[Archived] External Hard Drives

[brian_gallagher85]

After my latest brush with Vista I've decided that it's time I backed up more of my data than I am doing at present.

At present I save most of my important files on memory sticks, but the vast majority of my downloaded music and videos are on my laptops hard drives.

I'd like a relatively cheap drive that I can just back every thing up to and access maybe once a week/month.

I am aware that almost all drives will fail at some point as it's a fact of life but was wondering if any one has had any experience of what brands I should be looking to avoid/buy in particular.

At present I am looking at the 1TB drives from Seagate and Western Digital on Amazon.

Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can provide

[Hughesy]

Try to get this highest USB speed you can...think 3.0 has just come out (obviously you would pay more, but they are much quicker)

If your not too bothered about the latest speed....try and pick up 1TB for around £40...dont pay over the odds...Deals usually on hotdeals pretty much daily. Scan is a good place to keep an eye on.

[brian_gallagher85]

Cheers Hughsey, my laptop is 2.0 so I'd imagine that'll be high enough if I'm right?

Will have a look on those sites.

[Paul]

Brian, I have Freecom (have two of these) and iomega (used these in various forms for years), both have proved very reliable. As opposed to Hughesy I would say this is one area where you do NOT go for cheap and cheerful as you are looking for reliability. Many of the manufacturers offer product specific backup software which will allow you to schedule backups etc. Having found both brands very reliable I would go for Freecom because the software package is far simpler to use.

I've no doubt people will say there is plenty of backup software available for free on the web. My experience is this free software is not easy to use and can be unreliable. IME the worst is the backup software that comes with your PC from Microsoft. The backup software is every bit as important as the hard drive. In another company in our little group they used free software - when the so called back up was needed it wasn't there to use!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An MB member who runs a computer company helped me set up our office system and supplied all the gear some 3-4 years ago. It has worked beautifully ever since, the best we've had in 15 years. That individual also recommended Freecom and Seagate.

If you use incremental backups after the initial system backup the increments take a few minutes at most so USB 2 is plenty fast enough.

[brian_gallagher85]

Cheers Paul, I have been looking at the 1TB Seagate and WDs like the ones in the Amazon link I posted earlier.

I've been looking at other models and I am leaning towards the 2TB WD My Book

I don't want to spend massive amounts but I also don't want to buy some cheap tat that will break after a few days.

If I have a decent experience with this drive I'm also looking at buying another/portable model for further back up security.

[sparkspakespoke]

Brian, I have Freecom (have two of these) and iomega (used these in various forms for years), both have proved very reliable. As opposed to Hughesy I would say this is one area where you do NOT go for cheap and cheerful as you are looking for reliability. Many of the manufacturers offer product specific backup software which will allow you to schedule backups etc. Having found both brands very reliable I would go for Freecom because the software package is far simpler to use.

I've no doubt people will say there is plenty of backup software available for free on the web. My experience is this free software is not easy to use and can be unreliable. IME the worst is the backup software that comes with your PC from Microsoft. The backup software is every bit as important as the hard drive. In another company in our little group they used free software - when the so called back up was needed it wasn't there to use!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An MB member who runs a computer company helped me set up our office system and supplied all the gear some 3-4 years ago. It has worked beautifully ever since, the best we've had in 15 years. That individual also recommended Freecom and Seagate.

If you use incremental backups after the initial system backup the increments take a few minutes at most so USB 2 is plenty fast enough.

Agree, had a couple of freecoms myself and they have proved very relaible and still going strong now.

[Paul]

I've never had to pay more than £90 as per the link in your post.

[brian_gallagher85]

I went for the 1TB Western Digital Desktop hardrive in the end. I was all set to order the My Book but having read a few reviews I didn't like the sound of the on board software and the fact that it made it useless to use with a PS3.

[brfcdec]

A 1TB hard drive is only 40 quid these days? jesus. I already download loads of films/albums/tv series as it is, if I got my hands on that amount of space I'd go mental!!

[brian_gallagher85]

Exactly....I already have