Which remote hard disk?

[thomas]

hi,
Quite tempted to get a remote hard disk. I've lost a few in my lifetime and lost stuff I'd rather not have lost. While I do back some things to CD, I'm quite lazy...dragging and dropping onto a remote hard disk wouldn't be that much of an effort.

Now, probably don't need more than 500GB. Looking at around the £50 mark.

What should I look for? Any recommendations?

Also, can I just set my computer to back up completely on it and then can I restore it onto another hard disk...or is it better just to put individual files on it. most software is on CD or I can get again so that's fine.

It's really just work files and things as well as holiday photos, videos and things like that.

The ones I've seen are USB...is that good, or slow? ....

cheers

 

[ColinJ]

I'm about to buy one. I've recently had to restore my brother-in-law's backup to a replacement hard drive and it made me think about the fact that my PC is not backed up.

My hard drive failed about 5 years ago and it took me a week to get all the software reinstalled, and settings back to where they were before so I think a full 'image' backup is a good idea. You can get software which will do a full backup and then only differential backups from then on (the changes from the initial backup) so they would be smaller and faster.

I keep changing my mind about what drive to buy. It seems that they are not as reliable as you'd want them to be. There are people complaining about multiple backup drive failures.

My PC only has an 80 GB hard drive so I will probably buy an external drive of about 250 GB capacity.

USB2 is pretty quick. You'd probably be talking a few hours to backup 40 GB or so, but differential backups after that would be pretty snappy. All modern PCs have USB2. Trying to backup an old machine with USB1 ports would be terribly slow but you can buy USB2 expansion cards for about £10 (that's what I've got on my PC). They are not quite as fast as onboard USB2 ports, but are still pretty quick.

I'm looking for free backup software. (My brother-in-law uses Norton Ghost which costs about £40.)

 

[ian turner]

Remote ?
I assume since you mention usb you mean external so not very remote as against NAS drives which can be connected to some remote point on your network and would cost a lot more than £50.
As long as you use the external drive for backup rather than additional storage then it's a reasonable start. If on the other hand you do start offloading onto the external drive then you would need a second drive to backup the first to so that you don't lose data if the first dies.
As to going the whole hog on differential backups try http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

 

[ColinJ]

As to going the whole hog on differential backups try http://www.paragon-s...ome/db-express/

Ah - free is a price that I like. Crikey, it's a big download though - 94 MB!

[QUOTE 1261444"]
Perfect timing. Aldi 1tb (1000gb) external hard drive, £69.99, in store tomorrow-
[/quote]

Worth a look! Apparently USB3 is the latest standard, though I'll be sticking to USB2 (no point in me buying more parts for a 10 year old PC).

 

[thomas]

Remote ?
I assume since you mention usb you mean external so not very remote as against NAS drives which can be connected to some remote point on your network and would cost a lot more than £50.
As long as you use the external drive for backup rather than additional storage then it's a reasonable start. If on the other hand you do start offloading onto the external drive then you would need a second drive to backup the first to so that you don't lose data if the first dies.
As to going the whole hog on differential backups try http://www.paragon-s...ome/db-express/

sorry, external hard disk...not sure why I put remote!!


Not planning on using it as additional storage. I've got a home PC with a 500GB hard disk that I've not used since I got my laptop so can always stick things on that. Just want something that will get my going again if anything bad happens (and hard disks always go wrong).

Any recommendation on which model to go for? That software sounds good - especially for free. I have some HD trasnfering software, somewhere, which would probably be able to do it. No idea where it is tho.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I've got my important files backed up onto an external hard drive, I also have a free account on here https://www.myotherdrive.com/actions/welcome max 2 gigs and have my documents and photos on there as well. The only problem I have had so far is that the website can sometimes be slow to load.

 

[Cardiac]

My 2 cents -
If possible have more than one external drive that you can use for backups. Then you can rotate them so that your most recent backup does not overwrite the last. Try only to connect them and power them up when you need to use them. Many have relatively poor cooling compared to the drives inside a PC and will get quite warm after an hour or two. Try to use Windows drive eject / hardware disconnect tool rather than just unplugging to avoid needless filing system errors. Lastly, if doing long backups, make sure that the drive is somewhere stable where it can't get knocked, and again check for plenty of free air for cooling.

(All of the above learned the hard way, I am sorry to say )

Les.

 

[Bird Brain]

Good god I have about a million external hard drives knocking about.It's getting to be a pain.

 

[ColinJ]

Of course, if you are only backing up your documents, you could probably get away with a couple of flash memory sticks. I like the idea of alternating between 2 or more of them because if one fails, the other should still be okay.

Or back up to DVDs if you have a DVD writer?

 

[ThePainInSpain]

I have 7 external HD's of varying sizes, all are used for specific storage.

Don't prat about with 250 got for 1TB. Why ? Because the difference in price is nada.

I recently bought a 1.5TB for €105, because it was €85 for a 1TB of the same make, so I got 50% more for only another €20.

You know it makes sense..........

A m8 in the UK has told me that ALDI have 500GB USB powered External HD's for £65 at the mo. Very worth consideration because it requires no external power.

 

[Proto]

I've bought a few over the years for backing up work data, La Cie, Freecom, Iomega. By far the most reliable so far has been a Western Digital Passport. USB powered too.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&store=2&cat=393&subcat=3267&filtermfr=62,15

 

[Bird Brain]

I agree with pain.1TB is better in the long run.

I actually have two 2.5 inch drives both 500GB.

I store films on one of them.

Will get a 1TB (or bigger) in the future.

 

[ian turner]

Nothing like asking about backup to get the folks out suggesting you spend a few thousand pounds on having your parents garage converted to a temperature controlled data storage base for remotely backing up your dvd collection . Ho hum. Cycling between two drives is only for someone doing a complete drive image where each backup means possibly overwriting some files you didn't realise you'd lost. For someone using synctoy to backup new stuff it's irrelevant.
I wouldn't personally recommend any particular model as they're all just as likely to go bang on you.
The portables are a bit more robust as designed to withstand being dropped to a certain degree but cost more than the non portables. £65 for a 500gb portable is somewhat expensive so ignore the aldi drive. Note they usually require 2 usb plugs for the power requirements. Some folks claim they can run theirs on one but then as far as they know that may be rather borderline and taking unnecessary risks so don't do it.
Check what's available and on offer. Check the comments against them.Stick with those from drive manufacturers as the previous buyers of buffalo,lacie,freecom etc may have units with drives from various manufacturers depending on what was the most cost effective.

 

[Norm]

I've bought a few over the years for backing up work data, La Cie, Freecom, Iomega. By far the most reliable so far has been a Western Digital Passport. USB powered too.

http://www.ebuyer.co...filtermfr=62,15

+1 to the WD Passport. Small, looks good, works well, easy back-up software, they have not failed me yet. I've a 250gb (about 3 years old) and a 500gb (about 18 months old) and a colleague bought a 1tb last Wednesday.

 

[MrGrumpy]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002E7HEVU/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21

or

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=896