I need to buy an external hard drive for back-up specific purposes. I will be using this drive to back up two (maybe three) different computers on a weekly basis. Any recommendations for brands/types? I am looking for ease (such as a firewire type thing. Hook up and go), cost (average cost) and space (how much do should I get). I'll be mainly backing up music and photos.
2006-11-13 05:57:49 · 5 answers · asked by Flibbert 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Other - Computers
The degree of compression of media files is really small. For example if one backup media library using True Image even with high compression degree (the degree of compression is adjustable in True Image) he'll get an image that is only 20 percent less than the initial library.
So I recommend you to purchase an external drive that is as big as the library you want to backup, in case your media library sufficiently expands you need a drive at least 2 times bigger than the initial media library. As for manufactures Seagate and Maxtor external drives are quite reliable and I've never had any problems with them.
2006-11-14 05:32:39 · answer #1 · answered by S&H 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maxtor has a good external hdd, and they come in sizes up to 300 GB. Really it depends on what you need/want, I am a professional PC Techniction who is certified by comptia and I can tell you that saying who is better Maxtor or Seagate, is the same as saying "Ford or Chevy" or BMW or Merseadies Benz. Same thing with a different name. Look for features of the product, how fast is the rpm's of the disks? USB Vs. Firewire? Size in GB, 200 vs. 250GB vs 400gb. etc. I have used maxtor hard disks, seagate and others and never had a problem with a specific brand, just maby a defective disk, which was warrantied and the new one worked fine, and that only happed once. So compare features, and look for a sale, rebate etc. Shop around go to staples, best buy, online, etc try to find the best possible deal for the features. Hope this works!
2006-11-13 06:08:06 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
First off, you'll need to worry about the type of interface. A lot of computers won't have firewire (especially the newer type 2), SCSI, or SATA connections, so a USB version is probably best (it's also a little faster than the firewire port.) Most hard drive manufacturers sell ready-made external drives that are reasonably priced and well made, they will include an installation disk that will make it easy to use.
For considerably less cash, you can easily put your own external drive together. Buy an enclosure with the type of interface you want, then buy the hard drive you want (Make sure you buy one of the newer 7200 rpm drives. If you want to compare specifications, you can go to Newegg.com and check out all of them.) I partitioned my external drive with partitions for each computer I thought I might want to back up, 80 gigs for mine, 60 for my wife's laptop, 60 for my son's and 50 for my daughter's. By partitioning the drive you can assign a drive to each of the computers you are backing up.
The size of hard drive will depend on what you are backing up. Pictures take up quite a bit of space, music and text don't take up very much. The size of mine was determined by adding up the total drive size of all of the computers we owned, allowing me to totally back up all of the data, applications, etc. You can probably get away with a smaller drive.
2006-11-13 06:26:21 · answer #3 · answered by Scott K 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would go with Seagate...I have never had a problem with any or their drives. Check out TigerDirect for external hard drives
2006-11-13 05:59:24 · answer #4 · answered by Yoi_55 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they have network attached ones now if your on a network with all those pc's your backing up i'd suggest that
2006-11-13 06:00:31 · answer #5 · answered by bsmith13421 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