Need a reliable back up drive

Dollardog

Looking to buy a hard drive to back up onto. Have a laptop on W7 and a desktop on XP.
Was looking at a Seagate drive, wondered what you guys thought of these -
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9052798/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/2%7C14418968%7CHard+drives%2C+USBs+and+data+storage%7C14419053/c_3/3%7Ccat_14419053%7CPortable+hard+drives%7C14419054.htm

This next one has backup software already installed but no reviews
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9052822/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/2%7C14418968%7CHard+drives%2C+USBs+and+data+storage%7C14419053/c_3/3%7Ccat_14419053%7CPortable+hard+drives%7C14419054.htm

It doesn't say this one comes with backup software, would it also have to be plugged in as I don't really want to do that.
Also, one further down the page - similarbut bigger drive said it din't work well with W7 which is off putting for me. I need something simple to use, not being very techy.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9052846/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/2%7C14418968%7CHard+drives%2C+USBs+and+data+storage%7C14419053/c_3/3%7Ccat_14419053%7CPortable+hard+drives%7C14419054.htm

Or waht aboutSamsung drives? Are they any good?
for instance, I've seen this on Amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Ultraslim-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B0053ZAQ06/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1346664547&sr=1-3

I had looked to get one of the clickfree drives but they don't seem very popular on here.

Would appreciate your thoughts please.

closed

if you don't want to have to power the drive with mains, then you need a portable drive, 1TB drives are around £65-75, argos is unlikely to be anywhere near the cheapest source of disk drives. Samsungs/hitachi's/WD tend to be cheaper than seagate. They will all work on W7 and XP. They are all simple to use, plug in, run backup software, a few clicks, done.

Software to backup is free - eg macrium reflect will work on w7 and Xp. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=45197656&postcount=8

How much have you got to backup, ie what's the total size of disk space used and available on both machines?

deja vu:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4099741=

carterman88

The guy who works in the I.T department where i work never suggests buying a seagate, ive owned a couple and they have been fine but i guess he knows considerably more than i do. I needed a hard drive for the same purpose a few months ago and he recommended getting a Toshiba one. its been very simple to use and very reliable!

Dollardog

closed wrote: »

if you don't want to have to power the drive with mains, then you need a portable drive, 1TB drives are around £65-75, argos is unlikely to be anywhere near the cheapest source of disk drives. Samsungs/hitachi's/WD tend to be cheaper than seagate. They will all work on W7 and XP. They are all simple to use, plug in, run backup software, a few clicks, done.

Software to backup is free - eg macrium reflect will work on w7 and Xp. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=45197656&postcount=8

How much have you got to backup, ie what's the total size of disk space used and available on both machines?

deja vu:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4099741=

Thanks closed. I had asked before but hadn't got round to getting one which I want to do now. Sorry for bothering you again but I couldn't find the thread, thanks for pointing out again, I will go and have another read.

Dollardog

carterman88 wrote: »

The guy who works in the I.T department where i work never suggests buying a seagate, ive owned a couple and they have been fine but i guess he knows considerably more than i do. I needed a hard drive for the same purpose a few months ago and he recommended getting a Toshiba one. its been very simple to use and very reliable!

I like Toshiba, my laptop is a Toshiba but I read somewhere that Western Digital make them and I didn't think they had a very good name these days.

Dollardog

closed - you asked how much data needs to be backup up, this is my laptop - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Satellite-15-6-inch-Processor-SuperMulti/dp/B00336EFZE

my pc has a considerably smaller drive, not sure of the capacity at the moment, but it is a lot older than the laptop.
I was looking at getting at least a 1TB drive, but possibly a larger one might be better.
Need to buy from Argos, Amazon or PCWorld (rather not from PCW), as I have vouchers available so will not have to fork out hard cash which at the moment is hard to come by!!

