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Thread ID: 100653 2009-06-15 10:38:00 External Hard Drive Backups pctek (84) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
782546 2009-06-15 10:38:00 How many of you use one? And how do you use it?

Just come across someone who thought they were doing all the right things by storing their stuff on it.
Unfortunately their stuff was ONLY on the external drive - and naturally that's the drive that decided to have a problem.

What you should do is have it both on the external AND the internal drives.
Chances of both drives having a problem at once is unlikely.

Also they were leaving it permanently connected. So what happens if there's a storm, lightning, power surge? Could lose both.

I just plug mine in when I do a sync then unplug it again and let it sit connected to nothing.
pctek (84)
782547 2009-06-15 11:12:00 I backup to 2 external hard drives. One I leave permanently connected and the other I store out of the house. All the files are also on the internal HD except for photos of which there are too many. Shortstop (632)
782548 2009-06-15 11:14:00 Using an external HDD left on site is one form of backup - but it should not be the only form if you are serious about backing up! You need to have a copy of at least your important files off site for theft/fire type reasons. johnd (85)
782549 2009-06-15 11:37:00 I have a Stardom NAS, configured as RAID 1 (2x500GB), and I backup to an external HDD once or twice a week. Most people I have come across use the external HDD for storage and confuse that as a backup. Often I have told people that backup means having 2 or more copies of their data on different drives, incase of drive failure as pctek mentioned. ronyville (10611)
782550 2009-06-15 11:37:00 I back up to an external drive most days, and rsync the important stuff to a server someplace every week or so. Code is inherently backed up in SCM systems anyway, so I don't usually worry about that. Erayd (23)
782551 2009-06-15 12:00:00 Everything is stored on an internal AND external drive and some photos and documents are sent to be stored up in the cloud. beeswax34 (63)
782552 2009-06-15 19:44:00 I use a flash drive daily an ext HDD weekly as well as a monthly full disc to ext HDD monthly, none are off site as where would I put them I don't work in an office gary67 (56)
782553 2009-06-15 20:45:00 I have all my files on my server which has mirroring on the disks. Everything is backed up every 5 minutes using syncback to my terastation NAS which has RAID 5 running on it. I also have 2 offsite backups at different locations which are updated regularly. Really important stuff also has a home in the cloud and on DVD which lives in my work bag and travels around with me. Paranoid.....me???......maybe..... ;-) Barnabas (4562)
782554 2009-06-15 21:30:00 Our SBS2003 box has RAID1 HDDs in it.
I do a daily backup to a NAS device which also has a RAID1 setup.
Plus I also do critical data backup online every night to a server in Auckland, which is replicated in Wellington every hour.
CYaBro (73)
782555 2009-06-15 21:32:00 HDD, external disk and Gspace or Sky Drive. I'm wondering why the last two options, especially to safeguard the files from the risk of fire for example, haven't been mentioned more often. What are the disadvantages of those? Cyberhuskey (13067)
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