External hard drives

[troy]

I'm in the market for an external drive but have never really tried one before. Looking at various outlets, there are cheap and really expensive one's of various capacities of gb's and was wondering if some one has had experiances with them or could suggest one make over another etc.

I will be using it to store thousands of photo's I have littered around on disc's, plus college work and to back up my C drive.

cheers

Paul

[quadrary]

I use hard drives for all my back up and excess storage but there is a usb connection that you can find at computer stores that will allow you to use any regular inter hard drive as an external. I just plug one up tranfer to it and then return it to its anti static bag and put it on the shelf. This is the cheapest and fastest way i have found. I hope this helps, just works well for me.

[TwinOaks]

At the rate of data compression advancements, no matter what you get will be obselete in a month. When I first got this laptop, I picked up a MASSIVE 1 G flash drive for right at $80. 3 years later, you can't even find 1G flash drives. Seagate has been working pretty good for me for an external drive, but last year's price would buy twice as much this year. Since prices are so fantastic for the drive size, consider buying enough to do everything. A 1TB drive is unbelievably huge (and prices are falling). It would allow you to back up files......well, forever.

You could also clone your HDD (several times) to it, OS and all. That pretty much gives you a device that you can use as an archive, back-up, and replacement computer.....just plug it into a machine that's set to boot from USB and you'd be working from your[/] computer. Or you could use it to re-clone your HDD to a new HDD if you need to upgrade or repair the current computer.

[Art]

Hi Paul,

Back in the early '90s, Seagate came out with the 74MB SCSI drive. I think it cost around $800 then. We thought it was huge and we all wondered what would we ever do with all that disk space. If I put every piece of software I had on that drive, I still couldn't fill it up. Needless to say, I would have a hard time just getting the operating system on it today.

1TB is a good match today, but if you really have a lot of stuff, 2 TB might not be a stretch.

The WD MyBook series of drives fills the boat for an external data store. The consumer products (500GB, 1TB, 2TB) aren't blazingly fast running through a USB pipe, but then it IS a warehouse, where you store things, not work on them constantly. Western Digital makes other products in that lineup with Firewire and eSata capability for faster access.

I think 1TB goes at around $105-$140 and 2TB under $200. I wouldn't even bother with the 500GB.

I have a coupe of these (WDs) and a Maxtor OneTouch (Seagate) on my home computers and haven't had any problems with any of them.

Art

[TwinOaks]

Art, I've still got the Compaq desktop computer I got back in '92. I was "Da Man" at school, because I had a 172MB HDD and a 56K modem!!!

ahh, I miss windows 3.1............................

[Johanna]

If you back up to an external hard drive, unplug it when you are done and store it AWAY from the computer. A fireproof box, your mom's house, the office. If there is a fire, you'll feel stupid losing your computer and all your back ups.

I just got my mom a 750Gig ex hd for $50 from Tiger Direct. It's easy to use the software that came with it, or just copy files through Windows Explorer.

If the thought of losing your stuff makes you feel sick to your stomach, buy an external hard drive. I can't count how many times people have brought me dead computers with their precious pics and docs never ever backed up and gone for good.

Johanna

[Vikti]

I saw a usb docking station for internal SATA hard drives and I believe it's hot swappable. You might want to give that a try. Here it is.

Damon

[King's X]

My .02 cents worth. Stay away from Maxtor (now owned by seagate). I had a 500mb external HD and one day it just stopped working! I sent it to a recovery specialist whom I trust (longtime friend) and he said the power unit was not working. When I asked for the information/pictures/etc to be salvaged, I was quoted by Seagate $2000 with no promises. Forget it. At least, I had the pictures back up on CD when the kids were babies. The other stuff, oh well.

My friend Tim recommended a Western Digital. I bought a network WD 1TB for the household is that used to storage everything but is not used live on any computer. Digital storage only. Keep backups of your back ups.

Good luck.

[quadrary]

I'm in the market for an external drive but have never really tried one before. Looking at various outlets, there are cheap and really expensive one's of various capacities of gb's and was wondering if some one has had experiances with them or could suggest one make over another etc.

I will be using it to store thousands of photo's I have littered around on disc's, plus college work and to back up my C drive.

cheers

Paul

I use one of these and love it. you can connect any internal hard drive to it outside the case through the usb bus. its fast cheap and lets you buy a cheaper internal drive and use it as an external.http://www.xpcgear.com/usbdsc5.html

[troy]

Thanks for everybodies imput - must admit that apart from the disc I mentioned I have never thought of using the windows back-up software which would come in handy on an external drive - I was more looking at a 150gb drive but going by what you all say that would be considered under what I'd proabaly be best using.

I am just guessing, but just like when you re-open doc's in windows then save again, will all data/doc's etc that I re-sent to the hard drive (that has been altered)be automatically updated or will I (like on cd/r disc) have to save it as a seperate copy/file?

