When it comes to backing up all my files, I've got two Cavalry Pelican Solid State external hard-drives (a 128 GB and a 64 GB), and they both work excellent. I bought them a while back after honestly having terrible luck with regular portable external hard-drives. I had two of them crash on me for no reason, and one was a Western Digital, which is supposedly an excellent brand. At the time, I had to pay someone to try and salvage whatever files they could off of them, and I lost many of my files in the process. That is why I eventually "converted" to "Solid-State" portable external hard-drives. They don't have any moving parts, making them much more reliable than regular portable hard-drives. That little tidbit was serious music to my ears and what ultimately won me over. According to wikipedia, solid state drives are "less fragile, silent, have faster start-up, have lower power consumption, have high mechanical reliability, and they have the ability to endure extreme shock, high altitude, vibration, and extremes of temperature." This is especially important to think about if you travel alot, because things inside your vehicle can go from being really hot to really cold, and they can also be exposed to all sorts of different elevations and vibrations. For these reasons (among others), storing your electronics inside a vehicle just puts them at a higher risk of mechanical failure. Solid-state drives are still fairly new, so the price hasn't come down that much yet, but I personally think they are still worth it. The sound of a spinning external hard-drive just freaks me out. Through my past experiences, spinning = crashing. I'm never going back to an external hard-drive with moving parts. I've got too many files that I care about, which reminds me - Next I want to look into making some Faraday Cages for my electronic devices. Virus protection, EMP protection.... there is so much to be prepared for.
