External USB Backup Solution: HD or DVD?

[Dave Hardenbrook]

I am a computer technician who is looking for a means by which I can
backup data from some of my clients' older PCs that lack any kind of
mass removable storage. I'm wondering if I should go with a USB hard
drive or DVD-RW. Which is more reliable? I've read some things in this
newsgroup about overheating USB HD's that concern me. Are recordable
DVD's "dangerous" in the sense that when the dust settles after the
stadards wars I may be left with obsolete media? Is a viable
alternative to DVD's to backup my clients' data to an external hard
drive, then use my own system to permanently burn the data to CD-Rs?
Or should I just save a step and use DVD's, which would also be higher
capacity? (Also, less crucial point: Can movie DVD's be satisfactorily
played on USB 1.1 or 2.0 DVD burners?)

And whichever strategy I adopt, will a USB 2.0 card enhance performance,
even if the system's motherboard only supports 1.1?

Thanks ahead...

 

[CWatters]

I am a computer technician who is looking for a means by which I can
backup data from some of my clients' older PCs that lack any kind of
mass removable storage. I'm wondering if I should go with a USB hard
drive or DVD-RW. Which is more reliable? I've read some things in this
newsgroup about overheating USB HD's that concern me.

Use a 3.5" drive in a 5.25" USB case with a fan. Easy to assemble yourself
and no overheating problem.

Are recordable
DVD's "dangerous" in the sense that when the dust settles after the
stadards wars I may be left with obsolete media?

Possibly, but even hard drive filing systems change with time. I would do
both.

Is a viable
alternative to DVD's to backup my clients' data to an external hard
drive, then use my own system to permanently burn the data to CD-Rs?

Yes but how many CDR would that be? Best use DVD+/-R if you have a lot of
data.

And whichever strategy I adopt, will a USB 2.0 card enhance performance,
even if the system's motherboard only supports 1.1?

No. It will drop back to USB 1.1 speeds (=slow). Also support for USB 2.0
was only added to Windows at XP SP1.

Have these PC got LAN cards? Consider setting up a temporary network.

Colin

 

[Rod Speed]

I am a computer technician who is looking for a means
by which I can backup data from some of my clients' older
PCs that lack any kind of mass removable storage. I'm
wondering if I should go with a USB hard drive or DVD-RW.

The most obvious difference is the speed, dramatically faster with a hard drive.

Which is more reliable?

The hard drive as long as you dont drop things much.

I've read some things in this newsgroup
about overheating USB HD's that concern me.

Thats easily avoided by choosing one that does cool the drive properly.

Are recordable DVD's "dangerous" in the sense that when the dust
settles after the stadards wars I may be left with obsolete media?
Nope.

Is a viable alternative to DVD's to backup my clients'
data to an external hard drive, then use my own
system to permanently burn the data to CD-Rs?

Better to use DVDs. Use two different media formats
and then you cant get bitten by one format becoming
obsolete. You need more than one copy anyway.

Or should I just save a step and use DVD's,
which would also be higher capacity?
Yes.

(Also, less crucial point: Can movie DVD's be
satisfactorily played on USB 1.1 or 2.0 DVD burners?)
Yes.

And whichever strategy I adopt, will a USB 2.0 card enhance
performance, even if the system's motherboard only supports 1.1?

Yes, and very dramatically faster with a hard drive.

Thanks ahead...

Is that anything like a head job ?

 

[CWatters]

No. It will drop back to USB 1.1 speeds (=slow). Also support for USB 2.0
was only added to Windows at XP SP1.

Now that I've seen Rods reply I've see what you were asking. Scratch my
reply above... Yes you can install a USB 2.0 PCI card in a PC that only
supports USB 1.1 on the mobo. The PCI card will work at USB 2.0 speed.
That's actually what I have here.

 

[J. Clarke]

I am a computer technician who is looking for a means by which I can
backup data from some of my clients' older PCs that lack any kind of
mass removable storage. I'm wondering if I should go with a USB hard
drive or DVD-RW. Which is more reliable? I've read some things in this
newsgroup about overheating USB HD's that concern me. Are recordable
DVD's "dangerous" in the sense that when the dust settles after the
stadards wars I may be left with obsolete media? Is a viable
alternative to DVD's to backup my clients' data to an external hard
drive, then use my own system to permanently burn the data to CD-Rs?
Or should I just save a step and use DVD's, which would also be higher
capacity? (Also, less crucial point: Can movie DVD's be satisfactorily
played on USB 1.1 or 2.0 DVD burners?)

And whichever strategy I adopt, will a USB 2.0 card enhance performance,
even if the system's motherboard only supports 1.1?

How much data are you talking about? If there's a lot of it you might want
to consider tape. You can get DAT and AIT drives with USB and Exabyte's
VXA drives are available with Firewire. If adding a board to the client's
machine is acceptable then you could also go SCSI, which makes DLT or LTO
an option. You'll find that if you're doing a lot of volume on this tape
becomes very attractive.

As for the rest, if you're just running the external drive for backups then
heat shouldn't be an issue--if it seems to be running hot then you might
want to mark the drive with tempilaq
<http://www.probuy.net/products/TEMPILAQ.html> or Tempistik
<http://www.weldingdepot.com> (<http://www.tempil.com> gets you data sheets
and temperature charts on both) so you can tell if it's running above spec.

The DVD standards continue to evolve, but the evolution is in the higher
capacity drives and media. The dust is pretty much settled on the +/-
issue and the solution was multiformat drives--any drive sold new on the
market today can read and write both formats. Many of the LG drives also
handle DVD-RAM, which, while the media costs more, is considered to be a
better solution for data than + or - as it was designed for the purpose.
The trouble with DVD is limited capacity.

 

[Chirag]

If you need some good software the backups incrementally and has a
great user interface, see
http://www.backup4all.com

It's by far the best I've used

 

[Eric Gisin]

I am a computer technician who is looking for a means by which I can
backup data from some of my clients' older PCs that lack any kind of
mass removable storage. I'm wondering if I should go with a USB hard
drive or DVD-RW. Which is more reliable? I've read some things in this
newsgroup about overheating USB HD's that concern me. Are recordable
DVD's "dangerous" in the sense that when the dust settles after the
stadards wars I may be left with obsolete media? Is a viable
alternative to DVD's to backup my clients' data to an external hard
drive, then use my own system to permanently burn the data to CD-Rs?

I would copy to 2.5" USB HD, and burn to DVD-R on your system.
There are too many problems with USB and burning in general on Win 98/ME.

Or should I just save a step and use DVD's, which would also be higher
capacity? (Also, less crucial point: Can movie DVD's be satisfactorily
played on USB 1.1 or 2.0 DVD burners?)

USB 1.1 is 1MB/s at best, which won't burn DVD at 1X. It may play most DVD Video.

And whichever strategy I adopt, will a USB 2.0 card enhance performance,
even if the system's motherboard only supports 1.1?

As long as the USB2 drivers work under Win98/ME.

 

[Neil Maxwell]

I am a computer technician who is looking for a means by which I can
backup data from some of my clients' older PCs that lack any kind of
mass removable storage. I'm wondering if I should go with a USB hard
drive or DVD-RW. Which is more reliable?

Each has different failure mechanisms. Hard drives generally die
suddenly and relatively unrecoverably, while DVDRs die slowly, with
more options for recovery if discovered in time. I keep my data on
both HD and DVDR as a basic risk management strategy.