External Hard Drive

[My names Turkish]

I have a laptop that I use for everything: Home, Work, Flight Sim. I move around a bit so a Desktop is not really an option for me for a good while yet. I have a huge amount of digital Photos and Music, that I could not be without if the laptop with 40gb hard disk, decided to stop working. The other problem is the hard disk is 3/4+ full. I have backed up some of my files with CDs but its slow to do and it takes a while to browse through them.

I like the idea of an external hard drive to back it all up, some of the ones I have seen on the net have specs like 160gb connected with a USB. Am I just as vulnerable with another hard disk, all my eggs in one basket as such? I've heard it said that Cds or tape is much safer. So whats the best back up for Dummies?

[VP959]

I had a similar predicament with my laptop, but being a cheapskate chose to buy a USB powered external hard disc case (eBay - about £8 think) and then make my own. I bought a 60Gb laptop hard drive for about £80, mail order from one of the ads in a PC magazine and the whole thing went together like magic in less than five minutes (not even a single screw!).

I like the small size of the drive, it's very slim and fits easily in a shirt pocket. The fact that it's powered by the USB port makes it easy to use as well. I've found it to be pretty quick (USB 2) and not noticeably slower than the internal drive on the laptop. It doesn't need any drivers or installation either (Win XP), just plug it in and it works.

[My names Turkish]

Mike, What are the chances that both the computer hard drive and the external would both go at the same time. If I have to do all the grunt work I may as well just put it on Cds and be done with it.

Its funny you say 40gb is too small. My previous laptop had a 1gb hard drive. I thought 40gb was massive and I would never fill it.

[seacue]

Nothing says that you can't own two external drives if your data is worth a lot to you. Use one as the ultimate backup safely left at home in a dresser drawer most of the time.

That way if the computer goes bizarro and trashes its internal drive and the external one while connected, you still have a fairly recent full backup in the dresser drawer.

Probably best SCANDISK the internal drive and normal external drive before connecting the ultimate backup to the system. Have only one external drive connected to the system at any given moment - if you want to be doubly careful.

sc

[WASALOADIE]

External HDD's are prone to being damaged more easily due to the nature of thier operating and being bounced around if not taken care of this causes damage to the platters and heads inside. Therefore it is alwys adviseable to back up onto CD as well if you cannot afford to lose data. Access times for HDD's is considerably quicke than CD but once burnt onto a CD-r it is permanent and as long as the CD's are kept in good condition you will always have the data available.

[Koyo]

The only way I can see how both HDD dying is a power surge that completely fries your laptop. If you're really afraid, only hook up the USB external when you need to and store it in a nice, dry, and dust free place when you're not using it. VP959's solution should be cheapest or you can get a firewire drive but it's rather expensive.