4 files to never store on a hard drive

Reformatting your hard drive or having it suddenly die is pretty horrible. You can lose the most important documents in just a few seconds, especially if you haven’t backed up your desktop in a while. All of your essential items should be prioritized for storage and backup, but you should also consider separating any suspicious, dangerous, or exploitable items into another physical storage solution. Additionally, vulnerable executables are sometimes banned because they can compromise your file security and even disk performance.

In general, you want to prioritize focusing your hard drive on documents, photos, and some videos. So you need to decide what is worth staying on your hard drive and what is worth storing in the cloud, because some file types should not be kept in the cloud either. Normally, it comes down to privacy, which might ruin you if you accidentally lose them forever, and the general technical reliability of your long-term storage solution. But if you’re ever worried about losing something permanently, the 3-2-1 rule for handling digital backups is usually pretty foolproof.

Anything business or work related (unless authorized) should not be stored on a personal hard drive. This is because it can create legal problems if the company no longer employs you and you still own the intellectual property on your computer. Usually, this is not something you should worry about too often, as most companies have a controlled process for maintaining digitized intellectual property files and a very clear policy for their handling.

But if you’re ever unsure about work-sensitive files that are saved on a local, personal hard drive, it’s best to delete them in order to avoid any legal consequences that might arise if you had them, or for some reason they ended up in the wrong hands (like, say, someone got their hands on your external hard drive and it was stored there). But if you’re not sure, just ask yourself: “Does this file belong to you or does it belong to someone else (like your work)?” and if it is the latter case, do not leave it in a cold room.

Live files, such as project data files, are active files that are edited, used, and managed collaboratively over time. Examples of active files or active documents may include Excel, Google Sheets, and CAD. There are three main reasons not to store active files on your hard drive:

Hard drives can offer slower latency and save and load times, which can make the experience really slow and awkward. If you need to set up collaboration with these specific documents, leaving it saved locally can lead to trickier situations, as you’ll either need to set up something more portable, like swapping out a physical external hard drive, or consider using a network sharing solution. Either way, there are downsides to this, so it’s better to keep these files synced in the cloud rather than just keeping them stored on the hard drive, as some secure cloud storage solutions, like Proton, already offer built-in online file sharing.

Finally, long-term degradation. Every time you access and save a file to the hard drive, you generate heat (due to the rotating interior platters inside). Since these files are usually not checked in until the end, you will have to constantly overwrite the current version to keep the file up to date. This has the added effect of potentially producing multiple copies of the file with dated stamps, which can sometimes mess up the workflow if you accidentally mix them up. So, in summary, it’s just not practical to leave frequently accessed or updated files stored on a hard drive.

Applications, such as your games, don’t need to be stored on your primary hard drive (the one that acts as cold storage). They take up a lot of space and sometimes make it more difficult to back up your most crucial files due to storage constraints and the time it takes to back everything up properly. It then becomes much easier to simply re-download these apps from the manufacturer or developer’s website, or from the Microsoft Store or Mac App Store.

Additionally, if you’re playing a game that requires a lot of loading, such as an MMORPG like “Final Fantasy Overall, it’s best to separate frequently used updated applications on an SSD if possible to avoid technical issues related to a slow hard drive.

If you have the choice between an internal SSD and an HDD for your operating system, you should always put it on the SSD. Placing the operating system on your hard drive could be a problem because hard drives are unfortunately slower and can hamper your PC’s performance. So system applications on an SSD load faster and open almost instantly, and files stored on the operating system can also be accessed faster. Additionally, one of the inherent weaknesses of hard drives is their durability.

This is because they store data differently, with SSDs using flash memory and hard drives using magnetic disks. So hard drives use moving parts to store and access data, and if they are dropped, bumped, or impacted incorrectly, you can essentially damage them. Ideally, something very important, like your operating system, shouldn’t be stored on the hard drive if you can help it; not only is its functional performance worse while running it, but you may also accidentally lose the data in it (data loss or corruption can really mess up your system).