3rd external hard drive in 2 years just died
my external hard drives do get a lot of use, are carried around a lot, etc
I have everything backed up to dropbox as well but its easier to access my files from a hard drive when I can just plug in (for example, to edit old pictures) as opposed to having to download from dropbox
so - do I just order another one or is there a better solution?
Dropbox isn't backup, it's a sync solution.
If your computer gets a virus, Dropbox will be glad to spread to other computers for you.
If you mistakenly delete a file on one computer, Dropbox will gladly delete it off all linked computers.
Backup software will backup all files spread through a computer, Dropbox needs all files placed into it's directory.
And so on...