Reliable hardware to backup the hard drive ? 1

[Stella740pl]

Hi!

Can experts here recommend what kind of hardware is best for purpose of regular backing up the hard drive contents for prolonged storage (short of burning it all on multiple CDs/DVDs)?

I am deciding whether to buy a USB Flash or an external hard drive. I've heard that even though the Flash is small and convenient to carry, it is best suited for short-time storage, transferring to another machine, and carrying around the data, but if I want reliable backup for my home desktop, I need an external hard drive.

Is this so?
Do I have other options?
What brands/models would you recommend?

Thanks.
Stella.

 

[CraigHappy]

I use PowerQuest Drive Image 7 (which is now Ghost) they were brought out!
Which sends a complete hard drive image to an storage hard drive on a second machine via a network, but this could be a hard drive in a caddy on the machine you want to backup or an external drive.
The nice thing about that software, is that it allows me to restore individual files when I want or even restore them to a different location of my choice.

 

[kmcferrin]

It's weird that Symantec had Ghost and bought PQDI, then it's also Ghost. I wonder if PQDI replaced their old product?

At any rate, I have used Acronis TrueImage a lot lately, and I like it even better than I liked Ghost in the past. Making disk images or just file system backups is easy and convenient.

If you are looking to back up your hard disk to your home PC, look into some of the external hard disk manufacturers. I know that the Western Digital external USB/Firewire drives come with their own backup software that supports one-button backup. Basically you push a button on the external drive, it signals the backup software on the system to start a backup, and everything happens automatically.

I wholeheartedly recommend this as a personal backup solution, and it works even better for those of us who have technologically-illiterate-but-still-PC-using family members. Getting them to make regular backups to tape or CD would never happen, but plug one of these in and tell them that all they have to do is hit the button once a week and they will be all over it.

 

[wasisnt]

Ive always used USB hard drives and never had a problem.

Free Computer Help and Tips:

http://www.onlinecomputertips.com/

 

[bygeek]

I like these:

http://www.cmsproducts.com/product_backup_desktop.htm

 

[Sival]

Let's face it, anything can go bad at almost any time. So, for stuff that I just cannot take a chance with, I do burn to DVD and stash safely away. My interim between my normal hard disks (RAID 1) and this DVD is a large capacity external hard drive from Maxtor. I'm not really sure about the long term storage on flash drives, but I know I've had files on my flash drive for at least 1 1/2 years without ill effects. I think the estimated life of most of those flash drives is about 10 years, and I don't see why files wouldn't be safe as long as the drive still works.

 

[ceh4702]

Just build a cheap integrated computer with a couple large hard drives.

Tape is the longest lasting most durable medium, but it is the most expensive route. It is what jour mainframe is backed up on. A lot depends how much you want to back up.

The medium you use should be completely independent of the source computer. If your computer's power supply blows up and shorts out all your hardware, it could destroy anything directly attached.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[kmcferrin]

Flash drives may be viable for long term storage, but they have smaller capacities and higher cost per GB than hard disk or tape. They also have a limit to how many times they can be written to before they die. It's not something little like 100 times, but if you are constantly writing data to a flash drive on a daily basis, eventually you will probably hit the wall.

Tapes are not the most durable medium by a long stretch. On the contrary it is extremely fragile and highly susceptible to failure, especially if it isn't stored in climate controlled conditions. It is, however, the cheapest backup medium (not the most expensive), which is why it is so widely used in enterprise environments.

Hard disk is generally the fastest backup option, and it is more durable than tape while being less durable than flash. It's cost is also in the middle, which makes it a good solution for a personal backup system.

 

[tazuk]

At home I use a free bit of software (SyncBack) to perform automated weekly data backups to a secondary internal hard drive, and on-demand backups to a USB external drive.

Not perfect, but it'll do until the 100GB+ BluRay discs and recorders are out, affordable and past any teething problems..

TazUk

Blue-screening PCs since 1998

 

[Sympology]

Take a look at Mini NAS storage. Lacie do some nice models. That way you can have it in a different building, let alone on a different pc.

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[Sympology]

or the

Netgear SC101 Storage Central

just add a disk..

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[CraigHappy]

I've recently purchased the Netgear SC101, but haven't got round to setting it up yet, because when I brought it I thought I could just add my existing drives complete with already backed up data and carry on from where I left off. But I've read the manual it seems that you have to format the drives with the Netgear software and you can't take the drives back out and pop them into a computer system, it says the computer won't see them!

So I'm not sure if this would be an option for you Stella?

Does anyone know if there is a way round this?

 

[kmcferrin]

Take a look at Mini NAS storage. Lacie do some nice models. That way you can have it in a different building, let alone on a different pc.

I'm not sure how big your house is, but installing NAS in a different building just to back up your home PC seems like overkill to me. With even the least expensive NAS devices costing several hundred dollars, the best bet is probably still just a USB/Firewire external hard disk with the included backup software. It's simple and inexpensive.

 

[PRPhx]

Buffalo Terasttaion seem like nice drvices, altho they can be a bit pricey, depending on the amount of space you want/need. Haven't seen one operate, so you might want to do some research (low end model has 4X160 GB drives, are set up with RAID 5 by default) and have 4 (i think) USB connections included.

 

[LawnBoy]

bygeek,

Those ABS+ units look pretty slick, are they good for server OS?

 

[bygeek]

Lawnboy, I think I looked into that at one time and as I recall they will not work with servers.

 

[Stella740pl]

Thanks a lot for your responses, they helped me a great deal.

I decided to go with external USB hard drive with backup function - it seems to make most sense for the purpose.

I just have one more question. Can it create a full backup of more than one machine, space permitting?
From the descriptions I understood that the backup creates a fully bootable mirror image of the drive. Does it mean that it can be done for one machine only?
What if one of them is a Windows/PC machine, and the other one is a Mac? Say, we have a Windows desktop with single 160Gb hard drive, and a Mac laptop with 40Gb hard drive, for my daughter's college work. We are getting a 250Gb external drive. Can they both be backed up on it (in a reasonably simple way)?

Thanks a lot.
Stella

 

[kmcferrin]

It all depends on how you use it. If you use the included software it may be designed to make a bitcopy image of the disk (essentially a mirror). It may just copy files and folders, or it may have an option to do either. You can always just plug it into your PC and then use some other software to do the backup to the USB disk (Acronis TrueImage, Windows backup, whatever native backup tools your Mac has).

 

[Stella740pl]

Thanks again.
kmcferrin, I appreciate your great detailed explanations.

Stella.