Thanks a lot for your help as always.

andy2004

well dollardog, I currently have 5 samsung drives, 3x2tb 1x1.5tb and 1x1tb, the 3 x2tb are all external, I bought the 2tb drives as internal and bought enclosures for all. the other 2 drives are in the main pc 1tb being the boot drive and 1.5tb being data only.
the 1tb being the oldest one and no problems with it.
Here is how i done it.
enclosure £8 screwless design, to slid on either side, pull out, 2 buttons either side push in, and pull out back, attach drive and 2 brackets, pushfit, slide back in and put back the slide panels.
5mins comes with instructions etc.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-external/harddriveenclosures/usb2.0external3.5enclosure.html

drive I fitted inside £83.99
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sataover1tb/hd204uist200dl004.html
not the cheapest, but reliable

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sataover1tb/st2000dl003.html
cheapest they have which is 2tb.

debitcardmayhem

Dollardog wrote: »

closed - you asked how much data needs to be backup up, this is my laptop - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Satellite-15-6-inch-Processor-SuperMulti/dp/B00336EFZE

my pc has a considerably smaller drive, not sure of the capacity at the moment, but it is a lot older than the laptop.
I was looking at getting at least a 1TB drive, but possibly a larger one might be better.
Need to buy from Argos, Amazon or PCWorld (rather not from PCW), as I have vouchers available so will not have to fork out hard cash which at the moment is hard to come by!!

Thanks a lot for your help as always.

The 1st one or two you posted about are (from argos) much cheaper on amazon. As for space open windows explorer , select My Computer , then right click on the hard drives , select properties that will give you a ball park figure . I would then treble that (for saving a couple of spare backups say 1 month apart). Do not ever ever (my thought at least and will wait to be shot down) use incremental backup , if the original or intermediates go TU then the saving on time in backing up is irrelevant.
I would set up a system image of the system as it is now. Create a system rescue disk too. Then copy the image to say xx DVDs too. Now every 3 months say delete the oldest (or better save it to xx DVDs) and keep going.

For weekly backups I would save your "priceless photos", documents, emails etc to the HDD as a separate folder and also save them into a folder on your pc. It is what's-his-face law that if it can go wrong it will.

Dollardog

Thanks, I don't want to fit them internally though as I want to be able to back up my laptop too and I think that external ones would need to be plugged in, which could also pose a problem but will certainly look to Samsung for portable ones, I would think if they are the same brand, they should be as good?

andy2004 wrote: »

well dollardog, I currently have 5 samsung drives, 3x2tb 1x1.5tb and 1x1tb, the 3 x2tb are all external, I bought the 2tb drives as internal and bought enclosures for all. the other 2 drives are in the main pc 1tb being the boot drive and 1.5tb being data only.
the 1tb being the oldest one and no problems with it.
Here is how i done it.
enclosure £8 screwless design, to slid on either side, pull out, 2 buttons either side push in, and pull out back, attach drive and 2 brackets, pushfit, slide back in and put back the slide panels.
5mins comes with instructions etc.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-external/harddriveenclosures/usb2.0external3.5enclosure.html

drive I fitted inside £83.99
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sataover1tb/hd204uist200dl004.html
not the cheapest, but reliable

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sataover1tb/st2000dl003.html
cheapest they have which is 2tb.

Dollardog

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

The 1st one or two you posted about are (from argos) much cheaper on amazon. As for space open windows explorer , select My Computer , then right click on the hard drives , select properties that will give you a ball park figure . I would then treble that (for saving a couple of spare backups say 1 month apart). Do not ever ever (my thought at least and will wait to be shot down) use incremental backup , if the original or intermediates go TU then the saving on time in backing up is irrelevant.
I would set up a system image of the system as it is now. Create a system rescue disk too. Then copy the image to say xx DVDs too. Now every 3 months say delete the oldest (or better save it to xx DVDs) and keep going.


For weekly backups I would save your "priceless photos", documents, emails etc to the HDD as a separate folder and also save them into a folder on your pc. It is what's-his-face law that if it can go wrong it will.

Can't get at the pc at the moment but the laptop says it is divided into two drives - Windows (C: - 59.5Gb free of 149GB and Data (D: 25GB free of 148GB - Not techy and don't know how that Data drive has got so full. Looks like not much room left on laptop? Never thought I would come anywhere near filling it!!

Dollardog

I don't save any emails to disc, I use Yahoo for my emails, plenty of storage on there and I always think it less likely that I would get a virus by doing that unless I downloaded a dodgy attachment but I expect you are all going to say that is wishful thinking and that I am just as likely to get a virus. Hopefully, Kasperski would stave it off anyway though!!