h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, basically ... are they a good idea?

You see, I am just so bad about backing stuff up onto CDs. It's just so finickety and time consuming.

And so today a friend of mine suggested I get an external hard drive and back up everything on that. But you know ... what if that 'crashes' too?

It's just that I can see myself happily plugging in the exterior hard drive once a day to back up all my new stuff, as opposed to looking for all the various CDs and faffing around with them.

Any advice?



az

they are a great idea. and short of throwing them on a fire it is nearly impossible to lose data. tho you might have to pay to recover essential data if you do think you've lost it.

if you are just storing files rather than entire hdds, people overlook mp3 players and some mobile phones, which can often save 5 gigs plus or more of files. and plug and play usb drives sell for less than 10 dollars a gig now.

ftr i have have found data loss on cd rw discs to be quite common and wouldn't use them for anything except burning non essential media.

Depending on what you store and the amount then I'd suggest using an online service like for example, Windows Sky Drive or BT Digital Vault.
Photo sites such as the web based Picasa or Flickr are also ideal. At least if your pc crashes big style then all the important stuff is not only safe but accessible once you get back on line from any pc. The online services are secure so no fear of anyone hacking in so long as you mark stuff as private and change passwords now and again too.
I tend to use online services more these days as they do give large amounts space to use as well with no charges involved.

note that some isps count upload into your 'download' allocation. with some accounts and usage patterns online storage can get pricey.

external hard drives are generally more robust but the main thing is that the chance of both disks malfunctioning in a short time is low. Check backups periodically and if you have anything *really* important then back that up onto something else as well . 2 backups for important stuff is the norm anyway.

<> (sigsfried)

I was also told that they don't face the same possible hazards that PC hard drives do. So, in theory, they should last almost forever.

<> (scotlandishman)

Good point - I've often wondered about how 'safe' my data was on CDs.

<> (ST MKll)

I've read that with the Picasa one you lose the rights to your photos. And I don't like the Flickr set up. I use Fotki, which offers me unlimited space, but as with all of these options, you cannot save original photo sizes.

Is there anything specific I should be looking for when I go to buy this? I'm assuming a USB connection one is better?


az

My most important data (mostly elements for 3D animation - models, characters, sounds, music, motions, etc.) is used on two computers, a desktop and a laptop. Most of the data is backed up on original CD's or CD-R's for downloads, and I have had internal HD's fail (also entire computers). But it is problematic to find a particular item in the boxes of CD's, so I have an external HD for the majority I use routinely. Because it took a long time to get all the data copied into a useable organization (CD to external HD), I then backed that first external HD to a second external HD. At under $100 for pretty big external HD's (500GB +/-), it seems to me cost effective.

BTW, I also bought an 8GB flash drive recently for $25. That might cover more modest backup requirements.

The additional advantage, of course, is that the external HD's can be hooked up to any computer, so my "library" of 3D elements is available to any machine (I have others beside the main two, plus I can hook up to machines at meetings, etc.).

My answer is yes.

*I've read that with the Picasa one you lose the rights to your photos*

I don't know where you've read that but it's not correct. I'm not sure what you mean by not saving in original size either, I've saved in both flickr and picasa in original sizes with no problems. They even allow a certain amount of editing too if required though I use photo shop prior to saving anyway.

>>"I was also told that they don't face the same possible hazards that PC hard drives do. So, in theory, they should last almost forever."<<

I would be skeptical. Any hard disk has moving parts and will therefore wear down over time. I would recommend getting a replacement after 5 years if its for reliable data. CDs and DVDs also degrade on a similar timespan.

But in 5 years you'll probably want to buy a bigger, better, faster, cheaper one anyway, and you can just copy everything over.

The extra expense of hard drives over DVD writers is not very great, and the time saving is well worth it.

Flash drives are more robust than hard drives, having no moving parts, but expensive in large capacities. If your total backup came to less than say 16GB, then flash would probably be a good option.

Another free online service is the GMail Drive.

First, set yourself up with a Gmail account. You can save data by e-mailing it to yourself as an attachment, but this is fiddly. So you download and install the free GMail Drive. Give it your Gmail login details, and it creates a virtual drive in the My Computer listing. You can drag and drop files into the GMail Drive, and can open files from the drive for viewing or even editing.

GMail Drive currently works on Windows only.

Incidentally, does anyone know of any secure, encrypted, online data storage suppliers?

TRiG.

I put almost all of my data onto my MP3 player. That backs it up, and also makes it mobile, accessible on any computer to hand. I don't have many media files worth backing up (mostly music ripped from my own CDs) and the rest (MS Office files mostly) fills less than half a Gig.
I used to back up onto CD, but the CD got damaged too many times for me to trust them any more. I've never damaged a USB device, although a couple have been lost/stolen.

I think an exterior hard drive would be a good idea, Az - but make sure you get one with an off switch, that's the main thing that irks me about mine, the lack thereof

It's unlikely to fail at the same time as your interior HD, especially since it won't see so much use if you only use it for backups. To be on the safe side, keep it in a different physical location than your computer...

And anything really vital should be e-mailed to yourself, I agree. Preferably send it *from* one webmail account *to* a second, because then it'll be downloadable from both, provided you save sent items.

Also, do you have a partitioned hard drive, or multiple drives? Keeping your data separate from all the programs helps preserve them in case of a crash.

I've got some of my most important files - my Uni work, mostly, which I'll need for my portfolio - backed up on my own external HDD and on my mother's, which is usually 300km away (though currently, they're both here on the desk) and so is reasonably safe from getting wiped out in the same accident - and I store some in the Uni network.

I can thoroughly recommend getting an external HDD and getting some DVD-RWs to back it up every now and again We use ours for mp3s, videos, pictures etc and *touch wood* it hasn't failed us yet. I like using the HDD instead of some online service as at least we know exactly who has access to our stuff. I'm also a naturally suspicious bugger and I wouldn't trust anything of BT's as far as I can throw it

Thanks for all the advice, guys.

In fact, I did go out last night and buy this mobile hard drive - 160 GBs for 70€...
http://azahar.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/hard-drive1.jpg

And it's so small and cute - just 12cm x 8 cm x 1.5cm. I could slip it into my handbag or jacket pocket no problem and be able to access all my files from any computer anywhere.

This is very !

And it has a "one-click back-up" software programme that seems to work quite efficiently (after organising various files this afternoon I had everything backed-up in just a few minutes).

As a 'second back-up' perhaps I'll just use my old desk-top PC since I hardly use it anymore and it still has quite a bit of space left on it.

I reckon the chances of my laptop, my new exterior HD and my old desk-top all conking out at the same time are rather slim.

I knew there was a reason I didn't waste all that time backing up stuff on CDs these past few months.


az