External Drives

[RichA]

I am keen to get an external drive so that I can back up all my data.
(A recent data loss has increased my motivation).

What are the pros/cons of:

Mains powered drives
e.g. WESTERN DIGITAL Essential 80 Gb USB 2.0 external hard drive [£58]
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/99714/art/western-digital/essential-80-go-usb-2-0-e.html

v

USB powered (portable) drives
e.g. MEMUP Kwest 80 GB 3.5" USB 2.0 Alu case [£55]
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/168838/art/memup/kwest-80-gb-3-5-usb-2-0-a.html

Would reliability or speed of transfer be affected.

Portability is the only obvious difference?

Thanks
RichA

 

[JohnD]

If you have a 5-inch bay spare on the outside of your PC case, you can get a disk caddy. This is like a slide-out removable drawer, that you put an ordinary 3-inch disk drive into, but you can slide it out and put it in your fire-safe (!) after doing the backup.

BTW, if you backup to CDs, don't leave them in the house or office where they will get destroyed by the same fire that destroys your PC - just put them in the boot of the car.

 

[RichA]

Is an internal drive (in a caddy) more efficient than an external drive?

I also have two main reservations:
~ It is probably not any cheaper, once I have purchased drive + caddy
~ It is less flexible. I might get a laptop for my next system and wouldn't be able to use it with this?

Thanks,
RichA

 

[andyboyo]

dont let a laptop purchase stop you, you can get a 2.5" (laptop HD Size) to 3.5" (PC HD size) converter in Maplin Electronics for £9.99 .

the swappable components on a laptop HDD, RAM, Battery and the Processor are all easily assessable from the bottom of the laptop, my laptop for eg. has a quick release for the HD!

.....Mate buying computers and components and pheripherals is purely down to Personal Preferance!

if it just backing up the pc at home go for the more cost effective solution , burn it to a CD or DVD stash a copy in work up your mums etc !

if youre moving relativly small files around get a USB pen!

If your Video/Graphics editing or gaming on one machine get another internal!

if your Video/Graphics editing or gaming between machines get an external.

Theres no point buying the biggest and best, if your not going to use it to its full potential.

 

[Moz]

RichA
I have an 80 Gb USB 2.0 external hard drive ,its great , I have backed everything up on it an its very easy to plug in an use an compact to carry around too...

 

[RichA]

That is what I have opted for.

It has now arrived and been installed.

Great too.

 

[eggplant]

ok, I say this many, many times: DO NOT RELY ON A HARD DRIVE FOR A BACKUP.
couple of main reasons: a hard drive is mechanical and can fail at any time, it is very fragile and can be damaged easily, it can be wiped (ok there are ways back) very easily by mistake, things can be deleted from a "backup" by mistake.
Ok, if you are backing up your music collection or whatever once in a while, then fine, bang it all onto another drive, but PLEASE dont use a hard disk as a backup for anything ultra important - such as your company accounts.

 

[JohnD]

The other funny thing about a backup hard drive, is that when your PC is destroyed by fire, or virus, or stolen, the backup hard disk will go at the same time as the production one.

I take my regular backup CD's to someone else's house, though I do use a backup hard drive for daily data copies.

I always suggest the following low-cost offsite data storage method to people running small businesses:

Each day, do a backup (preferably incremental) to CD and post it to yourself second class.

Then, the day after your office burns down, as you're raking through the wreckage, along will come postie with all your lovely data. There's no cheaper process.

 

[fathertobe]

Each day, do a backup (preferably incremental) to CD and post it to yourself second class.

And eventually you'll be spending so long doing this that you won't have time to do anything on your computer and hence won't need to back up!