Best External HDD to use for backups...

rustie

Hello everyone...

Quick question - we need a decent external HDD that my daughter can use to back up her laptop... She is in the last stages of doing her Masters degree and really needs to backup all her work .... obviously wont all fit onto DVD or CD..

And - is using the OS backup method the best way of doing this - or simply copy all files?

Any advice gratefully received - thankyou.

Sue

ddoris

What do you mean when you say best ? Do you mean safest ?
"we need a decent external HDD that my daughter can use .." Why hasn't she already got one ?

" .... obviously wont all fit onto DVD or CD.. " - I don't understant why you are saying this. DVDs are cheap - £13/100
Do you know how big the laptop hdd is ?

rustie

Advice on a reliable one would be good - the ones we've looked at so far vary so much in size and price that it's really difficult to know what to go for...

Not sure why she hasn't already got an external HDD...

laptop HDD is 80GB

Yup - DVDs are cheap but I thought an external HDD would be much better in terms of usability...

Thanks again...

I_luv_cats

I have an External Verbatim 500gb HDD cost £60. (It has Nero Back up pre-loaded)

I tend to drag files on to it.


QVC often have a back-up system that backs up automatically (USB or Wifi type) "Click Free" might be worth a look.

rustie

Many thanks - will have a looksee now..

[Deleted User]

No one media should be used to backup important documents. Saving on the laptops hard disk and an external hard disk and maybe a DVD / USB stick is a solid backup solution. As far as reliable brands go I've always chosen:

DVD - Verbatim e.g. £4.83 Verbatim 43522 DVD-R 16x 4.7GB, 25 Pack Spindle
USB stick - Sandisk e.g. £13.79 SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB USB Memory
External HDD - Western Digital e.g. £45.79 Western Digital Elements 1TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive - Black

As for how you backup - personally I use a robocopy batch file but a more user friendly method would be to either copy and paste folders or use something like SyncToy 2.1. If you wanted a little more control then I'd suggest RichCopy.

Also see: Dropbox - Home - Online backup, file sync, and sharing made easy.

ukjoel

Agree 100% with previous poster - Backin up to external HD drive is fine until burglar pinches them both or house is flooded and both get wet.
I would use several sources as above but would also look to keep it digitally on the net or regularly email key docs to yourself so its stored on hotmail/gmail or mum and dad computer etc.

You say it obviously wont all fit on a CD or DVD.
DVDs hold a fairly large amount of data - how much data does she need to backup?

spike7451

I use one of these;

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6758617.htm

Which I got from Argos along with a free Belkin carry case.It's the size of a cassette tape & I store all my movies & films on it for when I go away.
Bonus!! Argus will give you a free Free SanDisk 2GB USB stick if you buy that one plus a fiver off!!

I have taken mine away to some hard wearing places with no problems,it's quiet & compact & I can highly recommend it!!

This is the case I got with mine.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6759575/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/3%7C15701344%7CHard+drives%2C+USBs+and+data+storage%7C14419053/c_3/4%7Ccat_14419053%7CPortable+hard+drives%7C14419054.htm

rustie

Thankyou so much for your replies...as you may have guessed, I'm not very good at this!
Never thought of having more than one backup method...I will pass all this on to my daughter and get something in place tomorrow....
Thanks again!

closed

Unless she's doing a course in video, any work will fit on a dvd

make sure you make a copy, rather than move it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2968028

best way to backup a full machine is disk imaging, eg maxblast, macrium reflect free, or w7 backup

DD3006

You can backup to DVD or external hard drive but never trust external hard drives or USB memory sticks 100% since they can fail just as easy as the drive in the pc / laptop.

As for backup software if you do go down the external HDD route, some come preloaded but if not then GFI Home backup is decent software have used it for years.
http://www.gfi.com/backup-hm

hope you find some of this useful to you.