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Community Newsletter: Q&A: External hard-drive buying advice and backing up data
- 8/8/08 10:24 AM
Why Not more Discussion of Online Backup?
by pbrdoc - 8/2/08 11:08 AM In reply to: NAS Storage by waytronAllthe Discussion of various number of HD's, locations, arrangements, DVD's Cd"s seems time consuming, complex and by the posts not all agree on best.
Apart from subcriprion cost why is Online Back up not "the best" since it can be automatic, is by definition offsite so so worry about fire or other drasitic local damage and can be accessed fron anywhere?
online storage
by husky91 - 8/2/08 11:46 AM In reply to: Why Not more Discussion of Online Backup? by pbrdocI agree that this would be the best however, bandwidth is a big issue here. I have a few hundred gigabytes of data. Remember that high speed internet (DSL or Cable) while very fast for downloads is really slow with uploads. I currently have maybe 256 kbit upload speed with Comcast. I see that Comcast is offering some sort of turbo option that could get me 2 mbit of upload, but that's till limited.
This may be the future though.
online backup issue
by sys-eng - 8/2/08 1:04 PM In reply to: Why Not more Discussion of Online Backup? by pbrdocThe biggest complaint I have heard about online backups is the failure to properly restore. Without restore, the backup is not much good. If you have online backup, then I suggest you attempt a restore test. Warning, this isn't real easy unless you have a spare disk drive.
the best
by sys-eng - 8/2/08 1:11 PM In reply to: What IS the best method? by DamageIncMThis may not be the best but it has worked very well for me.
I have a AMCC 3Ware hardware RAID controller and two Seagate 320-GB disk drives in RAID mode 1 (mirrored). These are my operating drives with partitions for OS, virtual memory, and data. I also have an IBM deckstar 60-GB drive and Seagate 160-GB drive that I use for backups. Archiving is done on DVD.
Backup
by davecon1 - 8/2/08 12:12 PM In reply to: External hard-drive buying advice and backing up data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I use a 300 GB Seagate external HD. Also use Mozy online backup, costs $ 50.00 a year but worth it. I also have a 200 GB internal HD that I use as a image drive only. I use Acronis true image for this backup. This approach enables me to have 3 separate complete backups.
backups
by westwood276 - 8/2/08 12:49 PM In reply to: External hard-drive buying advice and backing up data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I use an external hard drive connected to my P.C, by a USB for backing up.
Why not disconnect the hard drive , and only connect when backing up?
disconnecting drive
by sys-eng - 8/2/08 1:26 PM In reply to: backups by westwood276As long as you are doing full backups, disconnecting the drive is fine. If you are performing incremental backups as files change (on-the-fly), then the drive must be connected all the time.
Belt and suspenders
by Gsteele - 8/2/08 2:21 PM In reply to: External hard-drive buying advice and backing up data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I think the biggest problem with backup for most people is forgetting to do it, so an automated solution is an absolute requirement. I am a great believer in belt and suspenders solutions, so I'll tell you what I use.
1. Windows Home Server
2. Maxtor Safety Drill
3. Cross-machine redundancy
4. Removable media (2 kinds)
5. On-line backup
Why so many, and what are these? Here's the issue: if your data is important to you, and as time goes on and not just entertainment but also family photos, videos, genealogy research, business and financial records, contact information like links and e-mail addresses, etc. become a bigger and bigger slice of the data on your computer, having a way to be absolutely sure that it doesn't disappear becomes more and more important. What's also important is the ease and speed with which you can get it back, and there's both the loss of the data and the loss of the machine functionality that have to be dealt with. Most backup recommendations don't even address the latter of these two, but it's really important, too.
Let's look at the worst case scenario: a DEAD hard drive. Not one that is ailing, but rather DEAD - click, click, click, no boot device present dead, smoldering briquette dead. OK - buy a new one and restore, right? Wrong. Although your new hard drive has been attached and the old smoldering briquette tossed in the dumpster, it's not formatted, it's not partitioned, it has no OS or anything else on it. No big deal - you just put in the restore disk that you keep hanging in a clear envelope from the side of your system unit at all times and start the reinstallation of XP or whatever. You DO have the restore disks, don't you? Right where you can find them at a moment's notice, right? Ooooh - no restore disk; your machine came with a restore partition, now on the dumpster briquette, so that the OEM could save the 8 cents it would have cost to provide you with recovery media. Ouch. So you go out and buy a fresh copy of XP and now you're ready to bring the unit back. In it goes. Several hours later (it asks you to answer some useless question every time you get up to have coffee, and waits til you get back, doing nothing in the meantime), you have XP. Not Office, not your backup and restore application, not the latest updates which you now download (108 and counting, with defrags in between) and install, not your favorites, your settings, your ISP setup, etc. Then you load the restore application and you are finally ready to bring your data back. You do have the disks to reinstall your restore application, right? Ooooooh - now where did they go? Oh, well, I'll just copy the files back - wait a minute, there's only one file on the backup DVD or hard drive or tape, and it's called qwertyuiop98765.bck! Where's My Documents? Where's My Music? My Pictures? ARRGH!
