Recommend an external HD for backup?

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

I'm thinking of buying an external hard drive for backup purposes. I currently backup important files onto a DVD once a month, which then gets stored off-site. Getting tired of the slow write speed, and having to keep a stack of blank DVD's around.

 

What do I need to know about external HD's for backup purposes? I'd like to use it prett much the same way, i.e. backup my files, disconnect, and store the drive off site until the next backup, 2-4 weeks later.

 

Recommend a brand/model? Do some drives include software to make backups easier?

 

Thanks...

[RonStewart]

I have a 2-TB Western Digital "MyBook". It did not come with backup software, and it has caused me frustration. I think the frustration comes from software, but I have had issues with directories being set to read-only on the external drive during backups. I think the drive is perfectly good, and the USB 2.0 speed is okay. Many months have passed, and I have forgotten details.

 

Eventually I grew frustrated, and now use Humyo - an online backup solution.

 

I note that recently external hard drives that you can plug directly into your network are available from good brands at good prices. That might be worth trying.

 

(Note: Okay, it's not much, but it is the first time I have been able to offer technical advice to Mitch.)

[SeanC]

Almost all of them provide software for simplifying backups, included on the drive itself or a bundled CD.

 

I currently use a LaCie Rugged 750gb FireWire 800 drive for my laptop and recommend it highly. It's also USB 2.0 and is available in smaller and larger capacities (I wouldn't go below 750gb tho').

 

I use this drive for my desktop, and would also recommend it highly. Unlike Iomega (which I wouldn't recommend after having two "eGo" drives fail on me -- both the one I purchased and the one Iomega sent me under warranty), I've never once experienced a problem with LaCie drives. I also have a 500gb Seagate external FW 400/USB 2.0 drive I used for backups on my older (now-retired) systems. I forget the model name. It was solid and reliable, so I have no complaints.

 

If you don't have FireWire 800 or eSata, you can save some money by getting the USB 2.0/3.0-only models.

 

 

[Limecreek]

 

Mitch - I have two of them, both are Western Digital external hard drives.

 

One sits on my desk for weekly backup and the other is a small portable that I travel with. In fact I am getting ready to back up my work from the last 3 days while I sit here in the San Diego airport.

 

The portable is treated like crap and looks the part, but it keeps on ticking and I guess that is why I ended up purchasing the larger desktop version from the same company when I went shopping for more storage.

 

[Mike]

Mitch--If you happen to have a Mac, the Time Capsule is a dream. It serves as your wireless router and backs up your files automatically. If you're not a Mac guy, or if you don't want to spend the big bucks, I've had good luck with Seagate hard drives. They come with backup software built in, as do pretty much all of the external HDs that are sold for this purpose.

[marcopolo]

I've been using a 650 GB Western Digital for about a year and a half with good results. It's a USB 2 drive and it came with bundled software, but I ended up using freeware that I found at downlaod.com. We just switched from PC to Mac about two weeks ago and I just plugged it in and it worked flawlessly with Apple's "Time Machine", which comes pre-installed on Macs and performs automatic backups. Mine is plugged in constantly, so I can't comment on the ease of plugging/unplugging. Here's an article from PC Mag on buying an external drive.

 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358135,00.asp

[Joel]

I use a Western Digital Passport drive, encryption from TrueCrypt (free), and SyncToy from Microsoft (also free) to back up my office work product daily and my home PC periodically. I don't think I could do a bare metal restore from a SyncToy backup, but I know my data files are fine.

[ghaverkamp]

What do I need to know about external HD's for backup purposes? I'd like to use it prett much the same way, i.e. backup my files, disconnect, and store the drive off site until the next backup, 2-4 weeks later.

 

Recommend a brand/model? Do some drives include software to make backups easier?

 

Some drives might have software, but the question to ask is what your goals are. If you're already rotating storage manually, you're doing much of the work of a hierarchical backup solution. If what you want is a bootable image, there will be lots of software. If you want file-based backups, you may be happy with bundled software (Retrospect seems common), but you may not. (A coworker recently went through some Retrospect hell when shifting systems and trying to restore from those backups. I don't have all the details, as I quickly grew bored as he explained what had been going wrong.)

 

If you're rotating drives fairly regularly, I'd consider something like this, to use bare drives rather than ones in cases. They'll be cheaper, and you can archive them more liberally, should you choose to.

[Selden]

I'm thinking of buying an external hard drive for backup purposes. I currently backup important files onto a DVD once a month, which then gets stored off-site. Getting tired of the slow write speed, and having to keep a stack of blank DVD's around.

 

What do I need to know about external HD's for backup purposes? I'd like to use it prett much the same way, i.e. backup my files, disconnect, and store the drive off site until the next backup, 2-4 weeks later.

 

Recommend a brand/model? Do some drives include software to make backups easier?

 

Thanks...

