Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1v9bteh/newbie_question_can_a_file_randomly_get_corrupted/

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The original was posted on /r/datahoarder by /u/AsparagusNew3765 on 2026-07-28 21:28:55+00:00.

I have about 10,000 files in my backup folder (mostly family photos and videos but also many important files like spreadsheets, .txt files etc) and I backup these files onto multiple hard disks. put them all into single large encrypted container and then backup this on multiple hard disks. Is it possible that a file can just randomly get corrupted? And if so how would I even know? Could I be overwriting a good version of a file say from 6 months ago with a bad one?

My fear is that a file goes "bad" (e.g. an important spreadsheet), and I don't open that spreadsheet for a period of time (e.g. 6 months) and then by the time I've noticed the file is bad, I've already overwritten the backups for it from when it was good.