Posted: 10/4/2006 1:13:17 PM EDT
|
Looking to buy an external HD to back-up/store data from my desktop. Looking to spend about $100+ or so. Storage capacity at least 60GB... I'm low-balling it because I'm willing to sacrifice capacity for reliability. USB 2.0 I've been reading a bunch of different product reviews on Amazon.com and nothing seems to be too terribly reliable... almost to the pint of being scary. I don't intend to use the hell out of it. Just back-up pictures, music, etc. a couple times a month at most. Recommendations? Thans in advance. |
|
newegg has several link for ease of use get one that includes one touch backup software! just remember a external hardrive is just as likely to die as your internal harddrive. backup to dvd or cd also i've actually seen alot of the electronic in this cases go bad. you have to figure out how to get the drive out. slave it to a system and then you can get your data  when i backup my data. i use nero's you can setup a scheduled backup to dvd or cd. as long as its left in the cd tray. just something else to look at |
|
for $100 I'd buy a $30-50 enclosure (could go cheaper but I wouldn't go too cheap) and wait for a 200+GB drive to go on sale for the remainder of the cash I got a 200GB SATA drive for $50 and a $50 adaptec enclosure (and if the rebate goes through it will end up costing $25) |
|
I did the enclosure thing for my mother-in-law so I could pull her old computer's HD out and move stuff to her new desktop. It worked pretty well and was easy to set-up. I tried doing the same thing with a laptop HD and enclosure and it turned out to be a nightmare. Pretty sure it ended up being the enclosure but I sent both back because I was sick of dealing with it. One of the cons of buying that crap on the net... no store to take it back to for immediate results. It was a PITA to say the least. The main reason I wanted to do that was because you don't need an A/C adapter and they're way smaller... but after that experience I'm not sure I'd do it again. I'm not sure why I'd need the one-touch back-up thing... drag and drop in Windows Explorer seems to work any other time. I don't have a DVD burner in the desktop I want to back-up. The reason I want to back it up is because it's 6+ years old and I'm hoping to ditch it soon... so no reason to put a burner in it. Plus DVD back-up is just as reliable as far as I can tell. One scratch on the disc and it's a coaster. I think optical discs are highly overrated as a back-up unless you put them in a protective case and file them away until you need them. Certain things like photos I can see using them for... but data that's constantly changing it seems easier to just put it to another HD. You have the main drive and the back-up. If one fails you have the other until the dead one is replaced... isn't that the point? |
|
Cant go wrong with WD Ive been using an 80G version of this which only ran me around 80 bucks or so. dunno why its not listed on newegg now. Ive got no complaints with the WDs passport series. fairly cheap, quiet, no external power needed, and they keep cool. I dont use mine for backup purposes, just for transferring a lot of stuff between my desktops, notebooks, and the system at work. But im sure they'll do just fine for backup purposes |
|
Seagate 250 gig drive for $59 after $20 rebate and a drive enclosure for $39.99. $100 (plus tax) and you get 250 gigs of storage space. |
250GB... pretty sweet. That enclosure looks like a modem. I bought that HD and this enclosure. I hope I didn't screw up and get one that isn't compatible with the HD. 250GB. Whoa... Well, I figure with all the music and data files on my PC will take up less than 1/3 of that space, but I can throw a bunch of stuff from back-up CD's on there and use the rest of the space to back-up stuff from my digital video camera. I've had the camera for almost a year and have yet to download any of the movies from it. Thanks guys. |
|
I used an old notebook drive and a compusa usb 2.0 enclosure($19). The benifit with notebook drives is twofold, they are smaller, and no seperate power adapter is necessary. They will run with fine with just the usb 2.0 connection. The drive did come with a power adapter which can plug into a second USB port or keyboard port for older computers or devices with underpowered USB ports, which I've only had to use once on an old computer that only had usb through an add-in card. |
I tried that and had problems so I'm just going this route. I liked the idea of the notebook drive for those reasons though. I'm going with the desktop drive because I just have this crazy idea in myhead that bigger=more stability/reliability. Complete nonsense I know... |
|
I've been using a Maxtor 80GB external HDD for a couple of years now. I only hook it up to my laptop occasionally, and use it primarly to save back up's of DVD movies. I keep a few on my laptop, and a bunch on the external HDD, then just drag and drop when I want. With the USB 2.0, a 4 GB movie transfers in about 3 minutes. 
|
| That's the other reason I decided to go with that 250GB. I don't always get to burn the DVD right away... plus having it on there is nice for when the copy starts getting all scratched up... which is pretty quick qith a kid who wants to put them in the player himself. |
|
I'll add an affirm for the WD MyBook line. I've got two of them now at work. One of them gets swapped between WinXP Pro, Win2k Server, and an Ubuntu server as needed using USB. The other sits beside a Mac Mini on Firewire, and it even sleeps when the mini does. I may have to get more. Alpine |
cool. I'm at 19% formatted. Thans mang. This thing's fricin huge. I'm gonna be bacing shit up like mad. I've been dreading a crash on both my desktop and laptop.... they're both due. Plus I have been wanting to back up my iPod just in case for some reason it dumps all my music... because the majority of it isn't on my HD. 250GB.. I figure I'll actually start putting a serious dent in it by starting bac up on copying Netflix movies. Speaing of which... slightly off topic but do you need a DVD BURNER to copy DVD files? I have a burner on my laptop but only a reader on my desktop. |
Yes, you need to partition and format it. I think you can do that in Win XP by right clicking on My Computer, go to "Management", look in the drive section. Should see an unallocated drive in there. Allocate it as you wish (one big drive, multiple small drives, whatever). Then format it/them. Jim |