Purchasing A Backup Harddrive

[tberg224]

Hi,
     I am in the market for a backup harddrive.  I had a couple of questions.  First I will explain, I use my computer for mostly personal and school, I have a decent amount of word documents, music, and pictures.  I have a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 5150 Laptop with Windows XP.  I wanted to know

1)  For my uses, is an external harddrive really necessary?
-Is this something I should have or is it really not a big deal for my purposes?

2)  If it would be of particular benefit, I'd like to know, which brand, model could you recommend?  I do have a restricted budget.
-Would this do?
Link Edit


3)  What kinds of features should I pay attention to or are of big importance?

4) How much GB do I need?
-Is 320 ample?

Thanks.

[Dusty]

Hard to say if you need 320gb, generally your backup hdd need not be any larger than the internal one unless that's running out of space and will be replaced soon.  (Some cloning programs will clone to a smaller hdd provided that the smaller one can contain all the files on the source partitions)

If you are considering cloning your internal hdd to your backup hdd so that you can boot from the backup, ensure that booting from a usb device is supported in your system.

The price shown on the link you posted is certainly very attractive, pity they're out of stock!

Burning data files to a cd or dvd is the cheapest form of reasonably secure backup IMHO.

Good luck

[homer]

1. an external harddrive is not a necessity, unless you do not wish to open up your comp and run a few wires.
2. i recommend seagate hardrives.

an added note, if you are tech savvy, you may wish to setup a RAID 1 array with at least 2 SATA harddrives. its basically two (or more) identical harddrives, the same information gets written on all of them so if one fails you still have another/others. in otherwords...it automatically backs up all your info without you worrying about it.

[Calum]

homer, the PC in question is a laptop.
It's harder to open it up and add a HDD.
In any case, an external HDD is a good thing to have for backups.
For example, mine is only on when in use, so it's less likely to fail than an internal drive, spinning up all the time.
Also, if I delete something on my internal drive, or a virus corrupts some data, I can't accidentally delete the one on the external drive too.  Sure, it may be a few days out of date, but it's better to have that than nothing.  Viruses also can't get at my backup because it's almost never on.
As for what to look for in an external drive, get one with a capacity that exceeds your requirements right now.  So if you have a 100Gb drive, get a larger one, to allow for extra files, older versions, etc.

[patio]

The Seagate is a good choice with a 5 year warranty...i wouldn't buy one with less.
As far as size that's strictly up to you depending on your budget.

I would still consider other backup solutions though such as Drive Imaging software and burning backups to CD/DVD's....all HDD's fail....eventually.

[GX1_Man]

Most external hard drives have a 1 year warranty. All Seagate internal drives have a 5 year warranty. I think you would be better served to buy an internal drive and put it in a case, but that's just me.

All hard drives fail eventually, taking that important data with them. A good backup strategy is a wise investment. Either use another drive, or back up to optical media or both, depending on how IMPORTANT that data is.

If you are just backing up a laptop, then anything bigger than original is enough, and less than that may be enough if you use a good backup program. I highly recomment Acronis True Image. Check the price at www.newegg.com 

[patio]

I was suprised to see the 5 Year warranty on an external myself...

[GX1_Man]

Not all Seagate externals do have that 5 year warranty.

[homer]

homer, the PC in question is a laptop.

lol whoops...

Not all Seagate externals do have that 5 year warranty.

nice to see you again GX1_man. how have you been?

[GX1_Man]

Hey there, Homer. I decided to invest a few hours this weekend during football games. 

[tberg224]

Thanks.
I think I'll go with the seagate, I just would like to know what size I should get.
I am not sure the size of my current harddrive, it's a Dell 5150.

[patio]

From My Computer right click the C: drive and select Properties...this will tell you used space and total space.
I'd suggest a drive at least 1.5 times larger than C:

But i wouldn't suggest an external for storage of backups...all hard drives fail eventually.
Look into an imaging program such as Acronis True Image. These create an exact image of your HDD which can then be burned to CD/DVD for safekeeping.

