portable hard drive

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shootingstar81

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Dani
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I've decided it's about time I back up my computer, I know I really should be doing it already!! I have about 3000 images so far on here but know nothing about computers and their accessories really. I'm not even sure how big a drive I should be looking for. Can anyone recommend a good size to go for and if you know of one at a good price that would be great! Ideally don't want to be spending a lot as I am saving for a new camera body!!!

Thanks
 
Do you want it to be a portable backup? Are you on windows or PC?

If not portable, then I'd target 1 TB. You can get them in a 3.5" form factor pretty cheaply now. For £50 or so you should be able to get a drive in an enclosure (or buy a drive and an enclosure and put them together). If you want portable, then I'd settle on 500GB as higher capacities really ramp up the price.

If you're on a Mac, just run time machine. It will do a full computer backup, photos included, so you can have a fully bootable drive in case what you have in ther enow goes down.

Thanks
Rick
 
neil_g said:
i always recommend icybox enclosures and samsung drives.

but get 2 and sync them for twice as much data protection.
Click to expand...

I would second this. I keep a weekly copy at my parents house that is about 2 miles away just incase of a non IT related disaster.
 
And a mention for the 1TB Western Digital external from Amazon at around £45 ;)
 
Thanks for all the recommendations guys, will check them out and hopefully order one over the weekend, think I've tempted fate long enough!

Rick, thanks for the heads up about time machine, I am on Mac so will check that out as well!

Thanks again,

Dani
 
I recommend getting something like wd mirror or the like. Better to have 2 backups than one
 
Avoid using Raid as any backup solution as when you delete a file by accident then it also deletes it from other drives. Also other issues which make it not a reliable backup.

I've recently got a 4tb backup consisting of 2x 2tb WD Caviar green drives off amazon for £65 each and a icybox 2 bay enclosure for £50. You probably dont need this. So I'd suggest a 1tb or 2tb backup drive if you dont mind using power plug for it (desktop drives). These price in at £50 and £70 ish.

or if you want it portable and space is enough, look at a 500gb portable. Lacie stark have nice ones for £50 for 320. or WD passport.

Most HD's are good anyway. main thing is just get it asap and backup! :)
 
and you dont necessarily need 2 backups unless you want to cover yourself for a fire or break in etc... and take another drive to another location. I dont do this as I'll probably grab my HD if a fire broke out lol
 
Hi - I work in I.T. and my comment is that 2.5" drives appear more durable when carried about - this is because they're laptop drives are designed for mobility - although they are smaller in capacity.
 
Without a bit of shock absorption casing (ie the ones in the laptop or a well designed enclosure) they will die a horrible death just as easily as their bigger counterparts.
 
LERsince1991 said:
Avoid using Raid as any backup solution as when you delete a file by accident then it also deletes it from other drives. Also other issues which make it not a reliable backup.

I've recently got a 4tb backup consisting of 2x 2tb WD Caviar green drives off amazon for £65 each and a icybox 2 bay enclosure for £50. You probably dont need this. So I'd suggest a 1tb or 2tb backup drive if you dont mind using power plug for it (desktop drives). These price in at £50 and £70 ish.

or if you want it portable and space is enough, look at a 500gb portable. Lacie stark have nice ones for £50 for 320. or WD passport.

Most HD's are good anyway. main thing is just get it asap and backup! :)
Click to expand...

My wd studio edition 2 seems very stable and fast fw800, and were not talking about time capsule. I delete what i dont want and keep what i do. I also like the fact i can at a later date upgrade and switch the drives to two 2 tb. It acts as one drive so no hassle trying to copy perfect copies over one at a time. So i would say raid is a good idea. I would like to know the dangers as i feel safe now but still only basic when it comes to hardware.



vrapan said:
Without a bit of shock absorption casing (ie the ones in the laptop or a well designed enclosure) they will die a horrible death just as easily as their bigger counterparts.
Click to expand...

lacie do the rugged range. for the 2.5" also with firewire
 
wouldnt touch lacie with a bargepole, our design dept break them at a rate of knots. even the rugged ones :|

but going back to raid, always treat a raid array as a single drive whether it is mirrored or not. its still vunerable to deletion, corruption, hardware failure. so really its no better than a single drive in terms of data safety.
 
neil_g said:
wouldnt touch lacie with a bargepole, our design dept break them at a rate of knots. even the rugged ones :|

but going back to raid, always treat a raid array as a single drive whether it is mirrored or not. its still vunerable to deletion, corruption, hardware failure. so really its no better than a single drive in terms of data safety.
Click to expand...

Wow, i used to be in so much envy at the 500gb rugged fw. They cost around £140, much more than a standard. Glad i went for the basic wd


Also sorry to be a pain. What is a good usable safe external system. For example i use a macbook connect to my wd studio edition 2 raid 1. Thinking fast access to the drive fw800 but safe as well with the two drives. With some of the comments about raid i have realised i have been living a little in dream world "oh it will be safe" Now worry has set in. Probably a dvd-r backup (apple so no blueray that i know)? or another cheapish 500gb external. I loose the data i loose all my work for the past 3-4 years.
 
as long as you have at least 2 physical devices you should be okay..

i.e - 1 = your main storage (my case a raid5 array), then 2/3/4 = copy/ies to another drive/s (my case a couple of USB drives), maybe take one off site. i also archive to Blu-Ray and take off site.
 
neil_g said:
as long as you have at least 2 physical devices you should be okay..

i.e - 1 = your main storage (my case a raid5 array), then 2/3/4 = copy/ies to another drive/s (my case a couple of USB drives), maybe take one off site. i also archive to Blu-Ray and take off site.
Click to expand...

Ok i understand what you man about 2 physical devices. starting to feel little paranoid with electronics so think ill keep the raid 1 and dvd-r the rest. They will take up a lot more physical space than a 2.5" but no moving parts less to go wrong and i can leave off site also protecting against theft and fire. Pity they don't or very expensive to use blueray writers on macs. Oh well dvd-r will have to do with a caselogic.

Thanks for the info and opening my eyes and possibly saving my photos.

Just out of interest read a little about raid 5 looked interesting i would not buy unless i could use esata, macbook pro 17" express card port only. What external setup do you use or is it internal
 
watch the storage of DVD they are extremely vunerable to environmental changes like heat and damp. DVD rot can be pretty common if this is not observed.

blu-ray doesnt suffer from these issues :)
 
I have experienced this in the past with dvds in plastic sleeves. Its as if the plastic sleeve melts or disintegrates on to the disk. Blue ray is definitely the best way even more now knowing they don't suffer the same problem. Dvd-r for now, i have a good case logic 188 case so i am optimistic for now and its only a back up of a raid1 setup. cheapest option until blu-ray drops which it will. The lg is now £70 from £140

Also just found this http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001AIBH...de=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B001AIBHEO

1 case 2 independents
 
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