Ideas for a nearly 100% reliable portable data storage

I've had my share of broken storage media. During just last year, I've had:

  • two broken 500GB Seagate hard drives; one was new, broke completely, got different one - refurbished, but a little bit broken too (after running for a little while it just hangs)
  • new 1TB Seagate hard drive that is semi-reliable; usually works but sometimes it hangs and results in BSOD
  • my 16GB Flash Voyager GT broke just today; somehow a couple of hundred sectors are no longer usable; cannot read from them and all data that was there is lost

At one point in time I've moved all of my data (documents, programs, etc.) into one 8GB encrypted file container (TrueCrypt) and moved this file onto one of the most expensive pendrives in its range (the 16GB Voyager GT mentioned above) hoping it will prove to be 100% reliable solution. Unfortunately for me, it broke.

So now I'm asking you for a recommendation of a portable solution (max size is 2,5" hdd) that would be (nearly) 100% reliable. Which will not break. At least not easily. 10GB storage is enough.


If 10 GB capacity is sufficient, then a 16 GB USB flash drive is the best solution in terms of robustness and reliability. A (synchronized) second stick, however, will double your chances to get your data home safely. :)


Have to wonder - why so much of your equipment is dying - environmental? Electrical(surge?) accident (drops?) or other? Your solution would have to incorporate protection against this.

Also, have you considered a remote solution - RDP into a system at home or possibly keeping things on the cloud? There are things like Microsoft Live Mesh.


Don't go with physical storage. Backup your data with Dropbox or to a server that is managed. Online space is pretty cheap, and you have full redundancy if they do daily backups.