backup or external hard drive, different?

soolin

I've posted daft questions here before and as usual I apologise for asking something daft, but I'm no techie!

I wanted to copy data from my PC onto an external hard drive in case my PC failed (my last one did and I lost everything) and have just bought a 1 touch backup, However, I don't think I have actually bought what I thought I did, I was so busy following links within the shop that I may have actually wandered off the page. I wanted a simple plug in and move across external drive, instead I appear to have bought a 2"5 HDD External enclosure..will this still do what I want, or should I return it before I open the packaging properly ? (I have checked and the shop will take it back if I return it unopened).

Thank you

Soo

rjm2k1

If you just bought an enclosure, you need a drive to go in it! If it listed a capacity, eg 250Gb then it probably has a drive already.

albertross_2

if you paid <£30 for it, it probably doesn't have a disk in.. you can buy a disk to put in, but they are not as cheap as a 3.5" model.

Chippy_Minton

Return it and buy one of these instead http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/search/index.html?rb=0&intCatID=4&intSubcatUID=128

wacko911

How much data are you trying to backup?

< 2 GB? Do you have broadband? Why not use an automated free service like https://www.idrive.com/ to backup you 'documents' folder.

No point backing up to an external drive if your house burns down!

soolin

Thank you all for your help. I've decided to return the thing I have and buy stand alone external hard drive.

wacko, thank you for your suggestions as well. Having had a computer that just died and where only a small part of my data was recoverable, I just wanted a back up system where I could swap files back and forth and I also thought I could store some photos on it as well that I only want temporarily and don't need burnt to discs.

Thank you all for your advice.