When I was shopping for an external drive two years ago, a friend who works in desktop support was pretty adamant about WD drives being more reliable than others.

 

I assume you are backing up personal data. Have you considered one of the cloud backup services, such as Carbonite?

[pbbeck]

I have had great luck with WD hard drives. Nevertheless, both my brother's and my mother's WD 1TB My Book drives failed after only 18 months of service. WD replaced them w/o hassle, but it's irksome how both failed at such a young age.

[JayW]

I have used the Maxtor OneTouch for years. Mine came with software that automatically backs up my entire internal hard drive once daily, but only changes or adds files that have changed or been added since the day prior, so it is fast, seamless, and requires no effort on my part once it is set up. I can go back as many days as I want to easily find and restore a corrupted or missing file. I keep one hooked up at work for daily use, and keep another at home that I update each weekend when I bring my laptop home. The system works and has saved my butt more than once.

 

Jay

[Shaman97]

Consider HD's the same as milk and eggs - they're a commodity with little difference between them. I shop price vs. capacity. If a 1TB drive is even close to an 850GB, I go with the 1TB regardless of manufacturer.

 

I also use Carbonite, but they won't backup external drives.

[Jerry Johnston]

I'll go against the tide here and recommend a backup drive not much larger than the drive you're backing up. If you have a TB drive you'll start filling it up till you have far too much to lose when the drive goes TU, you'll ned up needing a drive to backup the backup drive. SATA drives are dirt cheap in the 250g/500g sizes and you can buy a device like Greg recommended from mwave.com (dif mod) for $20 that will use both 2.5" or 3.5" drives in USB or SATA port.

I have 160gb drive C and D and backup C once a month (D longer) I use XXclone and make a bootable backup of C (5min incrementally) but understand it doesn't work with Win7 so may use PowerSuite by MAU when I change OS system.

If you pull the drives apart to look inside at how they're made they all look very similar - nothing like they used to look like when they were 5" or 8" so longevity is approx the same however I like WD drives best.

[Bob Palin]

I'll go against the tide here and recommend a backup drive not much larger than the drive you're backing up.

That's always supposing you don't need any kind of versioning - I keep daily backups of my work on the external HD but don't keep every version on the hard drive.

 

An external hard drive should never be the sole backup anyway, I back up my pictures to 2 external drives (WD My Books) and also on Google Documents where you can buy additional storage quite cheaply. For the external drives I use AlwaySync which I like because it gives me a lot of flexibility about what gets backed up so that I don't waste space on backing up junk, I don't want to backup my daily podcast downloads for instance.

[Natche]

I have a WD 2TB drive that you can either use as a full 2TB or use it as a RAID setup (actually it's (2) 1TB drives) so even your backup is "backed-Up". That is how I use it so I essentially have 1TB of space but it's duplicated. I store a lot of video on it that I don't keep on the computer so having a back-up for that is important too.

 

Also, most backup software will not only back up the files you want but will backup all your system files as well. Over time, the backup files tend to get bloated as it saves old system images in case you need to go backwards. Win 7 has a built in utility for this. I back up every Sunday about 3AM so it's painless.

 

For irreplaceable stuff like pictures, I keep another duplicate set off site that I back up periodically. Just in case my house burns down or I get robbed of both the computer and the BU drive.

[steve.foote]

Mitch, I like this setup for home backups:

 

Thermaltake BlacX5G Docking station. Link

 

These take standard 3.5" or 2.5" SATA hard drives. Keep a few drives for rotation.

 

For backup software I use StorageCraft ShadowProtect Desktop (approx. $90) Link

 

Fast, complete baremetal recovery, easy to operate. Good stuff.

[Rocer]

Whew! For a minute there I thought you were looking to tow a Harley behind your moto.

[Jerry Johnston]

Bob, this is probably like picking restaurants everyone has different taste. I have 3 sata drive bays and make bootable backup so if I get a glitch, virus or crash I can just put the backup in and be back to where I org was within seconds. If I have a batch of pictures that I seldom look at I put them on DVD. If they're photos I look at at least once in awhile they go on a removable drive D or USB drive and I realize this isn't the best if you're using a laptop where probably a USB drive would be more portable (if it's a 2.5" which doesn't even require a power supply).

[Mike]

I also use Carbonite, but they won't backup external drives.

 

I've considered Carbonite, but haven't taken the plunge. While I back up automatically to a second drive, it's in the house. In the (hopefully very unlikely) event of a catastrophe that took out the whole house, I'd be S.O.L. Is Carbonite worth it?

[Shaman97]

Is Carbonite worth it?

 

Yeah, I think so. For 60 bucks a year, I have peace of mind. Of course, I won't know until I have a drive loss.

 

I look at it like the old adage: "The more prepared you are, the luckier you get"

 

I presume if I were to upgrade my hardware I would have the data from my account available to download to the new HD.

 

Hope I never have to find out, but it's never a case of 'if' but 'when'.