Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: External hard-drive buying advice and backing up data

I am totally sold on Lacie as a reliable brand for external hard drives. I have three that I've purchased over the years. Two are firewire and USB compatible (one is 60GB and small/portable that I use when traveling to back up photos and data, and the other is 250GB and a bit larger, but portable), and I purchased a 500GB that is USB compatible and can also be portable, though I use it more for desktop and for backing up everything. Before buying my first external hard drive for back up, I had consulted a friend who handles all of the system maintenance for a large publishing company. He had loaned me a small and portable Lacie external hard drive that I could use to back up my entire system when my computer had some internal hard drive issues and needed to go back to the manufacturer. It was very easy to use and I was able to reload all of my data when my computer was returned with a new internal hard drive. I've since purchased the three I mentioned and have had no issues. They weren't cheap when I bought the first two, but the 500GB was only about $125 when I got it, and it seems like you can still get them for around $100. I've found them to be well worth the investment. Just make sure you format the new external drive using your computer's system software first, before you load your data, and things should work out well. Good luck and I hope this info helps!

I just recently made my choice for an external hard drive. I was interested in both performace and backup matters. My choice was a SimpleTech FP-UFE2/1TB Duo Pro 1TB External Hard Drive. I could paraphrase it's features, but to start I thought it simpler and cleaner to just "copy and paste" what was advertised about.

"SimpleTech Duo Pro Drive by Fabrik. Serious digital pros need only apply. Must be willing to receive massive performance, capacity and data protection on multiple levels. Choose RAID 0 for super-fast performance or RAID 1 for added data protection. With local backup and Fabrik Ultimate Backup, you get the same two-level protection the pros use. So, no matter what happens to your drive-a spilled drink, a curious toddler, a theft or a natural disaster-you know your files are safe and secure online and off-site. Free 2GB online account, or for less than five dollars per month, upgrade to unlimited capacity that's fast, affordable and secure. A stackable design ensures a snug fit with Fabrik's Simple and Pro Drives, so you can add more storage without taking up more desk space."

So, what sold me on it .. other than what I thought was a cool less than $170 price tag? Well, I did want a lot of storage for backup as I already had over 1TB of a mixture of internal drives (500GB) and external USB drives (80GB, 320GB and 500GB). I do a lot of multimedia computing and saving; including audio (music and audio books), video (homemade pc-compilated videos, camcorder videos, music videos, TV episodes, miscellaneous media clips, such as on Youtube, Google and Yahoo, a goodly number of full-length movies, and, of course, the ever-growing photo/image library). I thought about using the Raid 1 feature which simultaneously backs up data saved on other drives, but I really don't have all that much that is personal mission critical. I chose to do continue to do such backups selectively. So, instead, I am using it as a Raid 0 drive for extra general storage. I prefer externals now for there ease of portability, and hey, in my opinion, 1TB is where it's at now, size-wise as well as price-wise. This baby has both eSATA and USB 2.0 capability; so a choice is available there too. And, it's designed to be stackable, so additional drives can be added on as needed (or wanted).

For me, this drive was just what the PC Doctor ordered.

I've had an external harddrive for years.
LaCie is my choice. Easy to hook-up and use.
Never a problem.

I would recommend network storage device. This is because a normal drive will get moved around a lot if you are using a laptop, not to mention you can use it for more than one computer. Network storage devices connect to your home network via an Ethernet port on your wireless router, or network hub. If this is your only computer and you do not want to put out more money for one of these devices, your can get a higher-end device that connects to your computer via firewire. This gives you a faster connection. Lastly, make sure the drive is plugged into a surge protector, otherwise the drive is pointless.

I have scanned all my family photographs (Pre-digital camera), around 6 to 7 thousand of them. I stored them on cd and dvd disks.

When I went back to view them I found that some of the photographs were corrupted, fortunately I had the presence of mind to made a back up back up!.

This problem I am told was probably the disks which can deteriorate with time.

