is a removable hard drive the best way to backup digital images I store on my PC?

Question

if so any tips on what I should be looking for when buying one? I'm dumb founded I just want something cheap that I can plug in to my USB port and copy my files to to keep them safe - assume I have a zero knowledge of computers please

Answer 1

an external usb drive can do the job fine yes.

dvd's are good too, but are much slower to write to.

Answer 2

There are a lot of good answers here... but I would actually say that you should use both an external hard disk and recordable DVDs.

Recordable DVD discs are very cheap nowadays and you can keep them at your friend's house or wherever (so that if the worst happens and your house is destroyed by fire, you still have a copy). Use the external hard disk in your house because it will provide fast access to the backup in case of accidental deletion. Remember, though, to leave the removable hard disk unplugged from your computer unless you are writing the backups or restoring them - this will reduce the risk of a virus wiping all your backups from the removable hard disk (another good reason to make recordable DVD backups also).

Answer 3

As other people pointed out:

- hard disks have a large capacity may fail after a couple of years.
- CD's/DVD's have a smaller capacity but should last longer than hard disks.

Another plus side of hard disks: they are extremely easy to copy. Therefore, I would recommend (money not being an issue) to buy two or more large hard disks. Make multiple copies of your data on multiple disks; they are unlikely to fail at the same time, so when one fails, buy a new one and copy the data from a backup hard disk to the new one.

Added bonus: it's easy to keep an off-site backup of your data. That reminds me: maybe you could simply rent a lot of disk space at some ISP with an appropriate SLA. Then THEY make the backups for you!

Answer 4

Yes, that is called external hard drive.
External harddrive is convenient because it comes at large sizes so you don't have to cope with limitations of a DVD which stores 4 GB (8GB dual layer) only. Well, unless your digital images is less than 10 GB. If you have lots of DVD it may go missing or if you don't take care of it very nicely it might become scratched or grow mold and you will lose data. If you have hundreds of gigabytes of data, external harddrive is better because its easier, more convenient, and faster to backup and retrieve data. But still external drives won't live forever also and don't forget to turn off external harddrives when you don't use it so that it will live longer and if your external drive gets old (like 4-5 years) you can replace the drive.

Answer 5

An external hard drive has about the same reliability as an internal one. So you are still relying on a complex mechanical device. DVD will not suffer a drive failure, but they may forget over time, like some olf audio tapes that have erased themselves. Hard drive life specifications can range from 5 to 50 years. Recordable CD/DVD can last from months to decades, I have some that are more than five years old and still OK.

Answer 6

you probably did not say what OS you're working. In XP and Vista you are able to run a scheduled job at a preset time and do a backup. that is set as much as offload a picture to the DVD or perhaps an exterior diskpersistent. i might write an straightforward script to repeat all archives from the innerpersistent to a USBpersistent of a similar or better length. it would not be bootable, yet might have a replica of each and every thing on it.

Answer 7

You can copy the images to a cd or dvd and save them that way.
You could get an external hard drive and save them on that or if you have a very large hd you can partition it and save them to the that partition that way you wont loose them if you have to format your main drive.

Sounds like what you want is an external USB hard drive these are good and very reasonable . You can get a 200 gig for about 90.00 . I have a freecom it sets up easy and does a good job

Answer 8

Cd's and dvd's let you see your photo's but its true that they are not premanent; they degrade over time. Changes in temperature can cause them to fail, as the expanding and shrinking damages the foil layer. But they are cheap and conveniant.
I'd use both cd's and a large external hard drive. If the hard drive fails most of the data can be recovered.

Seagate is currently the best and most reliable brand.

Answer 9

Externals are what all my videographers use, who shoot for NG, Discovery Channel, etc...

I service their systems. They buy the huge 500Gb and 750Gb units, and just stack them on the shelves with the raw footage on them, that the finished DVD comes from... They'll shoot up to about 700Gb (about 350 hours!) to get two finished hours to broadcast.

The jury is still out on the life of DVD and CD media.

Consider the Hard Drives as a path to other secure storage. I use 80 Gb drives, really cheap now! I recommend 250Gb drives, to all my friends...

Hard drives fail, (especially, ones formatted for NTFS or FAT32!). The mechanical parts usually are only good for about two to three years. SE quality drives might have a 5 year warranty...

I run Linux, and format for EXT3 filesystem, which does do a form of journalizing to save the drive files and instantly restore the system if it should drop a bit of data.

DVD and CD media seem to work (for me, using high quality ones) for over 15 years, and counting... have about 4,500 here... in a huge personal library that we call my 'library of cultural anthropology' instead of just saying that I am a Pack Rat for books and CD/DVDs! I burn over two hundred each year, to keep, plus hand out about the same number... no complaints so far!

That 's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Answer 10

i think so but always use another form of back up for important stuff. ie send to email account or dvd or cd etc. i just lost alot a stuff cause dog knocked hdd over and it only fell on its side but caused alot o damage internally so important stuff, double back up. there cheap as chips now and will plug straight into usb but b carefull about damage. our quote was 300lbs+. seagate r pretty good check on internet .maplin can b a good place 2 start