external
> drives, and cycle your backups onto them. Store at least one
> (preferably more) off-site - a friendly neighbour, a family member in
> the same town, a bank deposit box if you have one. When one of the
> drives fills up, archive it and buy a new one. Or just clear the least-
> recently-used disk and use that.
> 
> If you can, use backup software that does versioning. This is because
> if you get hit by ransomware (or some important file gets corrupted
> some other way), you may not realise it for quite some time. In that
> time, you may have taken several backups. If you have cycled through
> all your backup disks, and are NOT versioning, then your backups will
> be useless. Versioning does use more disk space on the backups though.
> 
> BTW depending on how much stuff you need to backup (most people and
> businesses back up FAR too much data "just in case") you may not need
> large disks, you may be able to use USB sticks or whatever. The key
> principle is use several and cycle through them.
> 
> Regards, K.
> 

Hi Karl,

Thanks for the info and thanks to Colin and Ralf also. You guys gave me 
a lot of info to think about. I have been backing up using Timeshift and 
Back In Time, but I have been sort of erratic as to when to make a 
backup and I have not been using them as the authors intended.

I want to start over with fresh backups and use them correctly. I was 
thinking about automating the back ups which is why I asked about having 
a SSD connected constantly. I will reread the manuals, but I think 
Timeshift does it's thing in the background. Hopefully I can tell it 
where and when I want a backup made. Possibly I will just have a message 
pop up telling me a backup should be made and then I can connect the SSD.

Regards,  Jim