Advice on external HD

[Kestrel_909]

Hi All,

Been meaning to get an external hard drive for months, mainly for use as a photo album and easily transfering photos between different peoples' PCs.

At the minute, everything get's stuck on CD and rarely looked at again, and when I do want something, it's an job and a half trying to find it in over 100CDs only of about half, have a informative label :sad:

Anyone have any experience with the following? I noticed it on the tele earlier,
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/751024

Or any other suggestions? Preferable 250Gb, definitately more than 120Gb and reasonable priced.

Cheers,
K_909

[Cornish Jack]

Have used the Freecom 160 Gb version for more than a year - no probs. The only caveat is to check whether it is USB2 AND backwards compatible to USB 1. Some of the Freecom USB2 hardware will not work on USB1.
Worth having a scout around on E-Bay

[Kestrel_909]

Thanks,

Looking at the spec it says 'Available USB Port (usb 2.0 or USB 1.1)'

[Saab Dastard]

I have one of these (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=62833)

Actually the one I have is a paltry 120 GB, but it has been very reliable.

Big though.

I have a 4GB drive in a 2.5" caddy that is genuinely portable - fits in my jacket pocket.

SD

[touch&go]

Did this exercise 2 months ago and went for a Firewire hard drive, I looked into which gave the best performance and the Firewire blows USB 2 out the water.

Link to which is best:

http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm

You can pick up a Firewire card for under £10

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=2324

[Conan the Librarian]

I use two ext disks. An Iomega 160GB USB 2.0 and a Maxtor 300GB Firewire. Both are good, though not bulletproof, but as backup devices, with the original data held in the original location, I am very happy with them.

Do check that you will get some decent backup software with a drive, as it makes a breeze out of the otherwise boring job and also, that whilst it is possible to do it all manually, that what you are after with backup software, is consistency.


Conan

PS If you are after a small and transportable system, Saab D mentioned a worthwhile one, but if you have a digital camera or PDA, then a 4GB Compact Flash/ SD/Whatever card can do the biz as well. Think I would avoid the microdrive like the plague though. Tiny, fragile and with lots of moving parts. Not a good recipe in my book.

[Kestrel_909]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Interesting link about firewire, might look into it. Only thing putting me off I think would be others not having it on their PC/Laptop that I'd be transfering to in future.

Not got a firewire port on my current PC but planning to build a new one in the next few months, so there's another spec for the list:sad: :)

Cheers

[Conan the Librarian]

Just a quick thought for you,but most external HDs come in the older Fat32 format to allow interoperability. The newer NTFS format, will allow Win XP users to see the disk and I think, Win 2K as well. If you plan to use the HD with Win 98/ME etc. then make sure that the disk is formatted accordingly, ie not NTFS.


Conan


PS You can get a Firewire/USB combo drive so that other machines can access it. You might have to buy another lead though.

[Conan the Librarian]

I think at this point, it is worth holding my hands up for your amusement, but if it saves somebody else falling into the same trap, then it is worthwhile. Are we sitting comfortably? Good, then I shall begin. (Have a pack of tissues to hand, though more for tears of laughter than anything.)

B]Prize Prat of the Week/Month possibly even all of 2005.[/B]


My main desktop, has all sorts of data that is hard to replace and a year ago, I purchased a 160GB Iomega Hard Drive. I was too smart, to just move the important data on to there and trust in the Lord, so I took the precaution of using it as a duplicate source.

After 6 months, the old 160 was filling up and I bought a 300GB Firewire/USB Maxtor HD. I even triplicated some data onto that and had everything synced up nicely.

Being a reasonably old hand, I then made sure that all of my data went to other than the C drive, in case of utter disaster. Things like Outlook/Express folders, favourites etc were all redirected onto other drives for the same reason. So far Conan, you get ten out of ten. Much data was backed up onto CD/DVD though not all (keeping track of that lot is not easy, so this was contingency plan Z)

I have been trialling a utility suite, this last few weeks and after one week, I could no longer access either of the Ext hard drives. I wrote accordingly to the suppliers, who announced a new version that would be bulletproof and I downloaded that.

Being a cynic, I tried both drives in the laptop and guess what? Nothing. They could not be read at all, but as for the data, of course I still had copies on the original drives. Yesterday, I reformatted the 160 and rewrote my music and photo collection to the Iomega, before then trying to back up the registry, defrag and create a rescue disk in case the unspeakable happened.

Whilst doing this, the machine hung mid process and that was that. On restart it would not even boot into safe mode. Attempts with the recovery console proved worthless and Muggins was totally b*ggered. The registry had gone for a long and eternal walk into the sunset. No option other than to put a clean reinstall of XP pro into place.

I am midway through this process now and initial indications are that data is ok and that although there are hours of reinstalling drivers, programs and everything else, that I may have (touch wood) got off lightly. I ain't sure yet and the butt is still puckering, but hope springs eternal.

So - How and why? I am as shocked as anyone that my reliance on the external Hard drives was so badly misplaced. I do not have the foggiest idea that two discrete disks could be so badly affected. (and on different busses, too!) Whatever happened to my system, was fundamental in the same way that hitting a brick all at running pace is fundamental.

Given this sorry state, I implore those that thought similarly about ext hard drives, that the only - ONLY - real backup is onto non volatile media and that although it is a pain, it is worth it. Those External disks are wonderful, but let the above serve as a warning that things can go horribly, horribly wrong.

I have learned a lot from this experience and will let you know if I get any sense out of the utiity people, though I suspect there is going to be a lot of backpedalling involved.

Right - Off to find my Dunces hat and stand in the corner.


Conan the (suddenly) incontinent

[Keef]

I had a visit from a very dear friend last week, who had been doing some very sophisticated Swiss Alpine photography. He has about 5GB of photos, on an external USB2 drive, all duplicated on his laptop.

Like Conan's...

The laptop decided to stop working. He plugged the external drive into another PC, and that couldn't see any photos either. He was extremely unhappy.

He brought his laptop round here, I booted it from a Knoppix CD, connected it to my LAN, and copied all his photos off the HD onto my machine.

Moral: backup onto CDROMs (or DVDs) and write on them. And keep a Knoppix CD around for recovery - it really works!

[Kestrel_909]

Glad you have data still Conan, can only make you more cautious in future.

My intention in buying an external HD isn't to rely, indeed I back up stuff onto CDs weekly though my filing system is non-exsistent :D

Then again, even if I lost most of my files, I'd be annoyed but there's nothing vital in there (150GB of photos is a lot of memories though!)

I keep meaning to sort out the 'important' ones and get them printed for even safer keeper but never get around to it.

[Conan the Librarian]

Then again, even if I lost most of my files, I'd be annoyed but there's nothing vital in there (150GB of photos is a lot of memories though!)



I keep meaning to sort out the 'important' ones and get them printed for even safer keeper but never get around to it.

That IS a lot of photos, but that great idea of saving space and organising, is just not going to happen. Get yourself a 400GB external now and to hell with it. That is how I ended up buying the second, 300GB unit. I only had 70 GB of piccies, but an equal amount of music, as the expensive/impossible to replace items and it all goes to DVD after this little schemozzle, starting tomorrow.

I arrive here on Pprune in good cheer - all of my emails are safe and now back on the new installation, ( I put Outlook on the E drive, just in case... :-) ) So far, the damage is fairly light, thanks to the measures I wrote about earlier. I feel like a Cat with 18 lives, but I am still twitching. God, that was close...


Conan