External Hard-Drive Don't Buy Advice

Mr_Vincent

I could be wrong about the noise level.
I certainly was expecting the thing to be near noiseless.

Took it to pc world yesterday and as expected, they found nothing wrong.
The only software that come with mine was a user guide on disk.

Nope, definitely no one button single back-up thing on mine.
Don't think I was wrong about this post either as I saw one person returning his, unopened, and another box similar to what I was carrying on the back shelves.

Can't tell if I made a right or wrong decision right now. Eyed up the Philips (no longer on special offer) and saw no mention of software included either. Only the one click back-up button. And the damned thing looked almost exactly the same as Toshiba's.

Looks like I will need to play around with my new toy for a while.
PC World staff did do a health check diagnostics thing on mine.

First impressions can be misleading.
As of now though I have no regrets for posting this thread and will make a formal apology here if I find myself to be in the wrong.
I shall be trying Norton's Ghost on my drive and WinXP home back-up program.
Allow me a couple of weeks everyone. I am that slow.

By the way, anybody interested in 320BG hard-drive made by Toshiba for £79.99? It's PC World's current special offer :rotfl: .

IvanOpinion

A couple of points the hard disk on offer at PC world for £79.99 is 250GB (the 320GB is £109.99) - still a damned fine price though.

My Toshiba 160GB disks came with Retrospect Express (backup software) and a push button manager. It does not seem to be sold any more therefore maybe the one you have is different. If you have the later model (PX1219E-1G16) then it does not appear to have the backup button.

To be honest it is not that much of a loss. Windows XP comes with basic backup software that can be scheduled or, as others have suggested, you should be able to find something from a download site.

Ivan

leesmithg

I use a western digital usb hard drive.

Great, works dandy.

I use it for my images, using Norton Ghost 10.

I also use Norton Internet Security 2006.

They work fine.

Those that slag off Norton are those that see people like themselves on forums do the same because they don't read the manuals nor take the time and care to use it correctly.

It's not bloated, nor is it a resource hog.

Infact this is my 11th year using Norton products and they still get better and better.

Money well spent.

As for people saying things are too noisy, well I like a bit of noise then I know things are working.

If internal fans seem noisy, then clean off the gunk and residue they collect.

Mr_Vincent

I accept there is nothing wrong with my external hard-drive.

I did say I would make a formal apology if I found myself to be in the wrong.
The noise level is minimal but the buzzing noise does feel a little nauseating.

Windows back-up is a little poor.
Cannot find most documents I store in it.

Anybody know of any freeware back-up programs?

Leesmithg,
ain't nothing wrong with noise I agree.
Not so when it tampers with your bodily organs.

wolfman

SyncbackSE.

Excellent piece of software for backing up, I use it all the time.

It comes in a free version, and if you like it, I'd recommend the full version for £8 (if you need the extra functionality it offers).

I've got mine doing a number of different backups. One to my local machine (a different hard drive) another to a local network drive, and a final offsite backup to my hosting space.

All the backups are versioned, zipped and encrypted. It also emails me if one of them has failed. I'd never recommend just leaving a piece of backup software to itself, it always requires some sort of watchful eye. But this software certainly saves me time with all the different tasks it's able to do.

Mr_Vincent

wolfman wrote:

SyncbackSE.

Excellent piece of software for backing up, I use it all the time.

It comes in a free version, and if you like it, I'd recommend the full version for £8 (if you need the extra functionality it offers).

You are the second person to mention this so I will be looking carefully at it

Cheers.
Link above goes to another cry for help of mine that has given me ideas.

phill79

Sorry, but I'm a little confused, what software do people expect to come with the external HD's?

I have a 250gb HD in an external enclosure which I plug into any machine I want and copy things to it or from it.

I might want to back up my computers, but then it would just be my work that I would just copy across.

BigAl94

Here's a free useful bit of software from Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E0FC1154-C975-4814-9649-CCE41AF06EB7&displaylang=en

Mr_Vincent

phill79 wrote:

Sorry, but I'm a little confused, what software do people expect to come with the external HD's?

Like all hardware purchases, one always assumes it will come with some kind of software allowing the user to use it properly or as directed by the manufacturer.

WinXP home never came with its own built in software. Had to search for that.
My cry for help is in the link I placed above showing other people's recommendations but I will happily tell you my preference if you like once I have tried 3 of them.
One thing is for certain, I want a program that will not only back up my entire hard-drive in the event of a failure but will also allow me to collect any files or folders within that entire hard-drive back-up.
WinXP backup program fails on this note I'm afraid.