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LockedExternal Hard Drive Advice?

posted on April 23, 2009 at 06:16PM Inappropriate?

So I'm one of those people that has always backed up via CD and by emailing things to myself, but the prices of external hard drives seem to be going down. Any suggestions on what's the best brand and size?

replies: 11 latest post: April 07, 2010 at 10:31AM by SHC-StaceyW
Displaying all 11 posts
posted on April 23, 2009 at 06:40PM
 

Western Digital makes very good hard drives. A 500 GB drive can be had for around $90-110, and 1 TB can be had for around $140 or so.

posted on August 18, 2009 at 07:37PM
 

I saw that 1 TB drive.  I need one.  I dont know If I'd ever fill it up, but i need one anyway ;)

posted on August 18, 2009 at 08:19PM
 

I remember when...

Don't laugh.

5 megabytes cost 5 grand, for an IBM-PC 2 disk drive unit "upgrade" to an IBM-XT like machine.

Wow! WordStar would REALLY run fast on that large a disk!

:)

posted on August 19, 2009 at 08:46AM
 

I'm not laughing.  I dont remember that far, but i do remember my first real PC with a screaming 25MHZ proessor and a wopping 100MB HD.  Of course that's an upgrade from the IBM tower with the giant toggle switch for the power, and tape drive.

posted on August 19, 2009 at 11:47AM
 

     I have a western digital backup, and the bluecrue guy is correct, I have had no problems with it.  I only have a 250GB one, and I still have so much space left on it, my daughter has a 500GB external harddrive, and she really likes it to back up all of her pictures.  Speaking of pictures, if you do a lot of picture editing on the computer, my wife really recommends "Corel Paint Shop pro", this program really does a wonderful job with pictures, and it has lots of options with it.

posted on August 20, 2009 at 04:10PM
 

Just get a USB storage stick. 2-4GBs is what you mostly need....unless you're storing a ton of videos or music.

posted on November 23, 2009 at 07:52PM
 

Some people have old hard drives lying around.  You can get adapters that let you use old IDE or SATA hard drives as external USB devices.  The adapters have a case that fits around the hard drive.  Instead of using the adapters the way they are intended, I prefer to mount the electronics from the adapter on a piece of wood and throw away the case.  When I want to back up onto a spare hard drive, I grab the drive and plug it into the electronics.  Of course if you carry the hard drive on your travels, you would want to put it into the case.  And you have to be careful not to zap the drive electronics with static electricity if it isn't in a case.

posted on December 06, 2009 at 08:11PM
 

I purchased Netgear ReadyNAS Duo (RND2110) a couple months ago and it works pretty good.  It is a Network Area Storage unit (NAS) with 2 RAID drives (the 2nd is a copy of the other for on the fly full data backup). It sits in the middle of a home network via ethernet that can be used to manage private and public folders.  This makes it a single data repository for multiple computers and logon accounts.  I recommend getting 3 drives, 2 that run live, and the 3rd is rotated out, say every month, and put into another physical location (bank deposit box?).

posted on April 02, 2010 at 06:11AM
 

Choose a well known brand like Seagate or Western Digital.  I chose a relatively unknown brand once, and was sorry I didn't pay the extra 20 bucks.  I lost everything.

I have a WD 500MB drive that has held up, and usually don't have problems with WD.  To be on the safe side,  I replace external hard-drives every three years, regardless of amount of use - though I do use them quite often.   Drives can last anywhere from 50,000 hours to 200,000 hours, so the "age" of the drive isn't calender years, it's hours-powered-on.   24x7 for a year is 8,760 hours.  So drives are replaced halfway before the low figure is reached.

Not to say that a drive can't give out for any given reason - a good electrical surge or a bump with the elbow can certainly shatter your dreams.  But I digress.

After three years, I destroy the drives with a hammer, followed by strong magnets and more hammer.   Obviously I have confidential information with the company, but since drives can go out anytime after 5 years, it's worth it for ME to decide when to get a new drive, and not lose all my information before the drive dies and makes that decision for me while swiping my ability to back-up!   Nothing - NOTHING - is worse than losing your data. 

Finally, if you hear a random click-click noise coming from your drive, that means your spin motor is about to give out.  If you hear that, do NOT turn off the drive or the computer.  Go to your nearest Sears or hard-drive selling retailer, buy a new drive, rip open the box, fling the manuals and cellophane wrapper aside, dive to your outlet with the AC cord, plug it in, connect the USB and copy everything you can to the new drive starting with what is most important.  Chances are good that click-clicking drives will eventually not turn on again. 

Wow, DaveJunk.  That is some serious backing up.  Your data ain't going NOWHERE!  :) 

posted on April 05, 2010 at 08:36AM
 

I agree with @MikeyRocks. I have a 250GB hard drive and it's great for music/movies/anything else you would possibly need, or if you need to back up your computer

If you're storing basic documents only, you can get by with a 4GB memory stick. For presentations and spreadsheets, it may behoove you to get a 16GB stick.

posted on April 07, 2010 at 10:29AM
 

I just got a new imac.  It has a 1TB HD.  Im in love :))

 

now I want the upgrade to the 2TB =P

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