A few weeks ago I got an email telling me that my password had been changed by someone on my poloniex account. So, I suppose therefore my account was hacked. Immediately I went to freeze the account and changed my password. But the thing is, I don't want to risk that happen again with a large amount stored in the exchange.
Where would be the best place to keep my BTC while I'm not trading with it in an exchange? I don't feel as if storing it on my own hard drive is very secure as hard drives can fail, and what can you do if that happens..?
i guess allmost *any* wallet is more secure than either an online wallet or an exchange wallet. If you don't controll your own private keys, you don't controll your funds...
Here's a list of wallets to chose from:
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-walletAs for your concern about the durability of your hard drive: if you have a HD wallet (like 90% of the desktop and hardware wallets available), you can write down the recovery seed on a piece of paper, laminate it and store it in a safe place... Otherwise you have to take regular backups of your wallet file.
Just make sure your PC is clean, use a strong password to secure your wallet file and have a backup of your seed phrase or wallet file...
Offcourse, if you hold a lot of BTC, you should go for a hardware wallet, a properly generated paper wallet or an airgapped desktop wallet instead of a regular desktop wallet.