Unless you've gone through this, and most mere mortals haven't had the inestimable joy, you can't have a backup plan - because you don't really know what you're planning for. What you need is a BARE METAL backup and restore solution, and that's what Windows Home Server (WHS) and/or Safety Drill, among others, provide. In the case above, where you have a WHS installed on your home network, you don't fish around for an XP installation disk - you insert the WHS recovery disk and boot the machine. WHS asks you what machine you are restoring, and proceeds to bring back your OS, applications, data, favorites, settings - the whole works. You can drink all the coffee you want - no stupid questions to hang up the process. No WHS recovery disk? Download one and burn it from the server. WHS runs automatically every night and backs up every machine in my house - I don't even need to think about it. But it's about 500 bucks.
Ooops - no network, no WHS. That's where Maxtor's Safety Drill Bare Metal Backup (BMB) plays in. You've bought the drive (a OneTouch 4 Plus), plugged it in, installed the software from the drive, and run your Safety Drill backup. Machine crashes, smoke rises. Once again, you put the new drive in place of the briquette, insert the Safety Drill recovery CD, plug in the Maxtor via USB or Firewire, and boot. Same scenario - it boots from the CD, asks you who you are, and then brings back the whole shebang: OS, apps, data, etc. No network necessary - just a power outlet and a cable. Lost the recovery CD? Again, download and burn on some other computer. I keep multiple images on one Maxtor 500GB - the factory fresh one, the various updates, etc, for all the machines in the house, each in their own named folder on the external (the Recovery CD is DUCT TAPED to the side of the drive, hint, hint). It is SO much easier than rebuilding the whole configuration, and cheap - 500 GB costs you less than $150 including the software. But you have to move the drive from machine to machine for the initial BMB. Share the drive across the network and use any backup program to do daily backups if you have a network; I use it exclusively for the bare metal recovery in case my server takes a hit and crashes, and rely on the strategies below for more recent data, keeping the Maxtor disconnected and unplugged to keep it safe from the storm.
For a business, the above two strategies get you back in operation faster than any other approach short of having a cloned machine. I'm sure there are other BMB solutions out there, but that's what I use.
Since I have a home network, I also do cross-machine redundancy; that is, my machine's data, favorites, etc. is backed up on both my wife's and my son's machines - two places. Theirs are backed up on mine and each other's. All data is in three places. It's easy to set up by just running a scheduled backup and mapping a folder on their drive as a local drive on your machine with write privileges. You can also schedule using a batch file and Windows Scheduler and do an XCopy, but it's a little trickier.
I also back up all critical data on removable media. I use both external hard drives, which I also keep disconnected and unplugged to protect them from power surges and wear, and DVD media, which don't suffer from wear but I don't fully trust, based on first-hand experience with a variety of problems like incompatibility of + or - R with particular drives, read failures, etc. I do this regularly, but it's a manual solution, and see sentence 1. On my main machine, I keep an external HD plugged in as well, and use MS backup as a scheduled task that runs daily. Yes, yes, I know - as anal as they come. I have suffered . . . Why don't I just leave it at the WHS and Safety Drill BMB level and be done with it? Because bare metal restores only work on the same machine that was backed up; a fried motherboard that can't be replaced means new chipsets, CPU, etc., and Windows will balk at the mismatched configuration. But at least the data's there in the other backup locations.
Finally, I also use on-line backup. My favorite is Mozy, although others, like Carbonite, Xdrive, etc. are out there. The chief advantages are that they are automatic, and not in your house! No matter what happens, the data is out there in the cloud somewhere, and safe. To achieve this with media-based backup requires moving the media to another site like a safety deposit box, which makes it too much of a hassle. If you have a buddy in the neighborhood, you can swap storage, but if the neighborhood is in New Orleans . . . With off-site cloud storage, short of a comet strike, you're in pretty good shape.
The key is to prepare for worst-case scenarios, think thoroughly about how tragic the loss of your data would be, and make sure you automate the process so it HAPPENS. Finally, TEST the restore process to make sure there isn't an ooops lurking somewhere. Hard drives are inexpensive, and you can use the same one on multiple machines to make sure everything comes back; you'll also have a spare handy on that Sunday night when you hear the dreaded click, click, click.
