What's a good backup drive?

[jomar]

I'm looking at the Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 2.0 External for about $85 USD, but the reviews are mixed.

Any suggestions/comments/advice welcomed.

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

I'm looking at the Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 2.0 External for about $85 USD, but the reviews are mixed.

Any suggestions/comments/advice welcomed.

Seagate is usually a reliable drive company, but I always roll my own so I don't know how their carriages stand up.

I do know that a Segate drive in a Rosewill Carriage is pretty freaking awesome.

I have 4 and have given away or sold a few more.

 

[Darkniciad]

I'm looking at the Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 2.0 External for about $85 USD, but the reviews are mixed.

Any suggestions/comments/advice welcomed.

Everything I've seen on any 1TB+ drives says "Wait a while" for the technology to stabilize. Some have better reviews than others, but the overwhelming opinion I've seen is to have patience on those.

 

[jomar]

SH...Huh, I'll check out that angle.

Dark...ahh, I didn't read up on that angle, just went searching on cnet and all.

Thanks, guys.

Others may chime in as well, of course.

 

[Handley_Page]

A lot will depend upon what it is you wish to back up; the whole damned internal drive or just the bits you created with the programmes you've got (files from Word, for example).
Another thing is "how big is your internal hard drive?" If it's not 1Tb, you won't need it just for backing up some files.

You might like to consider something like Norton GHOST which will put the lot onto DVD.

 

[oggbashan]

I back up my files, not programs, to DVDs.

I have a back-up facility as part of my protection system. It automatically backs up on line once a week so I can restore to at worst, a week ago, even if my computer is stolen or completely destroyed.

Og

 

[Weird Harold]

I'm looking at the Seagate Expansion 1 TB USB 2.0 External for about $85 USD, but the reviews are mixed.

Any suggestions/comments/advice welcomed.

1TB sounds like more drive than you'll need unless you're planning on storing multiple backups on the same drive; You need about 2.5 times as much drive as the drive you're going to be backing up so you can backup and verify a good backup before killing the old backup. In practical terms, that should be enough for at least three snapshots of a system unless you're running right on the edge of your disk capacity.

There are backup schemes that don't take a complete snapshot of your system -- WIN XP and later uses one such to set restore points on a dedicated drive partition, for example.

 

[Goldie Munro]

Look in the mirror - loads - and go into reverse gear - works for me!

 

[jomar]

Yes, 1T is huge though the price was right and I was thinking of "future proofing." I want to store all those old VHS and Hi8 tapes and such. Might be better to divide it in half and get a couple of backups just in case.

Thanks, Ogg, Harold...Goldie, you are cryptic...

 

[Handley_Page]

Yes, 1T is huge though the price was right and I was thinking of "future proofing." I want to store all those old VHS and Hi8 tapes and such. Might be better to divide it in half and get a couple of backups just in case.

Thanks, Ogg, Harold...Goldie, you are cryptic...

I put my old VCR tapes onto separate DVDs. It's safer.