External Hard Drive

[gabriella]

Dear all

I recently became self employed (it's going far better than I could ever have dreamed to be honest - so much so that I need to close the books for a while )

I have nightmares about losing data and at the moment am backing up daily with a USB flash/memory stick. It has been suggested to me that I could do with an external hard drive and I don't know a scooby do about them.

QUESTIONS:

Do people think that it would be better to buy an external hard drive and back up through that medium?

Or: is using the USB flash ok/good enough?

Or: is burning data to CD ok/good enough?

ADVICE NEEDED:

Best way to proceed but please bear in mind dear friends that I know nothing about this subject at all.

If an external hard drive is the way to go: what to buy/what would it cost/ what are the benefits over the USB/CD option?

Love

Gabriella x

 

[Ian]

Great news Gabs, I'm pleased to hear that all is going well!

How much data are you currently backing up (in MB)?

USB sticks are pretty reliable, but there isn't any harm in having more copies. An external hard drive would be no more reliable, but would be able to hold much more information (possibly hugely overkill).

I'd suggest backing up to USB drives daily and then on to CD once per week (on a CD-RW) as this should be plenty of redundancy

I'm glad that you're backing data up as it can really cause problems when a computer goes wrong - as I've found out the hard way before!

 

[gabriella]

Thanks Ian


Currently have about 250mb data but it's growing fast! The 256mb stick is getting a bit full for my liking so I bought a 1gb one the other day. The data comprises many excel spreadhseets/word documents etc... Imagine the horror of losing stuff - no I'd rather not!!

So do you reckon I am ok with the current system?

Cashflow will be a bit tricky for a while till I get invoicing and those payments come in so if I can keep costs down/defer the external hard drive for a while that would be good.

Thanks for your reply.

Love

Gabs x

 

[Anon_F]

Hi Gabs, I use an external hard drive for large files over 120MB, under that they get saved to my USB flash drive. But like Ian said i back up all critical data at least once a week, CR-R discs are cheap enough to use.

 

[muckshifter]

... to hell with all that

CDs CDs CDs CDs CDs CDs CDs CDs CDs ... and buy one or two of these http://www.discgear.com/ great for storing & lableing them.

And ALL corespondents are best PRINTED OFF ... especially email.

http://www.discgear.com/templates/gear.asp?GroupGuid=11123&ProductGuid=3710-02

You can get then off QVC very cheap.

 

[Quadophile]

What you need to do:

1) The IBM laptops have unique software installed which at the press of a button return the configuration at the original factory setting. The software resides in a hidden partition not visible to the Operating system. Your C: drive will probably show about 6 GB less due to that reason.

2) IBM also provides exclusively a program which can create automatic backups for you as per your requirement and will save the data in a hidden partition which it will create when you install the program for the first time. You should be aware of this. Use the Rescue and Recovery software bundled with your IBM, one of the best bit of software that you have access to free. It can be programmed to do that daily. Any corruption in data, you simply need to restore your PC and you are up and about in minutes.

3) The other issue that needs to be dealt with is the external back-up medium. I suggest you read this bit (Back-up Solutions) to acquaint yourself with the subject.

Since last five years I have used only IBM laptops and the external hard drive of Lacie has come to my rescue a fair few times. My current data is about 12 GB which does not include anything to do with multimedia and dates back all the way to 1997! The only change which came about was that the external hard drive was replaced with the larger one now which is 80 GB

I have no intention of switching to any other methods of back-up since this is very reliable

If you need any clarifications/explanation just ask

 

[gabriella]

Thank you all for your helpful advice and comments. This moring the expert had to return as the network wouldn't work (now sorted thankfully) and he suggested backing up via a company such as Ibackup si I shall look at that option too and let you know what I decide. I am also about to buy a domain name for the buisness so that I can set up a website in due course.

Happy week-end

Gabriella x

 

[Anon_F]

back it up

Hi Gabs, Well backing up data worked well today, my Dad had used my PC to do some large Excel sheets (about 5 hours work), i made him back up his data to a CD-R under protest and today after the floppy disc failed & a lot of swearing by him, he was very happy when i reminded him about the back-up disc

Hope all going OK with the business

 

[floppybootstomp]

I'd go with what Ian said, back up daily to the memory stick and weekly to a CD. I think an external drive is a little bit overkill and all hard disks are prone to failure, internal or external.

After about four years trading I still only have 3.5Gb of stuff, plus a DVD full of images.

I back up daily to a seperate internal hard disk, and depending on workflow/document generation, about once a fortnight to DVD. DVD's only cost about 20p to 25p each so it's an inxpensive media to use, in my opinion.

 

[gabriella]

Ok Flops and Feckit, thank you very much for your suggestions

Take care - I am off to an evening wedding do tonight and need to get myself sorted out and pick something nice to wear

Gabby x