The solution for me was to purchase two 500GB external hard drives.

Both made by Maxtor and purchased for 125 for the first one and 75 for the second, purchased a year later.

The idea was that if the first one fails then I have a backup drive and can replace the faulty one.

I catalogue my photograhs by month/year so connecting both and copying from computer hard drive to external is fairly quick.

I am told that there is software out there that enables you to back up your hardrive and it does a comparison and only updates files that have changed. I so far have not needed to use this so have not looked into it.

With 2 500 Gb external hard drives I have storage space equivalent to 212 dvds which equates to around 260 for 22 boxes of 10 dvd's - so cost wise it is about the same. Storage wise 212 dvd's! But most important is the reliability of the storage and prevention of loss of valued photographs.

I have had no corruptions in the two years I have

First I am against the On-Line backups. Great concept, but I can't get over the trust and security issue's.

That said get 2, or 3, external USB or Firewire drives. Now a days a 500 gig will be 100 bucks +/-. Choose your favorite brand, I like the MyBooks. Don't use price as your #1 criteria, this is your data you are dealing with.

A fireproof safe big enough to hold one of the drives.

Finally some form of backup program, I prefer a program that does Drive Imaging too. Acronis is my choice, I have used it for several years with one minor issue and that was solved via their message board. There are many others, do a little research, most have free trials.


Come up with a backup plan, define how much data you are willing to lose. Real time 100% coverage is nice, but can be pricier and more complex.
You can do full weekly and daily differentials.
Maybe a daily to different directories, or ....
I do a Full every day, then to another directory a Weekly full, and again to another directory a Monthly Full. Now I can go back to yesterday, Sunday or the first of the month. I can have some data loss, but within my parameters. Note I have other things going that further protect me.

Why an Imaging program ?
In the case of Acronis, if anything happens to my computer I can restore a drive in 30 minutes and I am up and running somewhat.
I also snapshot the C: Drive after a full XP build, and again once all my programs are installed. I can now restore to at least a base XP image if I need to quickly.

Why 2 or 3 drives, and a safe ?
Once a Week, Month ... swap the current drive for the one in the fire proof safe. The small safe's won't help if you have a major disaster, but should cover all but the worst. If you have 3 try and keep one off site, someplace you go to regularly that you can trust to keep it secure.

Another idea that I strongly recommend this.
Seperate the Drive (or use 2 physicals) C: - OS and E: - Data. This can also affect your backup plan, now most of your data is isolated to one drive.

Finally TRY IT, do a restore of a file, or a drive. In fact do several. This way if you ever have to use the backup you know how, and you know it works. If you haven't tested your backups, you don't have a backup !


You also mentioned that you listen to a lot of MP3s and was worried about affecting the drive life span. With todays drives I wouldn't worry, if it's gonna die it's gonna die, not much you can do EXCEPT Have a backup !

Your very thorough response of July 26,2008 includes a description of "Why an imaging pgm" but i'm confused abt the second & third sentences which state that you "snapshot C: after a full XP build & again after all pgms are installed. Also restore to at least a BASE XP IMAGE". This confusion may result from my never having reloaded an OS from backup. All my install activity has been using original MS disks.

Is a C: drive with only XP restored called a "base XP image" ? If so, what is it used for without apps installed ?

Thanx.

Bob
Palm Bay, FL

for HD brands, Western Digital, LaCie, Seagate/Maxtor(they are the same) are the best in the market. Most HD manufacturers give away backup software like Acronis True Image, Retrospect Express etc, so choose one that you need.

Just like you and many others, I have had the same question about an external hard drive a while back ago.

I did a lot of research as well as review of many external hard drives from USB to Ethernet connection since the price of those went down significantly, I ended up with a Network Attach Storage and I really happy with it.

