OT: External Hard Drives

[leigh]

Hey you techies out there,
My computer OS had a major meltdown (while burning a backup cd ironically) yesterday putting me dangerously near a heartattack (all my research is computational and I don't back things up nearly as often as I should mostly due to a lack of storage space)--fortunately it seems to have all been saved by the computer shop up the road, but it did get me thinking. Clearly burning cd's is not the safest means for me to back up data so i've been considering buying an external harddrive to use for backups. Anyone have recommendations?
-leigh

 

[iceburger]

two words: Zip Disk

 

[leigh]

i wouldn't be able to store all my research on a zip disk and juggling many would be a major hassle. that's why i was thinking external hard drive...anyone have suggestions on good manufacturers?
-leigh

 

[u235a4]

spend some money and get a good raid setup running raid 1,5 or 1+0, or 5+0. then back up are much much less of a worry

 

[serpentine5]

I like samsung harddrives and cd-roms. I looked at pricewatch.com and there is a 120 Gig Samsung USB 2.0 harddrive for right at $123.00 after shipping. It also has a one year warranty. It is good because most PC computers today all have 2 or more USB ports, and you can take it with you and hook it up to someone elses computer. Need more info, say so, or email me at mikekahle@comcast.net

 

[elan]

i have done backups for my home computers as well as running my backups at work with 20 computers and a couple of servers.
there are a few things to consider with your choices.
1) how quick do you need to be up and running... meaning the difference between being able to be back up and running quickly (less than an hour) and the next day is about a thousand dollars for a home system....
2) how much data you have to save.
3) how often your data is updated.
4) how often you want to spend time doing backups.
CD's in my opinion, is the best, cheepest, quickest backup for home users. here is why....
a big reason your OS had a major meltdown at the same time is probably due to your backup system trying to copy files that your OS is using. And sometimes the OS does not like that...
but, you dont need to backup the entire hard drive...all the programs and OS you have for your computer should have come with installation CD's... these are your program backups.... so really, you only need to backup your data..meaning anything you created or saved like pics, docs, etc. easiest way to do that is save everything into MY Documents in folders. Then, you only need to worry about backing up MY Docs and you are done. You probably have less than a gig of data which should fit on a couple of CD's and take about an hour to burn.
Problem with this is that if your OS meltsdown again (always for unknown reasons) you have about a days worth of work reinstalling everything... but... you will find that when you reinstall everything, you computer seems to run nice and smooth... i actually format and reinstall everything about once a year....
If you have more than a few gigs worth of data that is continuously being updated... the next step is tape.. which in my opinion is a pain in the ass and never works 100% sucessfully... meaning there are always going to be a few programs you need to reinstall... and the OS seems to be even more sluggish afterwards...
in response to a running a raid system... backups are still needed but the statistical probablility of a meltdown due to hardware failure is significantly less...(but not software problems) if you are wondering, a raid system is...its basically setting up a series of hardrives which act as one... raid 1 is having 2 hard drives which are usually mirrored.. meaning when you save a file, it saves on both hard drives and both hard drives can run by themselves in case one of them breaks down... at work, i mirrored my drives and took the "backup" mirror for the OS and programs out of the computer.... if it failed... i just pulled out the drive and stuck in the backup..... and i only had to backup (mirror) the drive whenever i ran an update or installed something new.
I ran the data files in the company on a Raid 5 which is a series of 5 hard drives that act as one bigass drive... if one of the five drives failes, the other 4 retain the data as if nothing has happend...... you then can replace the failed drive and go on with your day.... if two fail... oh sh**.... so you still need a good backup system.. but the probability of two drives failing at the same time is very low.. but it happened to my brothers mail server which cost about $14K to retreave the data off the bad drives.
oh.. one more thing.. you need to get SCSI drives for raid... if you have a home computer, you have IDE... and SCSI is a few to several times more expensive.
so... my vote is to backup with CD's

 

[leigh]

hey, thanks for all the input. raid sounds more intense than I really need. and the cd was just bad luck--i wasn't backing up everything--only actually copying the files that lead to one journal paper my advisor and i just finished writing and submitted (that morning). i think i'd be perfectly in favor of cd's just this cd drive has been a pain the in rear from day 1. truly i've been unimpressed with a lot of how this computer arrived when i first got it but that's another story. in retrospect i should've sent it back and demanded my money back. serpentine, thanks for the sug on the hard drive. that sounds like exactly what i need. thanks!
-leigh

 

[agro]

I use an external USB 2.0 drive. Cheap, very fast, I can back up my whole internal drive to it, and best of all it is easy!

