Hard-drive Back-up Device Suggestions

[J Canuck]

I believe there may be forum members along with myself, who would appreciate the sharing of this wealth of knowledge in our community.

I need to select a back-up mechanism for my two hard-drives plus my daughter’s computer. All operating programs reside on my C:\drive, and all my personal files and games reside on an E:\drive. Being a lazy person, I prefer full automation such as an automated back-up function as files change in real-time. I do believe in spending the appropriate money to purchase high quality devices.

Perhaps it would be helpful to our community if you would share your knowledge and experience with the various back-up mechanisms you have used, including why you selected your particular device(s).

Perhaps Chamberlain wouldn’t mind starting us off:

Chamberlain wrote:

After losing one computer a few years due to a crashed hard drive where nothing was recoverable (lost alot of pictures), tomorrow I am going to purchase the Western Digital 1TB 'My Book Essential Hard Drive'. I am going to back up the game on this external drive and it is supposed to update automatically on the drive as you update the file on your computer....

Hey Chamberlain ..... why did you select a portable hard-drive as your preferred back-up mechanism, and the brand/specifications you chose?

[norb]

I have a file server. It's just an old computer on my network in my basement. All of the documents/pictures folders on all of our computers point to that server. So nothing important is saved on the local hard drvies, or it shouldn't be unless they manually change something. I then have a backup program that runs on that computer that copies to a USB drive next to that computer. It runs every night and keeps that last 10 versions of each file.

Locally I have a batch file that copies my source to a different usb drive. When I go on vacation or something like that I'll have a neighbor or someone hold that drive for me. Sometimes I just bring it with me or leave it in my car.

[Chamberlain]

Hello J Canuck,

How's it going !!

Actually, this is my first backup device that I nave ever used..

I was always thinking about getting an external drive to backup my files in case of another hard drive failure, as one that occurred a few years ago (lost all pictures that were on the hard drive)

I saw this drive, Western Digital "My Book Essential" in a Best Buy flyer. I googled the model, read up on it, and also read the "Customer Ratings" for this as I always do when I am looking to purchase something. People that bought this had good reviews.

I liked the size of the drive, 1 TB and also :

"This 1TB external hard drive features automatic backup software and powerful security features to protect your music, movies, documents and more with ease."

You can password protect your files and the automatic file backup so if you change a file on your computer, it automatically updates the file on the Drive..

It also uses a USB connection to your computer.

Then when UglyElmo wrote in a Thread that he has the same one, liked it, etc, that was good enough for me.

The price of $99.00 is also good. They have larger units, 1.5 TB and 2.0 TB available

So far, I have had it for 1 week and have had no issues at all

Chamberlain

[J Canuck]

Thanks Norb and Chamberlain for the info. Much appreciated.

[Chamberlain]

Anytime buddy !!



Chamberlain