Need more space and backup capability...

[Swishbish33]

I currently have a WD2500KS as my only drive. I am out of space on it and want more. I also want to stop playing Russian roulette with my data and get a backup solution.

I don't want to spend a ton of money, but something around $125-150 would be fine.

I'm thinking about getting a WD5000AAKS to be my main drive, and use the WD2500KS to sync certain data to on a weekly basis. Both would reside inside my case. I considered an external drive, but the warranties are typically shorter and the data transfer is slower. Also, it seems that for only a small increase in money spent, I could get more GBs by using internal drives.

Is this a sound strategy? Or can something better be had for that money?

 

[MScrip]

You could buy an internal drive for your backup, but put it in an external enclosure. That way you can get a drive with a 5 year warranty, but use it externally.

That's what I do. As a bonus, mine has got an on/off switch, so I only turn it on when I need to make a backup.

 

[naro]

Agree with MScrip. You could just use the WD5000AAKS as an external drive.

Which might be a better choice because sometimes with there's a short circuit somewhere, you never know which component in the PC will be affected.

 

[Swishbish33]

I considered putting the WD2500KS in an external enclosure after moving my computer to the WD5000AAKS, but that's another $30-40 on top of the price. I'm not completely averse to it, but would like to spend as little money as possible.

Also, two of the pins on the SATA power connection on the WD2500KS were partially broken off when I moved the computer to my new apartment (to this day not sure how it happened during the move, I never dropped the tower or anything like that...go figure.) So I've been using the Molex connector on it instead. I couldn't find a decent SATA enclosure that would allow me to use a Molex connector inside it as well, at least, not without experimenting.

So do I just order the WD5000AAKS and look into an enclosure for the WD2500KS that will let me use the SATA data connection and the Molex power? Can someone recommend an enclosure like that?

 

[naro]

i'm going to ask you to do something unethical. Try to 'find' some fault with your WD2500KS. By 'find', i mean make.

Then you can send it for RMA. But remember to back up your data first though.

I'm not too sure whether the Vantec Nexstar hdd enclosure will have the 2 types of power connectors or not. but they are of good build.

 

[unhappy_mage]

i'm going to ask you to do something unethical. Try to 'find' some fault with your WD2500KS. By 'find', i mean make.

Then you can send it for RMA. But remember to back up your data first though.

Excuse me? I don't want to pay for that unnecessary RMA, thank you very much. And being a WD customer, I'm going to if it happens.

Swishbish33, can you try with a sata power cable? Many of the pins on the power portion are redundant:

1   	 V33  	 3.3v Power
2 	V33 	3.3v Power
3 	V33 	3.3v Power, Pre-charge, 2nd mate
4 	Ground 	1st Mate
5 	Ground 	2nd Mate
6 	Ground 	3rd Mate
7 	V5 	5v Power, pre-charge, 2nd mate
8 	V5 	5v Power
9 	V5 	5v Power
10 	Ground 	2nd Mate
11 	Reserved 	-
12 	Ground 	1st Mate
13 	V12 	12v Power, Pre-charge, 2nd mate
14 	V12 	12v Power
15 	V12 	12v Power

As long as you've got the 5 and 12V pins intact you should be okay - 3.3V isn't used by anything out today.

 

[Swishbish33]

The broken pins are the two far right ones on the WD2500KS. One is broken about halfway down, the other is broken about 1/4 of the way down. Is that pin 1 and 2 or 14 and 15?

On a secondary note, is the WD5000AAKS a good drive? Comparable to the WD2500KS which has served me so well?

 

[Farva]

May I recommend a real backup. A spare hard drive (even outside the case) is not truly a backup. You may want to go the cheap route and use DVDs, but it would be better to use tapes. The tape machine itself is fairly expensive depending on the device, but a 40GB tape is about $35 IIRC. Then again, if you do the tape device, that can be several hundred dollars...soooo, go the burn to DVD option and test those burns.

 

[unhappy_mage]

The broken pins are the two far right ones on the WD2500KS. One is broken about halfway done, the other is broken about 1/4 of the way down. Is that pin 1 and 2 or 14 and 15?

That's 1 and 2. The "L" part of the connector is closest to the 3.3V side.

On a secondary note, is the WD5000AAKS a good drive? Comparable to the WD2500KS which has served me so well?

Yep.

 

[Swishbish33]

May I recommend a real backup. A spare hard drive (even outside the case) is not truly a backup. You may want to go the cheap route and use DVDs, but it would be better to use tapes. The tape machine itself is fairly expensive depending on the device, but a 40GB tape is about $35 IIRC. Then again, if you do the tape device, that can be several hundred dollars...soooo, go the burn to DVD option and test those burns.

I think tapes are outside of my price range. And I was going to burn my absolutely important, can't-live-without documents, etc to DVDs as well as put them on the spare WD2500KS, which would give me three places they are located when including the WD5000AAKS. I figure that should be enough for my needs. With DVD+Rs so cheap now, I'll probably re-burn the backups every few months to make sure that they are good. I really don't have that many things that I can't live without (only important documents), and some things that would be a hassle to lose (old email, music I've purchased, receipts, etc). Those are the main things I want to back up.

That's 1 and 2. The "L" part of the connector is closest to the 3.3V side.

Perhaps then I could still use the SATA power. Makes my choice of external enclosures easier. Although I may just go with one of the SATA & IDE enclosures, since it would give me the flexibility of being able to put both formats of hard drives in there. I was looking at the Thermaltake A2395 to hold the WD2500KS. Any experiences with this or similar enclosures?