Also, and I only ask as some of you seem really up on computer stuff, I have been given a short report to do (part of the multimedia course I,m doing)to discuss backup strategys of a company - most like on-line systems and archival I know some about but what is meant by 'bulk-transfer systems' is it any thing to do with zip's or more to do with how all the files/data etc is collectivly sent?

cheers for any answers.

[UKRay]

Thanks for everybodies imput - must admit that apart from the disc I mentioned I have never thought of using the windows back-up software which would come in handy on an external drive - I was more looking at a 150gb drive but going by what you all say that would be considered under what I'd proabaly be best using.

I am just guessing, but just like when you re-open doc's in windows then save again, will all data/doc's etc that I re-sent to the hard drive (that has been altered)be automatically updated or will I (like on cd/r disc) have to save it as a seperate copy/file?

Also, and I only ask as some of you seem really up on computer stuff, I have been given a short report to do (part of the multimedia course I,m doing)to discuss backup strategys of a company - most like on-line systems and archival I know some about but what is meant by 'bulk-transfer systems' is it any thing to do with zip's or more to do with how all the files/data etc is collectivly sent?

cheers for any answers.

Paul,

I've just purchased a stonking great Western Digital Passport Drive to use with my aging laptop and can thoroughly endorse them. Great design. Really robust and nice to work with. I'm going to buy another very soon as a back-up drive.

Ray

[$$hobby]

I'm in the market for an external drive but have never really tried one before. Looking at various outlets, there are cheap and really expensive one's of various capacities of gb's and was wondering if some one has had experiances with them or could suggest one make over another etc.

I will be using it to store thousands of photo's I have littered around on disc's, plus college work and to back up my C drive.

cheers

Paul

you can compress your data files, but be aware that sometimes, things can go wrong during the compression and will affect the data. i dont compress my data files so i dont have any direct experience with data compression other then trying to xfere data from one PC to the next. i have had some data compression failures from these xfers and that is why i say it. you may have different sw and the sw may have improved since then. but i just dont do it.

depending on the total size of the files needed to be bu, you maybe able to burn them onto DVDs as data files. i ve been using them since they are fairly inexpensive and take up little physical space. you can go the external HD route as you inquired. you can buy them or build them. it all depends on what you want to do. I see used HDs on craigslist along with complete used external HDs for sale. if you have any used PC retailers in your area you can look for used HD/ext HDs there too. we have a place that takes old PCs and such for recycling and they have a store where they sell some of the parts and PCs that work. they maynot be the newest stuf, but they work. you can buy an used internal HD and buy a external case for it. usually the cases are < $50 w/PS and such. you just install the HD and plug in the power connecters and such and youre ready to go.

ive had bad luck with Western Digital HDs so i try to stay away from them. they made a bad batch, i had the unfortunate luck to get them in my PC and Mac units. whats the chances of that?

if your PC has USB2 on it or the latest/fast bus, i would try to find a HD/Ext HD with it.

as far as doing a bu on C:\ i think its a waste of storage space. you should have your apps sw and worst case, you would have to reinstall your OS/Apps.

Edited September 14, 2009 by $$hobby

[Johanna]

DVDs are not recommended for long term storage. Neither are CDs. A hard drive is the most dependable back up.

With the size and affordability of today's hard drives, compressing files is not generally needed.

If you are considering leaving the external hard drive plugged all the time, it's cheaper to buy a second internal hard drive. Then you just synch your files (overwrite).

It is a waste of time to back up your "C" drive (Windows operating system folders and installed programs. In the event of a crash, you can't use it. There is software that will allow you to clone your system like Acronis and Norton Ghost for an emergency restore. Be aware that on many computers your "My Docs" folder is on C by default. You want that folder- it's where Windows puts your pics, music, downloads etc by default. Don't forget to back up your address book and your bookmarks.

There are online services like www.mozy.com that you may also want to investigate, depending on the sensitivity of your data. Putting family pics in the cloud is harmless- but you may not want to upload your office bookkeeping there.

Johanna

[mooshi]

Since I am a Photographer, Videographer, and a hard core computer nerd as well, I use a Maxtor Central Axis NAS drive. The one I have is 1 TB and networks all my systems at home via wireless network and connects right to my router!

Mooshi

[UKRay]

Since I am a Photographer, Videographer, and a hard core computer nerd as well, I use a Maxtor Central Axis NAS drive. The one I have is 1 TB and networks all my systems at home via wireless network and connects right to my router!

Mooshi

Hey Mooshi, when you get a minute can you drop round and fix my system up like that? LOL

Ray

[Jordan]

I had a couple of old broken-down laptops laying around so I went to a computer shop and bought a couple of those aluminium cases with the usb cable hookups for about $8 bucks each, took the drives out, installed them and recycled the rest. They work great.