[GX1_Man]

And if you don't know what size your hard drive is, it would be a great idea to read all of the information you get with that new drive before you even hook it up. 

[tberg224]

Thank you for your help and recommendations.  I truly am thankful to have your volunteer and educate me on this, it is very nice.

After reviewing your comments, and examining my computer, and the products suggested, I had a couple of follow up questions.

1) I indeed did the procedure of checking my harddrive size. 
-I clicked on “my computer” right clicked “c” drive then properties.
-I was told I was using:
            17,715,257,344 bytes or 16.4 GB
-I was told I had free:
            22,284,242,944 bytes of 20.7 GB
-I was told my CPU had a total:
39,999,500,288 bytes or 37.1 GB

-I am confused, just how much space am I using/do I have free/total?
-Is it the bytes/GB or both?

-Also, isn’t this on the small side?
-All of the backup hardrive have at least 100 GB, is there something wrong with my CPU?
-Is this size, under 40 GB, normal?
-How is considered by industry standard?

2) My next question, I am unsure now of what to get.  For my purposes, backing up all of my files/data/music/pictures/settings, does an internal HDD, external HDD, or image copier make most sense?
-If a copier, why that of an external HDD?
-Nobody before has recommended anything but an external HDD, so I am confused as to why this is better.

-What I question in particular, if this is better, than not only why is it rarely mentioned, but why is it cheaper than an external HDD?

3) Also, how exactly do you use this device?
-Is is like an external device, like a USB flash drive, or is it a software program you download onto the computer, like Microsoft works?
-Does this save just files, like a USB flash drive, or everything, including programs, like an external HDD?
-If it’s a software program, how can you save all files and settings, in case of an emergency, wouldn’t they be lost on the harddrive if it got destroyed whereas an external HDD is separate and rescued?

4) Also, I understand with an external HDD you can plug it into any CPU and have your files.
-Is this true and can you do this with the image copier?

5) What is your opinion of a second hard drive called a slave?
-I was considering getting a MAXTOR-1.
-Is there any reason why you recommend MAXTOR 1-touch over an external hard drive or Image copier?
-What advantages/disadvantages does this have over those?

-Are you able to copy not only files, but your entire Windows settings?
-In other words if my CPU were to crash, or if I were to go to a hotel and use their CPU, would I be able to simply plug this MAXTOR-1 touch into their CPU and have every file and the same desktop programs/pictures all up?

Thanks.

[patio]

Quite a few queries but i'll give it a shot...

You have a 40G HDD currently.
There's nothing wrong with your CPU.
A 40G HDD was a very popular size for drives when it came out. As time has gone on HDD sizes have increased ...
As far as the Internal vs. External they both work the same way. It is simply a matter of preference. The internal is installed in the case while with the external you have the benefit of portability. So it's up to you.
It will show up as another drive in Windows Explorer.
Any files copied to there will be accessible as if they were on your other 40G HDD.

As far as backups this is where you are getting confused. All files you copy there can be seen/used. But this is not an entire backup of your system...only backups of what you have copied to there.
For a full backup i suggest a drive image program such as Ghost or Acronis True Image. These programs create an Image of your whole system drive  which can then be burned to a CD/DVD for storage and safekeeping.

Think of the other drive as additional storage. Right now everything on your computer is in the basement ...the additional drive is a 2 car garage ...just another place to store things.

Last but not least and most important. You can not simply plug the drive in to another machine and have it run...it doesn't work that way. This is because the hardware in every machine is slightly different and also because Microsoft wants it this way.

This is where the image programs come in. If let's say your main hard drive fails you would simply replace it with a new drive and then run the image program to restore everything to the new drive and start it up and everything is there including Windows.
I make images at least once a month just in case.

Hope this has helped but you may be more confused than ever...if so feel free to ask for clarification.