New quick, easy backup system

[Bobblehead]

Actually, yes, that one includes a HD.

You can get better deals during the Dell Days of Deals, but unfortunately the external HD was on last week. Probably won't be another for a couple of months.

[metal_geek]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Actually, yes, that one includes a HD.

You can get better deals during the Dell Days of Deals, but unfortunately the external HD was on last week. Probably won't be another for a couple of months.

So it does..... Reading comprehension!

Pretty cheap in that case

[metal_geek]

Originally Posted by fotze

I think I do have a firewire port, a little slot with the number 1394 above it.

How about this one?

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...20755(ME).aspx

I like this one...

Lots of connection options good for portability to another computer.

Western Digital usually makes good stuff.

Firewire option might work well for you as it won't tie up a USB port, Doesn't use the CPU in the file transfer like USB does, and uses a port on your computer you're likely not gonna use for anything else.

Word of caution, the port on your laptop is the small connector for firewire and the port on the back of the drive is likely the larger one. Ask to see the port and confirm that before you take it home so you can buy the right cable before you leave and save the trip back... that cable will likely run you 15.00 or so...

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by fotze

Stupid question. I need more hard drive room for pics and videos, no porn yet.

Are external hard drives as simple as plugging it in (what type of plug in?) and just dragging files/folders onto the drive?

Is there a faster connection, because I imagine large files taking forever to transfer.

Can you get a hard drive that basically backs up and can be used for storage also. Does the backup take equal to the memory on the actual computer?

okk, lots of questions

When you plug it in to the USB jack (and turn the power on, if needed) the computer should automatically assign a drive letter and have an icon appear in "My Computer" or on the Desktop.

The transer speed of USB2 is 40x faster than USB1.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by photon

I have RAID 1 as well, data security was my goal with this.

Not sure about noise, it's sitting in the wiring closet area in my basement.

Free software?! Didn't come with mine, but I got mine quite a while back. Wonder if I can download it...

I am seriously considering this unit based on your past recomendations. I have a question about RAID 1. That means the two drives mirror each other right? So essentially it is one 500gb drive with a twin? I see the redundancy but is there a benefit to backing up one drive to the other using software? Can it leave more space available that way? Essentially I am asking if a backup compressess the backup file or is it the same size as the original?

btw the same unit at memex would be $203.99 plus tax.

[metal_geek]

Raid 1 gets you HD space equal to the Smallest drive in the pair. The 2 HD's have excatly the same files on them at all times, so in raid 1 you can't use any space by compressing on the "other" drive because as far as the system is concearned there is no "other" drive because they are excatly the same..

Basically what you are getting is like you said, a 500GB external HD, but for security if the HD happens to die on you, you have backup copy.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by metal_geek

Raid 1 gets you HD space equal to the Smallest drive in the pair. The 2 HD's have excatly the same files on them at all times, so in raid 1 you can't use any space by compressing on the "other" drive because as far as the system is concearned there is no "other" drive because they are excatly the same..

So with 2 500 gb drives I would only be adding 500gb, right? But if I just did backups, could I get more storage out of the 2 drives but still have both protected? Does my question make any sense?

Thanks.

[metal_geek]

Yup makes perfect sense....

if you configure it RAID 0... that means you have 1TB of storage... but if 1 of the HD's fail... the whole thing goes "POOF" so you lose the "Security" of the backups.

Raid 0, you get TOTAL SPACE of both HD's. You still have your main system, but any backups you had POOF...

raid 1, you get TOTAL SPACE equal to the size of the Smallest HD, (500GB) but if 1 of the Drives goes bad, you still have all your backups.

[Bobblehead]

The D-Link site has a pretty good description -

Four different hard drive modes (Standard, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID1) enable you to choose the configuration best suited to your needs. Standard mode creates two separately accessible hard drives. JBOD combines both drives in linear fashion for maximum space efficiency. RAID 0 combines both drives in a ‘striped’ configuration, which provides the highest performance. RAID 1 causes the drives to mirror each other, providing maximum protection. If one drive fails while configured as RAID 1, the unaffected drive continues as a single drive until the failed drive is replaced. The new drive will then be remirrored, returning full protection to both drives after it has been mirrored.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=509

[photon]

Originally Posted by Titan

So with 2 500 gb drives I would only be adding 500gb, right? But if I just did backups, could I get more storage out of the 2 drives but still have both protected? Does my question make any sense?

Thanks.

Correct, only 500GB. The problem with compressing is that the really big files that would take up the majority of that 500GB are going to be incompressible. If you have 500GB of videos, pictures and music then it'll compress to 490GB, so you're gaining almost nothing. The stuff that compresses well (documents, spreadsheets, data files for tax programs, etc) usually take up only a small percentage of typical user's data usage.

But yes if you compress your backups it will take up less space on the mirrored 500GB drive and leave some for you to use spare.

I do that, I run my backup once a week and it compresses it to a file onto the DNS-323, and I also have all my shared files on the DNS-323. I made an effort to move all my documents and media files and everything to it so I end up having very little in the way of documents on my desktop computer. That way my backups run quickly (not a heck of a lot to backup) and my documents are also easily sharable at home.

[Titan]

thanks again photon and bobble

My music is about 25 gig and will slowly grow.

It is hd home movies that will require the bulk of the space. I do little in the way of "work" at home so it is mostly just a storage issue. I guess to be safe I would RAID 1 until those fill up then decide at that time to add new drives or split them.

Thanks again.

[MoneyGuy]

I looked and looked and can't find the article I had read about a simple computer backup system. I've looked through this thread and there doesn't seem to be a consensus about what is the easiest good backup system. I want something that I can, for example, plug into my USB port and have it back up everything without much work by myself. Most of this stuff I'm reading above is Greek to me. I'm seeing a friend today who is a computer consultant. I'll ask him what system I might use that fits my needs. Thanks, all, for the input.

[photon]

metal_geek's first reply to you fits the bill as to what you are describing:

http://www.maxtor.com/en/hard-drive-...ch-4-plus.html

It plugs into the USB port and backs everything up with the touch of a button.. can't get much simpler than that.