Internal/External? backup drive

[ImmortalSoldier]

OK I am in need of a lot of help. I have been doing some research but don't quiet get it yet.

I am looking for mostly a storage drive, and some back ups. I wanna store my music, pictures and hd videos. I try to back up everything to dvds or cds. But most of the hard drive space is almost out.

I wanted to get an external drive so I could back up and take the drive and if something went wrong with the computer all my stuff would still be good.

However is there any compatibility issues if I back up stuff from an XP machine and also from a Vista one?

What about using external enclosures and putting an internal drive into one? What are the advantages to that? Isn't it more expensive that way?

If I do get an internal, shed a little light into the raid stuff please. I really don't want an exact picture of my old drive just want certain stuff backed up.

I know that no matter what hard drives go bad specially nowadays specially external, heard a lot of stuff about em, gives me nightmares.

I was thinking of just dumping stuff in them and not really using them, specially if it was an external.

Any suggestions, would be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[k0rnh0li0]

first solely depends on your motherboard if you can run raid.

raid is found in bios. most people would run raid 0/+1 so forth.

must have matching sata hdd's i don't think you can use ide's for raid. ROFL that'd be funny if it did though.

use paragon or try to find a back up program and yes it is different from vista and xp but there should be someone here who can help you out with that.

you only use an external as a back up device and to store data. raid is used for mirroring just in case one hdd fails it backs up the other one.

externals do tend to work well sometimes they dont that why i have a dock. you can get an enclosure if you want but you gotta deal with screws and all that but its more reliable i guess and it keeps heat away from the hdd.

i think i covered a little bit of it. i'll come back later to fill holes and hopefully someone will too.

 

[ImmortalSoldier]

Thanks for the info.

I believe that an external hard drive would suit my needs a little better.

Now just need to figure out which ones out there would give the best bang for my buck. And how to back up from vista and xp.

 

[szore]

do your self a favor: buy 2 1.5 TB seagte drives, run them in RAID mirror mode, and set your My Documents folder to reside in this mirrored array (D drive) rt click My Documents go to properties and set target to D;.

This way anything you put into My Documents (My Music, My Video, etc0 will automatically be "backed up".

done.

 

[ColKurtz]

Originally posted by: ImmortalSoldier


I wanted to get an external drive so I could back up and take the drive and if something went wrong with the computer all my stuff would still be good.

If it's really important, irreplaceable photos, legal stuff, etc, you might want to think about getting 2 backup drives. Give one to a friend or store offsite while you're rotating them. If your house burns down that backup is not going to do much good.

However is there any compatibility issues if I back up stuff from an XP machine and also from a Vista one?

This is more a software issue. Choose a backup program that is compatible with both.

What about using external enclosures and putting an internal drive into one? What are the advantages to that? Isn't it more expensive that way?

External is better. It avoids the possibility of a short or some other failure in the computer taking down both the primary and backup drives. If you do go with internal, this is even more reason to go with 2 drives, but it's going to be a pain to swap them out regularly if they're internal. [/quote]

If I do get an internal, shed a little light into the raid stuff please. I really don't want an exact picture of my old drive just want certain stuff backed up.

RAID is *NOT* a backup solution, simply a way to avoid losing data if a disk dies. Backup implies being able to restore from a mistake. With RAID, any changes (including accidental deletes etc) are propagated across the disks, so recovery is not possible.

I know that no matter what hard drives go bad specially nowadays specially external, heard a lot of stuff about em, gives me nightmares.

External hard drives are no different than internal drives. It's the same thing under the covers; the only difference is the method to get data to it (SATA, USB). External drives are more susceptible to accidental damage, usch as knocking them over, spills, etc, but under the covers are the same technology.

I would suggest getting an external enclosure that houses an *internal* disk, rather than an "all in one" external disk solution. Most of time you don't know what disk manufacturer are in the external disks. A standalone enclosure will allow you to choose a quality disk manufacturer. It also allows you to swap in different backup disks over time, whether to rotate them for disaster-recovery, or simply because you want a bigger backup drive in the future.

I had a 2 Rosewill (newegg house brand) external eSATA/USB enclosures and they are absolute crap. Getting ready to replace it with a dock that fits into one of my 3.5" bays and accepts internal SATA disks. That way I can swap disks in and out without having to fiddle with an enclosure. I have a couple of old foam-lined VHS boxes that I house the naked disks in for storage in safe-deposit box.

One final note. Hard drives are very delicate. If you're going to be carrying this external drive around I would recommend looking at flash-based options which won't lose all your data if you drop your backpack . Good luck!

 

[elconejito]

If you only have one copy.... it's not backed up!

If the data is important to you, it should be in at least two places. So if it's on an internal drive, it should also be on an external. RAID is not a backup solution, it's a redundancy solution. If your PSU explodes it will take all the hard drives in your system with it. Or if (like has been mentioned) you accidentally delete something, it's gone. The advantage to RAID is *if* something happens to a drive you can still keep functioning while you replace the drive.

I'd also advise against the Seagates right now. Just poke around in this forum (or heck just use google) and tons of people are having problems with them right now. Go WD, Hitachi, Samsung. Right now WD is my brand of choice, the green drives are low-power and the black drives are high performance.

