I hate to alarm you, but you might be living an inch from disaster. No, not in the way that we all are with the nukes and the wildfires and the expensive Nintendos and the murder hornets. I mean you personally. You, right there, reading this. There’s an easy way to tell.

It all hinges on how you answer this question: “How many backups of your files do you have, and how often do you back them up?” If the answer is less than “three” and “often,” then you’re in danger, my friend. Files have a way of disappearing.

The Samsung T9 external solid state drive is what I use to backup my files every week, and the 2TB version is on sale for $170.

a near-perfect drive

It’s fast, it’s small, and I’ve yet to kill one through neglect, idiocy, or by possessing what the medical experts call Fumblefingers. Out of a smattering of hard drives, new and old, the Samsung T9 is what forms the core of my backup system.

Solid state drives (SSDs) are generally quicker than hard drive disks (HDDs) and more resistant to rough handling because they have fewer moving parts. “Rough” is a relative term, and if you expect to expose one to dust, water splashes, or drops, then consider a ruggedized SSD instead.

There’s no separate power brick to plug into the wall of this portable external drive. Just connect it to your device via the included USB-C-to-USB-C cable, and it’ll both transfer data through that connection and run the SSD.

That’s been more of a bonus for me than it seems on first read. Larger drives, usually HDDs, require their own power adapter. When backing up files becomes too much of a pain, it tends to just not happen.

Take advantage of this deal and start backing up your files ASAP. Losing an expensive piece of hardware sucks, but it can be replaced with a perfect clone. The files on it, though? You can’t replace those. Unless you have a backup.