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please recommend an external drive

10 replies

OsloGin · 14/01/2015 20:46

My laptop is threatening to expire and with all the irreplaceable photos on there I really want to back them up soon. Could anyone recommend a reliable external drive? I have been procrastinating due to the massive amount of choice.

OP posts:
Babashka · 14/01/2015 20:47

I have two Iomega drives, never had any probs with them.

OsloGin · 14/01/2015 21:14

Great. I expect I should download onto two separate drives to be on the safe side.

OP posts:
Babashka · 14/01/2015 21:18

I do because if one fails, it's unlikely the other one will. There is always Dropbox (or similar) where you can backup files.

OsloGin · 14/01/2015 21:23

Thanks! I've avoided cloud storage so far.

OP posts:
cdtaylornats · 23/01/2015 21:40

If it travels with you then you should consider a solid state drive which is less prone to failure caused by dropping, bumping etc.

NetworkGuy · 24/01/2015 04:16

OsloGin - any idea how much you would need to store?

Not sure why you are avoiding cloud storage - if you have a GMail account, or Outlook (Hotmail / Live.co.uk / Microsoft) account you get some free file / document / video / photo storage. (limited to 5 GB or 15 GB depending on which company and what their rules are)...

Microsoft plans to give unlimited storage for Office 365 subscribers (not sure if that is current now in UK, or coming later this year). Some mobile phones get you 50 to 100 GB of online storage. My Android phone (Galaxy S II) automatically uploads photos when I take them (I have unlimited data plan).

With Google Drive there is software for Apple and Windows (I use this on my iMac) which will keep the Google storage in sync with documents on your computer (so long as you have an internet connection).

If I save a new document (quote, invoice, job specification) on the iMac in the correct folder, it gets copied away to the Google Drive too, so acts as an automated backup system. I won't claim these things are perfect - I have a 2 TB Buffalo NAS on my LAN and run the iMac 'Time Capsule' backup system too... just in case

Note I have over a dozen systems here and relatively few of them have backup running (simply because I use them mostly for browsing and I routinely put client invoices online for them to view/ print, so that's my 'backup' anyway :)

I'm also considering (once I've found a suitable backup application for my needs) using Amazon's Glacier service to store hundreds of GB of files (for an annual cost below 25 quid). That one is aimed at backup much more than retrieval (ie cost for retrieving is much higher than storage and uploading) as this is for the 'disaster recovery' situation when the first wiped out everything at your home/ office and you can then pull back everything from the Glacier (it's slow retrieval and storage, whereas The Box, Carbonite and similar cloud storage systems have fast up/down loading for quick transfer {but quite costly if you have 100s of GB to store } ).

NetworkGuy · 24/01/2015 04:18

typo alert !

s/when the first wiped /when the fire wiped

NetworkGuy · 28/01/2015 18:26

If you haven't already bought anything, I just spotted this deal on Ebay at
www.ebay.com/itm/161562905887 2 TB Western Digital external drive

$79.99 WD My Passport Ultra 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black

$10.71 International Priority Shipping (8-20 days)

$21.22 Import charges

111.92 Total (approx 74 pounds)

Seller's Ebay username is 'buy' (feedback: 2,989,145) 99.2% positive

Yes this is a USA seller but power is provided by via USB NB sometimes a USB-powered drive has 2 plugs so you need 2 sockets free (or a powered hub). This is slightly "future proof" and should be fast, because it is USB v3 and USB v2. USB v3 is not on every computer yet, but new systems should have one or more USB 3 ports (speed for USB v2 is 480 Mbps while USB 3 is over 10 times that speed, so downloading on a new laptop should take much less time).

deckthehalls1188 · 28/01/2015 18:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NetworkGuy · 29/01/2015 03:36

Oh, must admit not having even looked on UK Amazon, nor Ebay (quite a number of businesses sell brand new items there) - and I usually do take a look.

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