Failing Hard Drives
by Ninibean - 8/2/08 2:56 PM In reply to: Belt and suspenders by GsteeleBefore anyone panics about hard drive failures, most people have one or more USB Hard drives. I have found out that it is not the hard drive that fails but in fact, it is the casing itself. I have many hard drives from a decade ago that just wouldn't work. I went and purchased new enclosures for them and whala, the drive worked.
I have to say the worst external hard drives I have is the Fantom drives. I was not sure what SATA meant, hence, when I needed to replace my internal hard drive, I was unable to use it due to the connection, my computer is IDE. I think before I actually go and get new drives, I may look for new cables instead because I do have 2 Fantom externals and when one didn't work, I transferred the wires over to it and it worked again.
As to making backup copies, I use a program called BounceBack Professional and it does do a wonderful job. I can just swap drives if my internal one goes down. One I have the initial backup, when I do an update, it only updates what files are new. I will stick with this product and they actually answer the phones for tech support. Hmmm, wait, tech support requires a charge so I go through the back door and call customer service and they just transfer me to tech support and I avoid and charges 
Is there just a plain adapter to change my ide connection to sata?
It sure was Belt and suspenders!
by pws_dk - 8/3/08 3:30 AM In reply to: Belt and suspenders by GsteeleGlad it works for you. Just an idea to keep things a little more simple?
I (still) use good old Ghost diskette from Symantec. Every Saturday (going shopping) I pop in a drawer with a (similar) 250 GByte disk to mirror my C drive (250 GB Seagate), takes 80 min.. Result: if "dirt, failures or mysterious behaviour" show up I can revert to last week - never loosing more than 7 days changes. Actually I alternate 2 drawers with 250GB drives (always keeping one of them in my trunk or in the office) - that is I have last week back up and the week before that as back ups. In case of viruses etc. I can safely recover "Documents" form last weeks back up (no incremntal viruses (also) automatically partly backed up to an on-line service along the way?). 2 times I have had the "pleasure" of beeing able to (quickly, 15 min.) revert to a safe & normal system.
In case of disk-failure? Yes 7 days of changes IS lost. That's the compromise I accepted to keep things simple.
Icy Box Recommended
by smifo - 8/2/08 3:33 PM In reply to: External hard-drive buying advice and backing up data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Get yourself an internal drive and an an icy box enclosure (with a sata connection if pos).
External hard drive
by rogerarese - 8/3/08 3:03 AM In reply to: Icy Box Recommended by smifoSeagate or Lacie have both worked fine for me and I have a total of five. My only failure was a Packard Bell. I sent it back to the manufacturer under guarantee and they sent it back still broken and said it was fine. Since then I've had nothing to do with the company.
Google has the best information from their server farms here
by jvfabian1 - 8/3/08 10:03 AM In reply to: External hard-drive buying advice and backing up data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/18/massive-google-hard-drive-survey-turns-up-very-interesting-thing/
http://research.google.com/archive/disk_failures.pdf
Just copy and past to read the info.
Joe
External Hard Drive Back-Up
by sedonakathy - 8/3/08 10:24 AM In reply to: External hard-drive buying advice and backing up data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I really thought I was being "the best" by putting all my files from 4 different computers on my Western Digital hard drive. I then intended to put it on my server. The day I was to put it all on my server, the external drive accidentally disconnected from the laptop when I moved the laptop. I thought nothing of it until I got to the office and went to transfer the data to the server. The server could not read the data. It appears that the "arm" is stuck inside. My technician was able to take it to a friend with the equipment to "read" that there is a total of 18 gigs of data on the drive. Now I have to send it to a company to "read". Minimum cost I have found is $295-495. No data, nothing owed. I have the data in about a bizillion places and would probably get it all but at what time-cost? I'm not certain what all is even on the back up. Now I will only back up to a flash/thumb drive or put directly on the server. The cost of learning...
Oh, I forgot to mention that I reconnected the back-up drive after the accidental disconnect. Later it was properly stopped and disconnected. The only thing we can guess is that the "shock" when reconnected was the culprit. Won't know the real reason until after I send it in.
I have multiple externals of various brands, but..
by tomshotcash - 8/3/08 10:58 AM In reply to: External hard-drive buying advice and backing up data by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I now have minimum standards, and those are the following:
1. Must be at least 300 gig or more.
2. Must have an off/on switch
3. Doesn't have to be the fastest but have known reliability.
4. I gave away a 250 gig Western Digital external due to the fact that it was ultra slow and I hated it. It did have an on/off switch as well.
5. I back up my music files on the same external drive but I use Nero for non-music file backups.
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