@ricky "Amen" to all the advice you passed along, and the Satanic references!.
To drive the point home (clears his throat)... "ALL DRIVES EVENTUALLY FAIL."
And as keeping a lot of TB of your desktop computer drive will slow it down, alternative choices include "the cloud," and twin external hard drives.
Per other threads, some clouds actually scan your uploads for, um, "inappropriate images." So, if you haven't actually seen all the pics in the huge file you just unzipped, an element of risk exists. I believe another member mentioned a cloud that promised complete privacy, but I don't recall the name, sorry.
Your post about 8TB of endangered content struck home, as I just bought two 8TB externals yesterday. I now have six 8TB externals -- twins to back-up my erotica, TV, and films. While this is genuinely expensive, I feel (especially for the films) that I'm collecting great and often obscure movies, in high definition, that I can pass along to two friends if I croak.
If you go with externals, hopefully you can get by with one twin set of 8TBs. It would run you over $200, but when you think of the time you've spent collecting exactly what you want, consider it a gift to yourself.
And you may get other suggestions here for alternatives. But as Ricky preached, get your 8TB of material off your failing drive NOW, and into or onto something new. Good luck!
