Hey to All!

As a method for storing/backing up data, i.e., JPGs, MPGs, MP3s, etc...What, if any, is the difference, quality wise, between a FLASH DRIVE and an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE? e.g. longevity, does either allow for deterioration of the stored datea etc...
Any replies will be Very Much Appreciated. Best! 

An external drive will give you much more storage for your $$$. It will probably last about the same time.

I would only use it as a backup and not your only copy - both flash drives & external drives can fail at any time.

1000  , autechre! K, too!

I backup all videos to Blu-ray discs. It's very cheep, around $0.40 for 25GB.

Many  Polchak! K to you, sir!

If you worry about detoriation run your drives as a raid.

Flash storage is pretty pricey for the amount of storage you get.  If you have an old computer lying around you could install a few old hard drives in there and set it up as a NAS file server.  There're solutions like FreeNAS that let you configure it for free, plus a setup like that has a lot of redundancy.  If you set it up as RAID 1 every file you upload to the NAS is duplicated so if one of the hard drives ever crashes all you have to do is swap in a new one and the data is restored.  They have purpose built NAS servers but this is probably the most economical solution.  You can configure for speed and backup too, but if it's just for backup RAID 1 works fine.  I'm pretty sure you can also set up your computer to automatically backup files to the NAS if you want too as well.

  AND Spacemonkey, for your time & info! K will be posted 4 U.

If you worry about detoriation run your drives as a raid.

  and K 2 U, Tiberius!

I havent had a drive fail on me yet. Drives going bad is usually the realm of servers who have them going like crazy 24/7. However a few sectors here and there could fail over time and you are bound to lose capacity. Thats true for SSds and Hard drives. For peace of mind get a drive of the same capacity and a software to perform regular backups.

  Tiberius! 'preciate it! k

Any recommendations for a good raid/raid like? Drobo?

Any recommendations for a good raid/raid like? Drobo?

Drobo's are apparently quite good, but slow.

I have a few Synology NAS' and they are great. Good interface, reasonably quick & easy to use.

I'm running a Synology DS412 with a few WD Red hard drives that I also have hooked up to a backup UPS.  Been running strong for a good several years now.

What about clouds? Has anybody tried that method?