Warning: My external hard drive died in a coffee shop in Chiang Mai last Thursday

I was halfway through editing a client's project when my portable drive just stopped spinning. No click, no warning, just a sad blinking light. Turns out the humidity here (it's been raining every afternoon for two weeks) probably got to it. I panicked for a solid hour before realizing I had backed up the key files to Google Drive three days earlier. Lost about four hours of work, but could have been way worse. Anyone else switch to an automatic cloud backup schedule after a scare like this? I'm thinking of setting mine to run every single night now.

3 comments

3 Comments

wilson.joseph1mo ago

Did you have the drive in a bag or just sitting out on the table? The humidity in Chiang Mai this time of year is brutal for electronics. I started doing nightly backups after losing a drive in Bali a few years ago and it's saved me more than once.

the_thea1mo ago

What's the point of backups if you're just gonna kill the drive with humidity anyway?

nathan9011mo ago

I started keeping desiccant packs inside the pelican case where I store my drives, and it helped a ton. Also switched to a small airtight box with a rubber seal for the one I use daily, not perfect but way better than leaving it out. The backup drive stays in a bag with silica gel and I swap the packs out every few months when they change color.