So if you have it in your budget to get 2 drives, put one internal and the other in an external enclosure. Get a backup program (Microsoft's SyncToy 2.0 is pretty good and free, works with XP and Vista) there are tons of options out there to backup your internal storage drive to the external.

If you only have a budget for 1 drive, then it's up to you whether you want to put it internally (faster) or externally (portable). You will then have to make a backup onto DVD or something because just ONE copy is NOT a backup.

 

[ColKurtz]

Originally posted by: elconejito
If you only have a budget for 1 drive, then it's up to you whether you want to put it internally (faster) or externally (portable).

Actually if you get a SATA/eSATA enclosure and drive, the speed is the same as internal. USB will be slower than internal.

However, if you want to be able to hot-swap your external drive you may still want USB. SATA hot-swap is not easily achieved with XP. You'll realistically need Vista (though I might recommend waiting for Windows 7 at this point), and you'll need to set the system's SATA ports in the bios to AHCI mode, if your system supports it (don't do this if you already installed Vista on a SATA drive in IDE mode... must set it to AHCI before install). Otherwise you can just shut the system down to remove the external SATA disk, if you want SATA speeds.

 

[ImmortalSoldier]

Thanks for all the help.

However I have a couple of new questions.

The difference between an enclosure and a dock? The way I understand it, in a dock I can just swap several hdds easier than with an enclosure where I would have to screw and unscrew and all that good stuff right?

So then if I do get a dock/enclosure would I just go buy a 3.5 SATA HDD right? But then how does a dock actually work? Is it like a CD drive where you just put the HDD in and swap or is it like an ipod dock where you can put it in a desk voila!

My budget right now is really just for one drive, so an external for backup would be perfect but my main HDD is getting full as well so I might have to save for an internal.

Those Flash HDD do sound really nice, but they are kinda expensive and right now I really dont want to wait a couple of months, to get one. It'd be like carrying an ipod full of saved data. That would be pretty sweet.

I am able to do eSATA on my Vista but not on the XP system. But while I been researching most cant go up to the top speeds, but w/e its just for back up purposes I can let it back up in the evening and do something else, no biggie.

 

[ColKurtz]

Originally posted by: ImmortalSoldier
The difference between an enclosure and a dock? The way I understand it, in a dock I can just swap several hdds easier than with an enclosure where I would have to screw and unscrew and all that good stuff right?

Correct. A dock would probably be better if you're swapping disks in and out often, but if you are planning to keep the external drive connected for long periods of time then you might want to consider an enclosure for the cooling benefits. Most docks don't have fans, and without active airflow/sinks to dissipate the heat a disk may exceed its thermal design, reducing its life (especially higher 7200+ rpm drives).

There are enclosures that are tool-less... press a button and slide it out... or if you get a drive like the WD Green series they should stay cool enough to use in a dock without a fan.

So then if I do get a dock/enclosure would I just go buy a 3.5 SATA HDD right?

Correct. If your chassis does not have external SATA ports you will also need an adapter that routes your internal SATA out the back of one of the PCI slots (unless using a dock that mounts in a 3.5" bay)

But then how does a dock actually work? Is it like a CD drive where you just put the HDD in and swap or is it like an ipod dock where you can put it in a desk voila!

There are both. Some are table-top versions where you put the drive in vertically, while others mount into a 3.5" bay. In these cases most of the disk is sticking out naked.

Other models fully enclose the drive in a dock via a 3.5" bay or external unit, and provide active cooling -- giving you sort of a hybrid between internal and external. However, these usually require some sort of tray you will need to mount the disk in.

 

[elconejito]

An enclosure and dock are just what they sound like.

An enclosure completely seals the HDD in it, usually the drive is screwed into place, the case itself may be closed by screws or sometimes latches.

A dock usually sits on your desk and you pop a bare drive into it. When done you just pop the drive back out.

A dock is better if you will frequently be removing/inserting a HDD from the case. It isn't really designed for long term sitting on the desk since the drive is exposed the whole time. In your case an enclosure is probably a better solution.

Once you get the enclosure or dock, yes, any HDD will do. Performance via USB (eSATA is faster but since only one of your computers has it, USB is the better choice) is pretty slow so it doesn't matter about getting a high-performance drive. Buy the best bang for the buck you can get among WD, Samsung, Hitachi.

Some food for thought for you... Since it sounds like you want to be able to carry this around, you might want to consider a 2.5" drive/enclosure. Basically a laptop drive. They top out in capacity at 500GB, so they are smaller. But if you can fit what you need onto that it is much easier to carry around, and you can worry a little (note: LITTLE) less about impact damage from jostling around in your bag/pocket/hand. They are also lower power so you don't need to carry around a power brick, just USB-powered. To add to that line of thinking... if you get a 2.5" enclosure that has both USB and eSATA you can leave the eSATA cable and power brick at the Vista machine (eSATA does not carry power, just data) and plugin by usb everywhere else. That will give you the speed benefit on the Vista machine and portability everywhere else.

If you do go the 1 drive route, make sure you've backed everything up onto DVD or something because if you lose that external drive or it drops and breaks... yo've lost *everything*.