u/External_You9957

I've got around 30TB of data in cloud storage right now, and the monthly bill is starting to hurt.

Most of it is just media and personal files. I don't need to access all of it regularly, but I also don't really want to delete it or have it sitting in only one place.

I'm thinking about getting a NAS and moving most of it back home, then keeping another copy on some external drives somewhere else. The problem is that once you get into 30TB, even the "cheap" options start adding up pretty quickly.

For those of you with 30TB+ of data, what are you doing for backup these days?

Would you just bite the bullet and build a NAS, or is there a cheaper cloud/offsite option I'm missing? Thanks in advance!

I've been looking at upgrading my SSD lately, and I keep going back and forth between PCIe Gen 5 and Gen 4.

On paper, Gen 5 looks incredible, twice the bandwidth, crazy sequential speeds, and plenty of marketing hype. But the more benchmarks and real-world tests I read, the more it feels like Gen 4 is already fast enough for what I actually do.

I mostly game, edit a few videos, browse, and move large files occasionally. I'm not sure I'd notice the difference between a good Gen 4 drive and a much more expensive Gen 5 SSD in day-to-day use. Plus, Gen 5 drives tend to run hotter and often need larger heatsinks.

For anyone who's actually upgraded to Gen 5:

• Did you notice a real improvement?
• What workload made it worth the extra cost?
• Or would you recommend sticking with a high-end Gen 4 SSD for now?

Want to hear some real-world experiences before I spend the money.

I'm upgrading to a larger SSD, and all I really care about is moving Windows and everything on my C: drive. My D: drive is mostly games and random files that I can copy over later if I need to.

So I'm wondering... can you clone just the C: drive instead of the entire disk?

I've seen some guides that only talk about cloning the whole drive, which seems like overkill in my case. I'm also a little worried about accidentally copying partitions I don't need or running into boot issues afterward.

If you've done this before, did you clone the entire disk or just the C: partition? Was there any downside?

I'm not very technical, so I'm hoping to find the simplest way to upgrade without reinstalling Windows. If there's a cloning tool that handles this well, I'd love to hear what worked for you.

Hi all, I'm planning my first SSD clone (migrating from a 256GB SATA SSD to a 1TB NVMe), and after reading a ton of guides and posts, most people recommend either Macrium Reflect or Clonezilla. But now I'm stuck deciding between the two.

From what I gather, Macrium runs inside Windows with a graphical interface, while Clonezilla is bootable and more "old-school", but it is free and open-source. I'm a bit nervous about picking the wrong drive or messing up partition alignment.

For someone doing this for the first time, which tool feels safer and more straightforward? Are there any gotchas with either when cloning to a larger NVMe drive? Would love to hear your experiences or tips before I dive in!

Just pulled the trigger and went full SSD-only on my main rig. No HDDs left in the chassis. Zero.

My old SSD for OS + HDD for games setup worked fine, but I'd hear that spin-up whir and wait forever to load folders or games. Cloned everything to SSD last week, load times dropped, stuttering gone, and my system is noticeably quieter.

Now I'm running 1TB NVMe for OS/apps and 2TB SATA SSD for games and projects. The only HDD I have left is an external for backups.

Honestly? Should've done this sooner. Everything just feels instant now.

Anyone else gone fully SSD-only? Or are you still hybrid?

I've been looking into "not overkill" SSDs for gaming lately, and honestly, I feel like a lot of builds go way beyond what's actually needed. I mostly play stuff like Warzone, Elden Ring, and Cyberpunk 2077, and load times are already pretty solid on mid-range drives.

With SSD prices still kinda high, I don't really see the point of going top-tier Gen4 or Gen5 unless you're doing heavy workloads. Something like a decent Gen3 or entry-level Gen4 NVMe feels like the sweet spot right now.

Which SSD are you using? Are you guys actually noticing real-world gains with higher-end SSDs, or is it mostly just benchmarks?

Hey there,

I'm upgrading my PC from an old HDD to a Crucial NVMe SSD and want to clone my current drive so I can boot from the new SSD without reinstalling everything.

I've heard about Acronis True Image for Crucial drives, but I've also seen mixed reviews and I'm a little nervous about messing up my files. Has anyone used Acronis recently? Is it reliable, or is there another cloning tool you'd recommend (I've seen recommendations like DiskGenius, EaseUS Disk Copy, Macrium, and Clonezilla)?

I have a lot of games and programs installed, so I'm trying to avoid a clean install if possible. Looking for something safe and trustworthy, not some sketchy software with tons of ads.

Any advice from people who've done this upgrade would be appreciated!

I'm hoping someone here has seen this before because I'm completely stuck.

I got a 512GB Fanxiang NVMe M.2 SSD from a second-hand platform, and I installed a new SSD yesterday, but it simply refuses to show up anywhere. It's not listed in BIOS and Disk Management. I've reseated the drive multiple times, tried a different slot, swapped cables, updated the BIOS, and even tested it in another PC. Same result every time, it's like the SSD doesn't exist.

Is the drive just dead? But before I return it, I figured I'd ask here. Has anyone had an SSD that wasn't detected no matter what you tried? What ended up being the actual cause?

I've gone through a ton of posts on HDD vs SSD for long-term storage, but I still haven't found a clear answer that fits my situation.

I have 3-year-old twin daughters, and my phone is filled with photos, videos, and live photos from the day they were born until now. These files are incredibly important to my family and me, losing them isn't an option.

Right now, I'm backing everything up in multiple places: on my phone, synced to iCloud, and also stored on my PC. But I still don't feel completely safe. PCs can fail, cloud storage isn't risk-free, and I'd like an additional offline backup.

So I'm considering getting a portable HDD or SSD just for this purpose, but I'm not sure which is more reliable for long-term storage (especially if it's not accessed frequently).

Also, storage size is another concern. I already have around 200GB from the past 3 years, and that number will only grow. With current HDD/SSD prices being relatively high, would it be better to buy a larger drive now (e.g., 2TB+), or start smaller and upgrade later when prices drop?

Would really appreciate advice from anyone with experience in long-term personal data storage.