Here's the facts. SSD's that most computers come with for storage now work well with computers as you use the computer regularly and the SSD gets power on on a regular basis. But an SSD stores information the same way as a USB flash drive and is not reliable for long term storage unpowered as these devices store information electrically by digital codes 1s and 0s and the electrical charge that created the stored information will loose the charge gradually over time if not powered periodically. And your back ups of all your station playlists, programs, OTR's jingles irreplaceable pictures etc etc...you want to be there when you need to access your stored material when you pull out the external drive somewhere down the road. A broadcast computer dies and you get a new one and you go to your SSD stored back up of your stuff to find it gone or corrupted and useless!
The solution to this is the old fashion way...ANALOG! Yes that's right, you need devices that store by magnetism like magnetic tape does. Not digital. For long term reliable storage you need an external hard drive(HDD) or DVD's which also do it magnetically. Since DVDs are not practical for thousands and 10s of thousands of files in folders, and you'd need stacks of them hard drives are the answer. They come in 500GB up to 5TB of storage and hard drives don't need power to maintain the stored info. They are small and best for long term storage, just don't drop them on the hard floor. And any computer service place can recover what is on there in the unlikely event one stops working. You will never loose your stuff.
The only way to use SSD's for long term storage is every few months connect it to a computer, open and close each folder and leave it connected for half an hour, then put it away again and this revives the charge that keeps your back up files
I have now got all my stuff on a 1TB external HDD and the SSD is the second back up that is disposable if it looses files or doesn't work. 1TB is way overkill for me but you can't get them in less than that in any brand name like Sandisk, WD, Toshiba etc.
This reminds me to turn on my back up computers just to power the SSD storage just for a few minutes and put them away again.
