Hard drive recommendation for storing your assets?

You might want to look into a NAS. Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087Z6SNC1/ref...UTF8&psc=1

Really helpful for accessing your files over the net and backups. In windows you can map the network drive for easy access. You can also get special NAS HDD to fill it with, that spin at a higher speed, and are more geared towards running 24/7.
FYI, if you go this route, you have to buy twice the amount of data that you need, because of how it backs up. If you want to back up 2TB of data, you need Two 2TB drives.

I store all the other files (a lot of them have accumulated over 8 years.) on the HDD or in the cloud. And the files that I work with on the SSD.

I have a preference for VD hard drives, which have proven their reliability to me. I've been using different models for 7-10 years and they still work! Yes, some disks had problems when partitions fell. But I was able to recover the data using Partition Recovery. After that, I changed the problem disk to a new one.

WD is always the reliable one. It just the matter of total space you want to have

get a Seagate SSD they are really good and cheap as well

you can't go wrong with western digital hhds, but I would recommend an ssd for faster speeds

go with seagate, never had a problem w them, buy a 1tb or more if you really need it.

1tb seagate is highly recommended

It would be best to spend more and just get an ssd but if you need huge amounts of storage then I would reccomend a seagate drive.