External Hard Drive question

[dawson5]

exactly. That is why I went with the black. I remember years ago I could trust the seagates. When I went to replace that failed drive, everything I read was bad on the seagates due to the platters (I think, it's been over a year since I researched.). At least with the WD, I know they stand behind their product. I don't know if Maxtor has changed, but last I knew they didn't stand behind their product. So when I was looking and researching, they were automatically crossed off of my list. Things may have changed in the past few years, not sure, did not want to chance that.

For the record, when I bought this pc, it came with the two greens (these are internal, not external that the OP is asking about). I was not happy with those, I knew I would replace them sooner or later. It just happened sooner rather than later is all.

 

[safetymom]

I think it is like Ford vs. Chevy.

 

[bicker]

BTW, Seagate drives are pretty low quality now, go with WD Green drives.

I wouldn't take WD drive if you paid me. Every hard drive that friends and family had that failed was WD.

That's why I like RAID: It lets you know when drives fail, typically in time to replace them before any data is lost.

[Online storage works just as well, in this regard, but has that whole "someone else has got my data" vibe that a lot of folks don't like. Also, it is much slower; I actually can play full-resolution HD videos off my local solution, as if they were stored on my laptop's local hard drive, without any concern about network bandwidth issues]

 

[jlewisinsyr]

That's why I like RAID: It lets you know when drives fail, typically in time to replace them before any data is lost.

But your drives are still local, if you have a fire or theft, your data is gone, regardless of if you have a back-up or not. Note, you are referring to RAID 1, there are many types of RAID for novice users. I think beyond just a drive failure, it happens, no doubt, but usually it's not catastrophic and you can get your data off before it's gone, fire and theft is much more of a concern.

[Online storage works just as well, in this regard, but has that whole "someone else has got my data" vibe that a lot of folks don't like. Also, it is much slower; I actually can play full-resolution HD videos off my local solution, as if they were stored on my laptop's local hard drive, without any concern about network bandwidth issues]

That is why almost all online back-up services (and any I'd ever recommend) use encryption and offer end user encryption keys (just don't ever lose your key, or forget it because they have no way of recovering) or managed keys. Data is sent encrypted from PC to remote server and can be accessed from any PC, local or not. Sure, it's not fast enough to support streaming, but that isn't the point of a back-up, IMO. Back-up and sharing are two different things and are often used interchangeably, but shouldn't.

 

[bicker]

But your drives are still local, if you have a fire or theft, your data is gone, regardless of if you have a back-up or not.

Yes that's true. Perhaps the best approach is to address the issue multiple ways: Backup your computers locally, against drive failure (and to support sharing), and then use online services for backing data up against catastrophic loss.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Yes that's true. Perhaps the best approach is to address the issue multiple ways: Backup your computers locally, against drive failure (and to support sharing), and then use online services for backing data up against catastrophic loss.

No need to back-up to share though, you can just store all your files on one machine and enable Windows Sharing (I don't know how to do this in Mac) and share across the network freely.

Then use online back-up to keep everything safe and sound, including drive failure. If you need a file remotely when you're on the road or forgot to copy something, just log in as a remote user to Carbonite (or similar) and grab the file. Copying is pretty quick too (I've done it a few times where I needed a file at school and I forgot to transfer it to my notebook).

As a personal note I currently back-up about 250 - 300 GB of data to Carbonite, it took about 2 - 3 weeks for all of the files to transfer, now the system just monitors my data and if a file changes or is added to a back-up location, it immediately sends it to back-up. You can also manually select files if they are not stored in common locations (ie. My Documents - Public). I can see if a file is backed up by either logging into Carbonite or using My Computer and checking the status (Green Circle - Backed Up, Yellow Circle - Not Yet Backed Up).

I currently don't see any purpose anymore to keep local back-ups for most users. Businesses are a little different because they may need copies for immediate restore that might be delayed if the internet connection fails or Carbonite is offline (hasn't happened to me ever, but always a possibility).

 

[bicker]

No need to back-up to share though, you can just store all your files on one machine and enable Windows Sharing (I don't know how to do this in Mac) and share across the network freely.

As long as that one machine doesn't walk around. (We do have a desktop computer, but increasingly, folks are buying laptops, so some folks might find themselves without a reliable place to store data to share.) Also, network storage is optimized for sharing. These are, though, premium devices, for folks who want something better than the "included" solutions available for the same issues.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

As long as that one machine doesn't walk around. (We do have a desktop computer, but increasingly, folks are buying laptops, so some folks might find themselves without a reliable place to store data to share.) Also, network storage is optimized for sharing. These are, though, premium devices, for folks who want something better than the "included" solutions available for the same issues.

We have a home server and all of our files are stored there. We too have a desktop (and a laptop), but nothing is stored on it except programs (and we're moving to SSD drives soon, woot) and operating systems. The data is all networked stored (on a PC based machine not a true NAS).

I don't really think home network (NAS) storage is really all that premium, there are some low cost solutions that are not much more then a large hard drive. They can get expensive if you get into RAID, etc. though and when you go to a true NAS online backup options are a little more limited.

 

[bicker]

I don't really think home network (NAS) storage is really all that premium

As you pointed out, there are cheaper ways of accomplishing practically the same thing.