Internal HDD or SSD for storing backups

SSDs are more reliable than HDDs now, but with both types there's always the possibility of a dud (and the super-cheap random-name SSD brands are obviously going to be lower quality). Install monitoring tools (manufacturers or something like Crystal DiskInfo) and check the status once in a while and you can head off many problems.

You should use an external drive for backups, so that you can unplug the drive and run in an emergency. A backup that's inside the device that might fail isn't a great backup, but it depends on what you really require. A mechanical drive is perfectly fine for backups, especially at low volume like a couple of terabytes. A SATA SSD is great for making the backups quickly (internal or external will be about equally fast if using USB3+), but if you don't care about how long it takes, then it's not a big deal. But an SSD is not a lot higher in price to a mechanical drive now, at the lower sizes. If you needed 4TB and up then the cost starts to become an issue, and the really big sizes just don't exist for consumer SSDs.

Yup. An internal drive is only sort of a backup. Yes, it can be a second copy of a file but ultimately you miss out on a lot of the actual features of a real backup drive. Ideally, you want at least 2 external drives in rotation so if either fails, you have another to fall back on. Or if one is stolen or whatever you still have an option. Ideally you want to take one off site at some point to cover potential loss from fire or other large scale problem.

stodge said:

My WD 1Tb SSD failed, but I think the laptop it was on was powered down for a few weeks. I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

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SSDs do have an issue with data that sits unpowered (bit rot, where the charge in the cells leaks out), but it's in the range of 5 to 10 years, not a few weeks, unless there's a defect or it's in an extreme environment. (And that can be a single-unit defect or an overall design defect, but that type of design failure hasn't happened for many years.)

Duplicating the data to multiple internal drives is kind of putting a lot of effort and cost in that doesn't gain much. The main drive and one internal copy is plenty, and an external drive copy is your savior copy. There's really no point at all in having a third internal drive.

A Western Digital USB drive would be my recommendation. "My Passport" models are reliable and have good performance and include password protection/encryption if you wanted to use it. They also include backup software. Elements portable are almost the same drive and usually but not always cheaper. I stopped touching Seagate drives years ago, and Toshiba just doesn't have anything to make me use or not use them. I'm afraid to use any of the no-name brands on Amazon.

I'd also personally recommend just setting up a backup application to perform backups nightly to the USB drive. There's really no point to doing a lot of manual copying or setting up apps that only sync certain files. Just use a backup app that does a full image-based backup and if your main drive fails you can quickly restore and be back to where you were, rather than having to reinstall a bunch of stuff. I like Macrium Reflect but they stopped making their free version (though the last one still works if you can find it), and there are several others that all work fine. With 250GB of used space on my system, for the volumes I back up, a 500GB external SSD gives me enough space for a 2 full backups and 1 week of differentials before it wipes the oldest one. Syncing to Google Drive for particular folders provides offsite protection of the essential data. I wouldn't even consider having even one additional internal drive for making copies of files, let alone two.

stodge said:

Thanks again. I'm going to use something to automatically backup files nightly, so no manual work involved once it's setup.

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Still, more work than just plugging it in and clicking "back up my computer to this drive" in an application. If nothing else, it's extra effort to make sure that you are always backing up the right folders, you're saving things in the right location, adding folders to the list if an application decides to put things somewhere else. (I have multiple extra partitions and a second drive for performance and management because I've never been able to get past the old days of having to do that and just accept the new way of dumping things into one drive and letting Windows handle it all and letting apps do whatever they want. But only specific things go in those extra places, which don't get backed up, and the C and D drive are totally backed up.)