Posted on 01/02/2011 11:11:07 AM PST by Don@VB
I need the external HD for back up. My internal hard drive is 120 GB and I have never used half. Also, Can I back up 2 computers (about same size) with one external HD? Do they come with an and auto backup feature. Any brand recommendations or advice always appreciated.
I have 19 production sites that I have built. I am not a rich man but have become valuable. I have everything backed locally. There is now way this information leaves the thousands that it employs.
I use My Books by WD and they have saved my bacon! I am on Macs so I use the SuperDuper program to back up automatically with. It is far better than Apple’s Time Machine. But the My Books come in all sizes for PCs and Macs.
I got a WD MyBook 2TB external. Excellent device.
Tomorrow, I’ll be getting 4 more TB internals for a total of 7TB of storage.
I have a lot of games and movies on my PC.
I use a Transcend StoreJet Elite. It’s 500 GB, and automatically updates / synchronizes with any computer.
It’s great for saving all the stuff I put on my desktop and laptop.
It’ll fit in your pocket, and it doesn’t cost much.
Works for me!
Just picked up a 2tb Seagate external drive at Fry’s for $84.00. Don’t know if it’s still on sale, I got it Thursday.
It’s not the best or fastest, but byte for byte it’s a good deal.
Lots of info .....
I've heard that before, but why would that be? I have had a Western Digital sitting next to my computer for years, loaded with all my MP3s. It just sits there. Why would it "fail"? Anyway, I also back up all my MP3 data (and anything else I want to make sure I never lose) on data CDs.
The 2.5 inch drives are no different than the 3.5 inch drive except that the enclosure is smaller and the drive can be spun by the juice provided by the USB cable.
You might be interested in this software once you get your external drive. It makes an image of your drive and has a nice recovery program you can burn to CD should you ever have a hard drive failure and need to load the image back onto a new hard drive. You can get the free edition here:
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
If you use Maxtor, don't use their software. I used one for backup and had my main drive fail. The Maxtor back up was compressed and required the replacement main drive to have the exact original directory structure created before files could be restored.
bttt
bttt
I’ve heard that before, but why would that be? I have had a Western Digital sitting next to my computer for years, loaded with all my MP3s. It just sits there. Why would it “fail”?
But your backup plan seems good.
Don’t consider anything but Western Digital and Seagate, and really, just consider Western Digital. I’ve been having and seeing way too many failures in the last few years with Seagates.
Get the WD Passport Elements. The Passport uses a laptop drive, and therefore does not require external power,
Remember, nothing but an Elements, as just about everything else (like Essentials for example) does not appear to the computer as an actual hard drive, but requires special WD software running at all times on every computer to be backed up and the Essential device can be accessed only through that software. Overall, a truly horrible idea. (BTW, I took a part an Essentials yesterday, thinking I could at least extract a usable HD from it, but lo and behold, the HD did not have either a SATA or ATA/IDE interface, but instead some weirdo-interface, so even the HD inside one of these POS Essentials is useless.)
I really like a little piece of free software called Cobian 9, which is really just a glorified copier that you set up a with a list of folders to back up and where to back them up to. There are newer versions of Cobian, but I suspect that they are bloatware.
You shouldn’t have any trouble buying from Amazon (non-affliate), newegg, or BestBuy (retail or online).
I’m rather stunned to actually see someone actually recommend a WD HDD for quality.
The HDD business is very competitive and highly commoditized, so no supplier can truly be bad and succeed, but I’ll just say, as an engineer who has worked in the industry 10 years, I find recommending WD over Seagate/Hitachi/Toshiba/Samsung for quality somewhat humorous.
You do realize that Maxtor was bought out by Seagate and no longer exists as a brand, right?
I reckon.....
You bought one of the last Maxtors then. Seagate bought them out and have since discontinued the brand. The last ones were reputed to not be the finest quality either... suggestions were made that parent company profited by shipping their older/lesser quality inventory out as Maxtors.
“but I’ll just say, as an engineer who has worked in the industry 10 years, I find recommending WD over Seagate/Hitachi/Toshiba/Samsung for quality somewhat humorous.”
Indeed. Many years ago, WD were complete junk and Seagate and Hitachi were the tops in terms of reliability. But right now, I’m finding WD is the best. I’ve had nothing but trouble from Seagate for the last 4 years, and would not consider buying one.
Maybe things will change again. I do not understand why HD makers cycle from good to bad or bad to good. Probably management changes at the top emphasizing quantity/profit over quality or vice versa.
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