Before purchase D-LINK DNS-323, I was almost bought one from Seagate, it was an USB connection external hard dive, but after figure it out, it is a single hard drive built into an enclosure and a hard drive may fail one day so is all my back up data will gone south for sure. Finally I came across with many reviews of D-Link DNS-323, it has all the necessary features that I wanted and until today it serves me well

DNS-323 is actually an hard drive enclosure without any hard drive, but it was reconfigured for most home network needs. Here are major features:
- Connect to your router then every PCs including wireless laptops can access to it.
- SATA Drive Support
- Internet Access via FTP
- UPnP AV for Storing and Streaming Media Files
- 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Port
- USB Print Server Port
- Built-In Fan Included
- RAID supported as JBOD, Standard, Raid 0 and 1
I order it online from here: http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11280NW2968&vpn=DNS-323&manufacture=D-LINK
together with 2 500GB Hitachi sata hard drives also from them and shipping charge still $9.99, this site is really fast in shipping, it you happened live in Canada.
What I like most about this NAS is it was very easy to configure, after install 2 sata HD( some reviews complained that DNS-323 requires sata 2, but that not true, I just use 2 Hitachi 500 G sata and it works like a charm), fire it up, the first screen you see is it asks you to format the hard drive, note that it doesn't format your hard drives in Windows environment like FAT32, NTFS.. but in Unix, it then asks you to configure your hard drives, here you have the option to select either Standard, JBOD ( just bunch of drives) Raid 0 or 1, I choose Raid 1 mirror, because if one HD fails I just replace a new one it automatically re-mirror again, so I know for sure my data is safe.
This DNS-323 auto go to sleep when there is no activity, it will wake up when needed, only one complain is that if you have power out stage, this network hard drive have to be manual power up again.
The DNS-323 is really quiet, it sits next to my Desktop tower case and I barely hear it, I only hear when 2 hard drive start when it wakes up or goto sleep, it sounds very pleasant in 1 or 2 seconds then you don't hear anything.
The blue LED lamps in front are also nice to look at, it blinking when there is activity then dimmed when as sleep.

I did not use FTP feature because I don't need it but the print server works very well, also Gigabit connection is super fast if you have a gigabit router.
The DNS-323 is web base configuration as you configure your router and mapping it to your PC or laptop almost instantly.

If you thinking to network storage or even safeguard your archive then D-Link NAS DNS-323 worth to take a look.

Until today I don't have any issue with this little device and it works beautifully with Norton Ghost, so I know whole my drive C is always back up on it. Thanks D-Link for an affordable NAS like DNS-323.

You can look at it more details here:
http://www.dlink.ca/products/?sec=0&pid=509

Happy computing.

First, I would suggest avoiding anything without a fan, as long as you don't mind the hum. excess heat has a substantial impact on long-term life, and although its nice to have a unit that it completely silent, i would prefer to have a safe HD two years later. After a lot of research I went with a Buffalo Drivestation Duo. It has two hard drives inside, so you can set it to RAID-1 (mirroring). This means that if one drive fails, you have an identical hard drive with a "mirror" of all your data. It comes in 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB (remember there are two drives, so a 1TB unit would have two 500GB drives). I considered the Western Digital 'MyBooks' and several seagate options, none really offered me what I was looking for. The Buffalo has a fan, which prevents your two HD's from overheating, it easily openable (you don't need to "break it open") and has a firewire connection for fast transfers. It also includes the optional Memeo AutoBackup software, which is a good (although not great) backup software (I use it periodically but turned off its automatic feature because it took up too many resources). Oh yeah, I would suggest looking up some reviews on amazon.com before you make a final decision, as you can always find out good information from long term users. a professional magazine review may give you good specification/benchmark info, but when you read that some units have a habit of failing 6 months in, or have delicate power ports, you can avoid a potential disaster! Hope it helps!


http://www.buffalotech.com/products/external-drives/drivestation/drivestation-duo/

A clear (to me!) advantage of an external drive is that you can easily unplug it, or turn it off. Unplugging the USB cable isolates the drive from the system, and from any potential malware infection. Electrical or physical damage can be limited by unplugging the electrical connection. Plug it in only as needed - for backup, restore, or access to archived files.
For business backups, you can get a fire-rated drive enclosure.
For family photos and records, you can throw it in the car when you have to evacuate for a hurricane. (We get to do that in South Georgia from time to time.)
Play your music from your internal drive, archive it, if you like, on the external. It's not hurting anything.

