Portable Hard- drives

[kaypony]

Hey everyone. I know this a very common topic but I did a search and only found four threads so I thought it might be worth making a new one... My hard-drive on my laptop crashed on the weekend. Bye-bye 5 months of photos (I did try and backup last weekend but I couldnt get comp to work and thought nothing would ever happen to me, I was wrong.) I'm getting it fixed but now I really want to get a portable hard- drive or two. I dont need a screen. Do you reccomend having two hard-drives or is one enough? What are the most reliable brands on the market? I live in New Zealand, but via the internet I can get access to most reputable (is that the right word?) brands I should think.
Let me know your ideas
Katherine

[tommykjensen]

As for harddisk brands it is like with cameras some like one brand other like another. It is my opinion that no matter the brand eventually a harddisk will fail. It is not a question if but when it fails. So you need to always count on that.

You have many options. I'll just mention 2.

You can add one external hd to backup and backup on dvd's.

You can add two external hd's and backup on both and keep them seperate.

The point is make sure you have your at least 2 copies of your photos.

My setup is currently:

- 1 x 500 GB internal hd which is my primary photo storage.
- 1 x 320 GB external NAS which is my backup (need to replace it with a 500 GB)
- DVD backups
- I copy the DVD's to a second standalone pc to verify that the DVD backups are working. There is no point in creating a backup if it does not work. And it is too late to find out when you need the backup.

[kaypony]

Thanks for the hints. I was trying to set myself up something more efficient then what I have at the moment by doing DVD backup (last weekend before failure), but could I get it to work? No. Anyhow, the computer man says he can retrieve my data hopefully, so its been a learning experience anyway. I think I'll go with DVD backup and the one hard-drive. But I'm also going to Africa in summer and wont have computer access, do you think I can rely on one hard-drive to cope with one month of photo opportunities?

[tommykjensen]

If you don't have computer access on your trip you need a storage device that has a cardreader builtin so you can copy your photos to that.

I have just been in africa and I had my laptop with me and 2 external hd's. I copied all photos to the internal hd each day and I think once a week I copied all photos to both external hd's. I brought a laptop instead of my Epson P2000 for two reasons. I thought I would not have enough room on my P2000 and I wanted to delete really bad photos quickly so I didn't have to do that when I got home.

[kaypony]

Thanks for that, I would take my laptop but it doesnt come under travel insurance which is a bummer. How does the hd work when you have no screen? How do you know that all the photos are downloaded to the hd drive? Sorry for my technological incompetence.

[JackProton]

As for harddisk brands it is like with cameras some like one brand other like another. It is my opinion that no matter the brand eventually a harddisk will fail. It is not a question if but when it fails. So you need to always count on that.

You have many options. I'll just mention 2.

You can add one external hd to backup and backup on dvd's.


Agree wholeheartedly.

For external HDs, I'd recommend picking one from one of the actual major manufacurers of hard disks -- Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate. With other external HDs, you're never sure what hard disk they're going to use inside your drive.

[docfav]

When the product finally gets released by Microsoft, get a machine with Windows Home Server. Very nice product that you can use as an external storage. Granted you need the extra PC, but it does so much more. You have the option of "duplication" for certain folders on the WHS. You can also keep adding Hard Drives to the Server. I have a beta copy of WHS and have added 4 Hard Drives and have 1.23 TB of data available to me. With the cost of Hardware these days, you can build one for yourself for under $500 and have plenty of room.

As for travel, I use a Smartdisk Photobank 40GB. I have heard good and bad on these. I have had nothing but goods things. To start off with, I got it for $36 at Staples on a closeout!

Doc

[jesusdelallata]

I have two western digital hard drives and I'm very happy with them. One is a 250gb mybook and the other is a 120gb passport. Both are great. I'll probably get one more with higher capacity.

[austincabot]

Why not use an iPod to back up to while on trips?

[kaypony]

Thanks for the suggestions. Asutincabot: I have had the ipod idea suggested to me also. I already got one of the really old editions (only 4gb memory), no colour screen, cant save photos and I wouldnt use a new ipod for much else so I may as well get a HD. Thanks :)

[Cathpah]

there are 2 main kinds of external hard drives...powered by an outlet and powered by your computer. the latter is usually a laptop sized drive in a small enclosure and is handy while travelling, but maybe not as secure/rugged/durable as the powered kind that you'd leave at home on your desk. I use both and i did have one of the smaller notebook drives (a WD passport drive) fail on me...luckily, because I'm crazy about backups...i didn't lose anything (knocks on wood). make many backups. keep one of your backups off-site (outside home/office) to prevent loss of both original and backup from fire or flooding or whatever else.

you can also check into raid configurations (which can/will also fail eventually) which is an auto backup of a drive onto another drive. you could look into getting a WD 1tb (1000gb) "mybook" drive that is actually two 500gb drives that can easily be setup in a raid format to automatically back eachother up. these, like any drives, can fail...but you're a bit more safe having a backup right there.

[Jon]

Why not use an iPod to back up to while on trips?
Every report I've seen on trying this has stressed one point. It's s-l-o-o-o-w!

[austincabot]

Every report I've seen on trying this has stressed one point. It's s-l-o-o-o-w!

I mean use it to back up as a USB 2.0 HD (assuming you take your laptop on trips like I do) - not using a card reader. I keep files and such on mine all the time. It works great. Plus, it keeps me from carrying around a music player and a HD. Plus, now with the iPod video coming in 80gb and 160gb capacities.....

[kaypony]

All my data has been saved, and the computer is working again. Horrah! I've learnt my lesson and will be buying some HD drives and set myself up so I dont fall into this trap again. When I'm backing up data onto HD's or DVD's and I have most of the data saved but I have completed a few more word documents and taken 10 more photos, is there anyway I can figure out what is new stuff, and thus what I need to back up? For me, this is where it gets confusing. I hate having doubles of stuff on the same machine when I dont need to.
Any help would be appreciated,