 

[dfimble]

IDE RAID is really, REALLY cheap now. You can get a cheap one for around $50, and a new drive for around $100.
IMHO, this is the safest, simplest, and by far the least worry of all of the options. If you have a failure, the second drive will take over. Then, when you have the time, replace the dead drive.
Just my 2 cents.
David

 

[serpentine5]

leigh, not a problem, any time.
As for raid..... I like my raid set up, I have several hard drives and three cd-roms running at one time on my computer, but, I am not able to take out one of my hard drives and go to a friends and plug it into his computer without a lot of problems I do not want to go through. So an external USB HD is a great option. I have movies and files that are larger than 700mb, so using a cd to transport the info on is not a real option, plus you do not have to wait for the HD to finish buring the info to take it with you. You access the External HD as if it were an internal, you can drag and drop files or just save directly to it. Just me and the way I see it.

 

[hip68]

You can run RAID with IDE. My Motherboard has an IDE RAID controller built into it. I can have 4 drives plugged into that and still use the normal IDE controller as well. That being said... i have SCSI drives But the options for cheap RAID is out there if you look for it. But you should get a better burner for now. I bought mine at Walmart. Its a 48x burner and a brand name (Phillips) I have been very happy with its performance. I think it was roughly $100.

 

[leigh]

my computer's a laptop with a built in burner--making it difficult (expensive) to replace. I'm really just wanting an external hard drive. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[overanalyzer]

leigh - I too would vote for an external USB hard drive - unless you are techie enough to get an external enclosure and pop your own HD into ...
either way a RAID system is overkill for a vast majority of home users and bit too complex for the average user to set-up. Having said that - RAID systems do rock and I used it a ton when workin on Y2K stuff ....
HTH

 

[leigh]

overanalyzer--thanks...got any personal favorite brands? perchance do you second the samsung vote?
-leigh

 

[overanalyzer]

samsung - maxtor and fuji are hte main brands of hard drives I use .....fuji ones are OLD .... maxtor is massed produced - so you can get some varied results but that is with any major brand. I am a big fan of samsung products - ahve a tv, cell phone, digital camera, stereo equipment and vcr all from samsung - I usually gowit hsamsung or sony as the highest quality in electronics ....I am thinking the pricewatch deal quoted might be a good buy!!! Of course I have not fully analyzed what else is out there but I'd hit best buy and compusa before I bought anything over hte net ....

 

[elan]

they finally have IDE Raid cards... thats cool.. i shows i have been out of the computer loop for a little while.
can you point me in a direction? what should i look for..

 

[fshhub]

raid is great, but not for most people
as for HD's, I will speak from experience here.
I manage a compurte store
and
maxtors are good, but not as easy to set up or as reliable as western digitals.
western digitals are rarely a problem and if they are, their service rocks!
Samsung drives work great, for about 6 months. probably 85% of the ones we sell come back between the 7th and 9th month of ownership. Needless t say, we have stopped carrying them. and form persona experience, I only ever once used a samsung, 4 months later, I had to send it back for a new one, then 6 months later, i sent the replacement back for a new one. Now, when it arrives, I will sell it cheap and get another western digital or IBM.
Many people do not like Western Digital, but then again many people do not like Ford either. But overall, selling hundreds a year,I can say that WD is one of hte easiest to set up. Has the best service for returns(if needed) AND fails very rarely in comparison to most others. Other than that, for an IDE drive, I will only spend my money on Wd or IBM.

 

[overanalyzer]

Interesting - I've got a samsung I've been using since the 90's sometime - no problems. Never used western digital .... but all in all go with the computer store guy's rec!!!

 

[richard rendos]

I would agree that in your case, USB external HD is probably the best option. I use IBM/Hitachi drives now but have used Maxtor and Western Digital in the past without problems.

 

[fshhub]

Originally posted by overanalyzer
Interesting - I've got a samsung I've been using since the 90's sometime - no problems. Never used western digital .... but all in all go with the computer store guy's rec!!!
the older ones were less problem, but even today, there still is a percentage that live.
externals are ok, but if you want an external, I would go with an IDE and get a housing for it, so you can use it either way(internal or externally later on)
Another option is a peerless back up system, you can get up to 20 gig of bak up material, they are easy to use and FAST AND EXTRA MEDIA IS FAIRLY INEXPENSIVE.