I'd suggest Western Digital MyBoook World Edition II; it offers plenty of storage ( from 1TB to 2TB) a backup software plus the RAID techology for extra protection of your data (create a mirror image of your data).You can acces your data online from any computer (which has a supplied software installed) even when your computer at home is turned off.You can go to http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=279 to check for more details.
I have a 1TB WD MyBook and I'm very satisified with it; however, WD are among the best products on the market.

I am currently on my 3rd external hard drive. I have had 2 previously die on me unexpectedly. Fortunately, both times my computer survived so there were no major losses. Unfortunately the second drive died after I had been running out of room on my computers hard drive, I had the brilliant idea to keep the music that I listned to regularly on my harddrive and the music that I didn't listen to regularly (christmas music is one example) on just the external drive. When I died I lost all that extra music.

I believe my first HD was a Maxtor and died within a year, not sure what the other one was and died in less then 2 years.

I went through a simular situation and I finially found something that was:
1) Completely restorable on a consistant basis.
2) Dependable, even if my system went "bad".
3) Consistant and dependable backup and restoring software.
4) Ability to restore my laptop when my hard drive when bad.

I have found though many different "trial and errors" that some "backup" software out there is very bad.

They don't work.

The best solution that I have found is Acronis True Image software, which does what it says.

You can make an exact image of your hard drive.
-Then replace that hard drive with a new hard drive.
-After that, restore your previous image onto your new hard drive.
- Now you have two -exact- copies!!
I have had problems remembering which copy I was running from after I have done this!

Acronis allows you to make a bootable CD to restore your system from a backup.
I mostly use the image backup, where I have my backup hard drive configured as a slave.
Running from Windows XP (of the system I will be backing up), I start Acronis from within the Windows enviroment.
After everything is selected, I notice that it will have to be rebooted in order to do the backup.
The first time I did this, it scared the **^$ out of me! But that's what happens.
You click "yes" saying you want to do it and your system reboots!
It then starts Acronis in a "dos mode" before XP starts to boot up.

At this step it does the copy and when done it will tell you that it finished and you can remove your drive (when it turns off the computer). Swap drives and you are done!

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

Believe it or not I use an online backup service (Carbonite). For Around $50/yr they keep all the files that you want backed up with a high level encryption. Since you may not feel comfortable with that possibility, it seems that many external drives are dropping in price so it is quite possible to get a 750GB external for under $140. I ended up purchasing a Seagate 320GB external USB for $70 (about 3 months ago) and the price has since dropped to $60. The nice thing about it is it stands vetical on a small footprint, is easy to use and and has a simple USB hookup. I use it to store my music, PDF's, other junk, and setup info just in case. Seagate bought out Maxtor a while back and I have always been fan of Maxtor. They always seem to run $10-15 cheaper than all the others. Although I am quite satisfied with my Westen Digital internal drives I am not that impressed with with the Westen Digital external drives just based on price and looks. Actually, if you crave space, you can get 1TB external drives for around $200-240. La Cie, Western Digital, and Seagate, are the brands I would look into. Check eCost, NewEgg, Tiger Direct, PC Club, and ClubIT for sales and models. Since I have had no problems with the automatic backups from Carbonite I can't tell you how easily any external drive works with whatever backup software you are using. Just know that you can shop around for some great deals and if you use or want an eSATA connection on your drive, it will cost a few bucks more. Hope that helps a little. I wonder how I got along without my external drive now that I have it. Very handy and USB is quick enough for me.