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External storage drive question

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Dexter007

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
147
So from reading around other threads I've heard at least a few of you say that you use an external drive for backup storage and some even go so far as to take or alternate backup drives to a bank or PO box for safekeeping. I'm planning on doing something similar in the near future, but I am curious about for those of you who do something like this, or that just use an external storage drive for backup and keep it disconnected while not in use, how do you protect the drive? I understand that there are "ready-to-go" external drives that come in an enclosure of some kind, but for those that might use a regular internal hard drive externally for backup purposes, do you use an enclosure or something else, etc.?
 
Thanks for the reply, ripken. That enclosure looks pretty nice. Do you keep yours powered on constantly or do you only power on when backing up? Also in the 2TB range, what kind of drive would you all recommend? A green drive just for general backup? Seems from reviews I've read that reliability isn't very strong with a lot of manufacturers in the 2TB range.
 
honestly, I have barely used mine.
I have a ZFS server where I store all of my files and another backup server where I backup files to.
I use the external if I need to bring a large amount of files from one location to another.

any hdd will work, green doesnt really matter if you are running it as a single drive.
I have an older 1.5GB seagate, simply because it was sitting around doing nothing.
 
Dexter007 said:
Thanks for the reply, ripken. That enclosure looks pretty nice. Do you keep yours powered on constantly or do you only power on when backing up? Also in the 2TB range, what kind of drive would you all recommend? A green drive just for general backup? Seems from reviews I've read that reliability isn't very strong with a lot of manufacturers in the 2TB range.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest the Samsung 2tb
 
With my external drives, I leave them disconnected from the wall and the PC when I'm not backing up data. I usually keep one external drive near where I sleep so that I can grab it in case of emergency and the other near the PC.

For reliability, I'd go with Samsung F4 2TB drives as well.
 
The Samsung F4 looks good. Now I have to wait for prices to come down. Danny Bui, do you keep your backup drives in an external enclosure? If so, what enclosure do you use. If no, what method do you use of protecting them?
 
Yeah I'm using external enclosure. I'm actually using Seagate FreeAgent external drives as I got them for a good deal a few years back.
 
I use WD 2TB green drives in Vantec cases (either external enclosure or the removable drive cases that mount in a 5" drive space).. The cases and drives are cheap. They seem to last.

I turn the external case off when not in use. I don't use a safe deposit box. I keep a backup at my daughter's house. It seems to be far enough away that it will be safe if my house is destroyed.
 
If you plan to buy both an enclosure and a disk drive, you'd be better off getting an integrated solution.
I use a 3TB Seagate GoFlex drive for backups. The large size allows me to store the operating system image, the initial full backup and the daily incremental backups.
I run a full backup every month or so, to get rid of the earlier incremental daily ones.

Try also online options. Free services such as Google Documents and Microsoft Skydrive may not be fully convenient, but there are other cheap services such as Backblaze or Carbonite that allow you to have triple redundancy for the really important documents (local original copy + backup copy + online copy) and thus to prevent all risks of theft or accidental destruction. Well, there could still be online theft, I guess.
I use Backblaze for all my essential data, it was backed up in less than a day even with my slow bandwidth, and I am adding more folders that are less critical to me every now and then.

There are several other options for external backups. I have this cheap ($13) USB to IDE/SATA converter cable on which you just plug the naked drive. Came with a transformer to power the drive too.
I also have a Thermaltake BlacX ST0005U "pedestal" on which you can plug either a 2.5" or 3.5" disk vertically. It uses eSATA if available, or USB.
Both solutions are not really suitable for backups, it's more for temporary operations, like when you need to flash a new firmware revision to the drive, create a copy of your system drive, or for archiving.
 
I have read things about integrated or "true" external drives typically come with cheaper, less reliable hard drives...hence the typically cheaper price for externals vs. internals. Any thoughts?
 
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