External hard drives?

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited April 2008 in Hardware
I'm thinking of getting an external hard drive to back up all my important files, which are mostly videos, as well as all 150 (currently) episodes of my webshow, "Online Video" at www.loudmouthtim.com .

Since I've had only good luck with Seagate hard drives, I looked at their website, and they have a Free Agent model external drive available in 250, 320, 500, and 750 GB sizes. I think a 320 would be good for me.

Has anyone ever used these external drives for data backup, and / or do you have any particular thoughts on them?

From what I've read, external drives using laptop hard drives are fragile, models using 3.5 inch desktop drives are much more durable. Right / wrong?

Comments

  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    If your files are that important to you, I'd go with an external drive that can do raid. I know Western Digital has one. They also sell external enclosures (which are also NAS) that can do raid and all you need to do is add the drives.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited April 2008
    I dont think the externals are using 2.5" laptop hard drives. I havent been looking but I dont think you can get 750gb in a laptop right now.

    I'm pretty sure they are just desktop hard drives in a cage with a USB/firewire adaptor attached the the ATA/SATA connection.

    If the external was much more than the comparable internal I would just buy the interal drive and take it out of my case/unplug the power cable and use the internal HDD as backup drive. That would require rebooting your PC though as well though.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    Tim, unless the external kits are less expensive, why not just get an enclosure and the drive of your choice to go in it? Just buy them separately.
    Has anyone ever used these external drives for data backup, and / or do you have any particular thoughts on them?
    This has been my backup method for years. I've been preaching this form of security to any and all who will listen for the same amount of time. I use my external backup as backup only. If not employed in backing up or restoring data, the drive is turned off and unplugged. The only time I've ever bought a pre-made kit was when a store was having a special that made the "external drive" less expensive than the same drive plus enclosure purchased separately. If you buy a pre-assembled kit, get the name brand of the hard drive you prefer. Some of the off-brand enclosures may have very low performance drives. E-SATA seems to be pretty hot right. My external drive has e-SATA but I just use USB (2.0) out of convenience, as I move the drive around to different computers. Don't bother with Firewire. Yeah, yeah, "but the sustained...speed...faster." It's such a minor difference it's not worth the price over USB.

    Before you buy, determine what type of backup regimen you will use. Do you want automatic, incremental, unattended, manual? Look at reviews of the drives that interest you. Some have great software; others crap. I just use Acronis and perform manual incremental backups. Once every month or so I perform full backups. Acronis will also make hard drive clones, which can be really nice on some occasions.

    Do a bit of online shopping for sure. Sometimes high quality Western Digital or Seagate external drives (the whole kit plus software preloaded) is less expensive than buying the components separately. In stores though, like Office Depot, the prices are set for ignorant suckers (business shoppers).
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    If your files are that important to you, I'd go with an external drive that can do raid.
    I don't follow your logic, Black Hawk. What does RAID have to do with the importance of a file? Do mean mirroring, so there are in effect multiple backup sets? I don't really see that as being necessary as long as the backup drive is unplugged when not in use. The chance of losing two separate systems - computer and external drive - at the same time are quite remote. If the backup drive is kept running all the time, then yes, I suppose a mirrored RAID would be extra protection.
  • saltydog806saltydog806 Bowie MD
    edited April 2008
    Great thread.If I want to back up my Doc's, Photo's,Database and Favorites is there a software program that will do it automatically once it is set up?
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    Leonardo wrote:
    I don't follow your logic, Black Hawk. What does RAID have to do with the importance of a file? Do mean mirroring, so there are in effect multiple backup sets? I don't really see that as being necessary as long as the backup drive is unplugged when not in use. The chance of losing two separate systems - computer and external drive - at the same time are quite remote. If the backup drive is kept running all the time, then yes, I suppose a mirrored RAID would be extra protection.

    I guess it's just my bad luck but I have had backup drives fail on me. My next purchase is a NAS that can do raid 0 or 0+1 but also want it as a central storage for our home network. PITA losing all my movies, music and pics.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    saltydog806 wrote:
    Great thread.If I want to back up my Doc's, Photo's,Database and Favorites is there a software program that will do it automatically once it is set up?

    Off the top of my head I don't remember any free ones but Acronis True Image is really good. You can schedule it to make a backup every few days or weeks. Easy recovery too. If you buy actual external drives like from Western Digital or Seagate, they usually come with the software.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    I guess it's just my bad luck but I have had backup drives fail on me.
    Well yes, every hard is subject to failure. But my point was, if you have backed up files on on the backup drive and original files on the computer, the chance that the hard drive with the original files and the hard drive with the backed up files would die at the same time just defies the odds. It's my guess your external drive was storage, and not a backup, that you did not have two sets of the same files.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    My plan for using this external hard drive for backup would be to plug it in, copy all my important files to it, and unplug it and store it elsewhere.

    So even if the place I live in catches fire and burns to the ground, my important stuff is elsewhere and can be recovered.

    Then later on, when I have more files that I want to make backup copies of, I'll bring the external drive back, copy the extra stuff onto it, and then return it to its storage location.

    USB 2.0 will be fine for me, all out speed is not important in this case.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    My plan for using this external hard drive for backup would be to plug it in, copy all my important files to it, and unplug it and store it elsewhere.
    Excellent. That is security at its best, as long as the off-site storage for the drive is secure. In that case, I really don't see what a RAID mirror would accomplish for you, especially if you stored the both mirrored backup drives at the same location.
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