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Need Help Making a Back-up Drive

TBSN

TBSN

Senior member
Well, everyone knows that you need to backup data, but I've always said, "ahh, I'll get to it sometime..." My friends only drive just failed recently and she lost all her data, so it made me realize I really need to back up my computer!

I have plenty of space for an internal drive in my PC case, but that would mean I can't backup my laptop too.

Should I get an internal drive? External? Is it cheaper to buy an enclosure/HDD and DIY or buy a premade one?

My PC has eSATA ports, but I've never used those before. I would want it to have USB for sure so I can use it with my laptop.

I don't know where to start...

Thanks for any advice you can give me...
 
Three alternatives:

1) Get a USB external drive, plug it into the PCs, and make your backups
2) Add a second internal drive and back up to that. Your laptop can talk to your desktop PC via a network card and a switch or router.
3) "Cross-backup" the two PCs. Back up the laptop to the desktop and the desktop to the laptop, using alread-existing hard drive space on those two PCs.

For external drives, I recommend buying a separate housing that has a fan. I don't trust commercially-available USB drives, since virtually none have effective cooling.

A great new option is to buy/build a Windows Home Server. Backups are automatic and painless. The software is $100 if you have an old PC and have a suitable hard drive available, or you could build a new one for $350-$400, or buy an HP Home Server for around $550.
 
Thanks for the reply.

The first option is the easiest I think.

The second option is good, but can I do that via my wi-fi router? I'd have to do some research into how to set that up.

The third option is convenient, but I'm running low on HDD space on my PC so I thought I'd use my back-up drive to hold my music/pictures as well as to back up to.

I don't really want to bother with the Home Server, I don't really have the room for another computer.

So, if I can make the extra internal HDD on my desktop sharable via wi-fi or an ethernet cord, that would be ideal, and also the cheapest.
 
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