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Thinking about an external hard drive--advice?

17 years ago

I need to start backing up my photos (about 1600 so far, and I haven't even started my project of scanning family photos) and music and a handful of documents.

What are some factors I should consider in looking at external units? I know it's wise to go for as much storage space as I can afford, but there's such a thing as overkill, right? It's just hard to know what you MIGHT need down the line...

I've been reading some reviews on Amazon and am kind of amazed that some units are really cumbersome to use--like requiring many steps to back something up--or else really, really, really slow. But there must be some that truly fit the definition of "user-friendly," right? (Uh... right?)

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Comments (5)

ravencajun Zone 8b TX
17 years ago
I use seagate FreeAgent PRO fairly straight forward easy to use plugs into usb port has a power supply of it's own you plug in, has an on off switch. comes with tools built in and a backup program you can use which will do auto backups.
there is a difference between the free agent and the free agent pro so be sure on any you read all the info on them. I did a LOT of research on the various brands before I chose the seagate free agent pro, it had the best reviews and best features for my needs. Plus I got it on sale which is nice.
It is formatted for NTFS some are formatted Fat32 so you may want to look at that, you can always reformat of course. I use it on my XP machines so NTFS was what I wanted.
jemdandy
17 years ago
I use a Western Digital 80 Gb, external hard drive w/ USB2 conection. This drive has its own power source and does not swamp the USB port. (Most USB ports are protected from shorting. If a device pulls too much current from the port, it shuts down and a re-boot is required to get the port running again. I have a 120 Gb Passport drive for my laptop and the inrush of the drive motor will shut down the port. A "Y" connector is required so that the disc drive can pull power from 2 ports.)

To back up my importnt data files, I do not use a "backup" utility that uses data compression and put a group of files into a file set. This harks back to tape drives and limited storge space. I simply copy my important data files using the same folder (directory) structure as on the parent drive. Now, the back up copies are readily available by a simple drag and drop operation.

For example, you may have financial data that changes daily. Its simple matter to periodically write copies of the current files to the back up space.
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often once it cools down completely it will start again, in fact putting one in a zip lock bag and in the freezer overnight will often allow you to quickly get your info off of a dieing drive, some people use dry ice to really chill them quickly. Keeping the dry ice in a zip lock also and on the hard drive while it is hooked up (but not in the tower) can make it operate a bit longer than just putting it in the freezer. the freezing it makes the metals contract enough that they go back in to their proper place and work till it heats back up then it quits again. Here is a link that might be useful: freezing a hard drive to recover data
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lyban- That's a good choice...even for people who are computer savvy. External hard drives are not very expensive and not having to switch back and forth is a good thing. Take a look at the Toshiba external drives on Amazon...they get consistently ggod reviews and the setup is essentially automatic.
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Portable vs external - there's no standardization of terms. Though, "portable" drives are often the smaller 2.5 inch laptop drive variety, while "external" often use the larger 3.5 inch drives and so the case they're in is larger. Function and use are the same, with one exception: The larger drives often need an external (AC) power supply, which makes them less convenient to use. The smaller ones are usually powered by the USB connection itself. Don't be sucked in by marketing hype, drives are commodity products and most drives of known manufacturers (like Hitachi, WD, Seagate) are of equal high quality. These things are often on sale, if you look around, you're likely to find what you want in the $60-$80 range. Also, keep in mind that all hard drives ultimately die. Think "When", not "If". If you want to be certain to have your important files (whether photos or otherwise), make two backup copies and keep one copy at a different location (like at work or at someone else's house).
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The documents and pictures are (mostly) still there. When something is deleted, all that really occurs is that the first letter of the file name is dropped and the file becomes "invisible." You should be able to recover most or all of the files with the right software. However, if you keep using your computer, you stand a good chance of over-writing the files because the space they occupy is "free space" as far as the computer is concerned. My advice: use another computer and do a Google search for "recover deleted files" to find some software that works for you. It's been several year since I've had to hunt for deleted files, so I'm not up-to-date on what's out there. If possible, install the software you select on the new drive so that you don't over-write more accidentally deleted files when you install the new software.
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luis_pr
17 years ago
When I went shopping for a unit at Best Buy, I noticed that most of the external drives were for hundreds of GB. The biggest may have been 1 or 2 Terabytes. I found my Western Digital 500GB (looks like a book) easy to install. Just plug it into the back of the PC & into an outlet or power supply unit. I did not use the software that came with it (for back up purposes). Instead, I installed Acronis True Image Home 2009 (recommended here). I back up the whole drive and then incremetally back up files that have changed.
buyorsell888
17 years ago
I have an external drive which was sold to me by the local computer shop where I bought my computer and it has PC Clone EX Lite software which totally sucks. The instructions are written in broken English and no matter how many times I've formatted it and followed all the instructions the one touch back up does not work. I have to drag and drop from Windows Explorer.

I did just read about a new DVD that has software that finds all the pictures on your computer and copies them for back up. I found them at Office Max for $10.00 it was a five or six pack. I can't remember. I didn't buy them though. It just ticks me off that I spent a hundred bucks on an external drive and it is difficult to use.
owbist
17 years ago
If you currently have your 1600 photos in folders suitable then there should be no issue with a simple 'copy and paste' operation to get them on an external drive.

1600 photos at 2 megs each should even go on one DVD. What size on average are your photos?

Sorting photos into suitable folders can be a pain. I had 9000 on here and whittled those down to 6000 but I do believe I am back up there again. It takes time to go through deleting and sorting.

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