Storage: External HDD: Do you use the Sync Software or copy/paste?
External HDD: Do you use the Sync Software or copy/paste?
by pt1209 - 2/5/09 6:11 PMI picked up a WD Passport Essential 250Gb External HDD and when I plugged it in it wanted to setup Sync software, But I realized the drive was in Fat32 so I'm presently formatting it to NFTS(we have 3 Vista and Macbook). I wondered if it would be easier and less confusing if we just copy and pasted our Music, Documents and Pictures to the drive vs. letting the sync software run.. The drive is for my Daughter's laptop, she almost filled up the internal HDD with all her music, pictures and such, we have to make some room on her Laptop's HDD. Your opinions are greatly appreciated!!
Copy/Paste, Drag and Drop . . .
by Coryphaeus - 2/5/09 8:41 PM In reply to: External HDD: Do you use the Sync Software or copy/paste? by pt1209works. Forget Sync.
"Drag&drop" and "send to"
by Dango517 - 2/13/09 10:24 PM In reply to: External HDD: Do you use the Sync Software or copy/paste? by pt1209"Send to" is found in the right mouse click applet.
I agree with Copy/Paste and Drag&Drop
by MarkFlax
- 2/14/09 3:27 AM
In reply to: External HDD: Do you use the Sync Software or copy/paste? by pt1209
but I just wanted to suggest something you may not have considered.
I notice you are using this to transfer music and other files from your daughter's laptop to the external, to free up space on the laptop hard disk. That means that the files on the external will not be a backup, but will be the original files.
You will need to consider what will happen if that external disk fails. Where are your backups? Hard drives do fail, whether internal drives or external, and usually they fail suddenly and without warning.
Backing up those important personal files to an external hard disk is the fashion nowadays because of the greater capacity over CD or DVD, and that is a natural progression of course. But if that external drive holds your only copies, then they are at risk.
Just something else to think about.
Mark
Thanks..
by pt1209 - 2/14/09 6:14 AM In reply to: I agree with Copy/Paste and Drag&Drop by MarkFlax
Thank you all for your replies, and Mark your thoughts were mine exactly after we backed up her files, I have a second HDD on my desktop which isn't nearly as big as the External but big enough to backup her important stuff such as her photos, music and such.. Thanks a that was definitely a very important point to bring up here in this discussion!!
More Food For Thought
by hangtime31 - 2/14/09 9:52 AM In reply to: External HDD: Do you use the Sync Software or copy/paste? by pt1209I have one of those drives as well. I love the huge capacity and great portability.
I think it all depends on what you intend to use the drive for. If you bought it to back up files (whether music, documents, photos, Quicken file, etc.) then the sync program makes it easy on you. At the initial setup, choose which files or folders are going to be backed up; the sync software copies these onto the external HDD. Put it in your “safe location” which could be anything from a fire safe to what a friend of mine does; he figures if his house burns down a fire safe is still risky so he takes the HDD to work. Pretty sound thinking – it’s unlikely both locations would burn to the ground in the same week. All you have to do in the future is periodically plug the HDD into the computer you want to back up. All by itself the sync software determines which files on the computer are new – or a newer version than what is presently on the external drive – and copies them onto the external drive. It’s much faster than other methods I’ve used … like the “figure it out yourself” method … or the “gee I’m technically savvy so let’s use Windows Find / by date range / since the last backup / then manually copy all the new files, folder by folder, to the external HDD and it will be faster than figuring it out myself and in the end it takes almost as long” methods. When the sync software is finished doing it all by itself (really fast!) unplug it and put it away. Easy!
If it’s not a backup then the drag and drop / copy and paste / method of your choice is probably the easiest way to go.
On mine I actually use both methods. I want to have some files available to me away from home (like at work), plus I may have some really critical files in progress at work. I’ve learned the hard way not to trust the IT department’s backups on really important work items so I use this drive to make my own backup. My personal files from home go through the sync software; the work files are simple copy and paste. Here’s the thing – if I lose the HDD or it is stolen while I’m out and about - my personal files are in the sync software and they are encrypted with password protection. The work files are non-proprietary non-sensitive stuff only important to me … and since they are just a backup of primary files I should (hopefully) still have at work – I’m not concerned if someone steals my HDD and looks them over because they’re worthless to anyone but me.
Cheers!
Sync works
by jason_mackinlay - 2/15/09 6:55 PM In reply to: External HDD: Do you use the Sync Software or copy/paste? by pt1209I recently went through a similar setup with 2x 1TB WD My Book and after some trial and error decided to stay with the sync program it came with.
These are to be a backup for three laptops on a wireless network with another 300Gb external HDD with all of our photos on it.
I setup two mirror backup plans, one for each WD HDD. They get connected on alternating months to the laptop with the photo HDD and I have been very impressed with it so far.
Two things clearly make the sync program preferred over copy and paste for us:
1) It's automatic. The only manual part of the deal is to swap the HDD each month.
2) It keeps the last two versions (you can change this) of files, so for my work files this is invaluable.
(NT) forget sync; use copy, paste
by bobsco60 - 2/20/09 9:04 PM In reply to: External HDD: Do you use the Sync Software or copy/paste? by pt1209
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