Best external hard drives

I had an earlier thread here that discussed external hard drives. Then I was concerned with fan noisies.

The noise is gone.
Now, I really need to concern myself with permanent data backup.
I've heard CD backups are not great options because they tend to not be permanent. Unlike professionally burned CDs. Or so I've heard.

So, is the external drive I buy gonna be something I will be able to retreive when I buy my next PC?

SATA? USB? Which to choose
FireWire? (I've read this is not a good option with XP SP2)
I'm not savvy enough for eSATA, as far as I can tell.

My needs are simple. I do no mp3 and have no huge data to save, just some small files and pictures.

[edit on 30-12-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
So, is the external drive I buy gonna be something I will be able to retreive when I buy my next PC?

Any USB external H/D will work with your next/new PC. If you were to go with one that connects via firewire, the only requirement would be the next/new PC have firewire ports.

I do no mp3 and have no huge data to save, just some small files and pictures.

Considering "no mp3s" and "just some small files and pictures", why not consider one of the larger capacity "thumb drives"? They're pretty cheap in the 1, 2, or 4Gb range ... which should be More than sufficient space for your files.

Heck, if you "outgrow" a 1Gb, just get another or perhaps a 2Gb.

I've had one go thru the wash and All the data was still there and readable.

+ they are quite convenient to carry around with you. i.e. at a friend's house and just Have To have that or those piccies ... open purse, remove thumbdrive

I had a seagate external hard drive, that connected via usb, or firewire.

The original harddrive that was inside is a regular IDE drive. I found this out by opening the unit.

This was a nice find for me, as I had a couple of hard drives with all kinds of miscellaneous files, image file, music, etc.

I would turn off the unit, open it (left the screws out, but only laid the top of the unit to close it) and the easy access allowed me to swap the hard drives on demand.

Unfortunately I dropped the whole assembly onto the floor one day, and it broke off the IDE connector.

But if it wasn't for my "creative usage" :shk: of the drive, it was an excellent purchase.

Of course, the speed that you would get from it is limited by the USB or Firewire connection.

[edit on 12/30/2006 by Mechanic 32]

Originally posted by Mechanic 32
I had a seagate external hard drive, that connected via usb, or firewire.

I use a seagate internal HD that I converted to an external drive for all my backup. Unfortunately I've had it less than a year and it broke 2 days ago.....fortunately they come with a 5 year warranty so they are sending me a new drive...that's the good thing about seagate.

From my limited reseach, I thought you could purchase an internal hard drive, and they sell the covers to make them external drives. LIke maybe I saw it at newegg???

12m8, I like the way you think.
Sounds like the easiest, cheapest and most portable solution to my situation.

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
From my limited reseach, I thought you could purchase an internal hard drive, and they sell the covers to make them external drives. LIke maybe I saw it at newegg???

That's exactly what I did DTOM. I found an incredible deal on the internal seagate HD and then found another good deal on an external conversion case kit. 500 GB of backup space only cost me something like $150.00. With a 5 year warranty on the HD I felt really good about the choice on seagate hardware.

I had a maxtor HD and when it died I had no choice but to purchase another. I found that seagate was one of the top HD makers and then saw that it had a 5 year warranty...that sealed the deal for me.

Anyway how much TOTAL space do you need for backup?

If it's less than say 2 GB it may be worth getting the thumb drive like 12 suggested, no moving parts in the device is a big plus. But it all depends on how much space you need.

I don't need all that much.
The thing with the thumbnails, will I be able to back up files, too.
And, are they also what is called USB flash drives?
Can they be programmed to schedule backups?

I'm guessing the answer will be no and I'll be looking at something a bit more substantial....although the small drives sound perfect to just backup pictures

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
Sounds like the easiest, cheapest and most portable solution to my situation.

D

thumbdrives

Reputable, with FAST shipping.

Just sayin' ... $0.02

[edit: to add]
YES, a USB "drive" will do All of the above.

capacities prevail, obviously

[edit on 12/30/2006 by 12m8keall2c]

WOW!

12 I may purchase one myself. I've never seen a 2 GB thumb drive for $30.00 or less. Can you recommend a good brand? Something from that first page from the url you just posted.

I can't believe it....$30.00!

Most External Harddrives are crap because you can't upgrade them, however you can by SATA based enclosures where you can swap harddrives in and out when you need to. Some of them are capable of daisy chain configuration using only one USB 2.0 port and emulate multiple harddrives as if it were just one large one.

www.tigerdirect.ca...

Here is the Enclosure that I have. Harddrive is sold separately.

Originally posted by 12m8keall2c

YES, a USB "drive" will do All of the above.

capacities prevail, obviously

Since price is a big factor, I may as well try one of these guys

Maybe later something upgradeable will be needed, but at this point, I have no good backup except CDs :shk:

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
Since price is a big factor, I may as well try one of these guys

Here's the link I sent KL ...

www.tigerdirect.com...

Yep, sounds like you could get by with a thumbdrive.
I've got a 200gig Western Digital USB external drive, which I've had no trouble with at all.

Maybe I'm a bit different to other people, but I'm of the opinion that you can never have too much storage.

I hope this post makes sense, it's new years eve here and the beer is flowing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Local backups like harddrives, dvds and thumbdrives won't help you when a real disaster strikes. Seagate harddrives in alu enclosures are good for file storage but they won't help you when your house burns down. Get an account at a decent online storage service like box.net. They have free accounts with 10MB filesize and 1GB storage limit. If you need more you can pay a small amount for more storage and limitless filesize.

The way a real backup works: Make the backup file, test the backup, upload to as many sites as possible as far away as possible.

Now there's another interesting solution, Bracke, thanks

Do you know, is this like an up and coming thing? Since I don't fileshare, mp3 or do any video stuff, I fell out of the loop for this kind of thing.
Are these sites secure?

To make it short;

USB and Firewire are connectors to your computer for an external harddrive. USB is 100% supported on current and future machines. Firewire is supported on most but not all machines (Look into it) but is somewhat better than USB. But Firewire is not good enough for your needs to make up for it (You gain the most with _big_ files).

eSATA is AFAIK the newest/best method for 'connecting' (I think?) a harddrive to its wire (USB/FireWire). But with your needs, it doesn't matter if you get a SATA, eSATA, SATA2, IDE, WHATEVER (I'm drunk, but right).

Originally posted by bracke
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Local backups like harddrives, dvds and thumbdrives won't help you when a real disaster strikes. Seagate harddrives in alu enclosures are good for file storage but they won't help you when your house burns down. Get an account at a decent online storage service like box.net. They have free accounts with 10MB filesize and 1GB storage limit. If you need more you can pay a small amount for more storage and limitless filesize.

The way a real backup works: Make the backup file, test the backup, upload to as many sites as possible as far away as possible.

Most normal people need an online backup of more than a few megabyte, so don't 'force' people into buying it. Mister and misses Jones only need a few documents to backup their personal passwords and bank-accounts; and that can achieved with a normal email-account. Your suggestion with Box.net is fine, but they really don't need more...

Proffesional people need external-external backups!

I need external backups because I have a habbit of backing up my bought CD's! And that's just because I'm too scared...