Vista - External Hard Drive for Vista Ultimate x64

Hi

I would like some advice on which external hard drive to buy for Vista Ultimate x64. I am not a techy and have read some posts which have left me more than a bit confused!

The external hard drive needs to be easy to set up and use. I just want to be able to (very) easily back up my files on a daily basis and save photos, spreadsheets to the external hard drive.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

Newegg.com - Western Digital My Book Essential 2.0 WDH1U5000N 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - External Hard Drives

Theres your HD

Acronis True Image Home

Theres the best backup software you can possibly imagin.

Hmm.... the backup software is great, I grant you that, but I have a 1 TB version from WD, and the wretched thing keeps overheating. So every hour or so I have to shut the thing off. I'm even considering just taking out the HDs and putting them in my system....which kinds of defeats the purpose....

Well, in the first place, an external (USB) hard drive was never designed to maintain a 100% duty cycle. I just build my own, by buying a nice little enclosure and putting my own choice of HD in it. I have two (one desktop drive and one laptop drive) and both use the "Air Link 101" brand of enclosure.
They're not expensive and work just great.

The secret to long life is, "Plug in the external drive, write to it and unplug it".
They have NO way to cool in those tight little enclosures and continued use will cause overheating. Heat Kills !!!

A techie friend of mine had the overheating problem and came up with this novel idea for cooling his external HD:



Joking aside, only plug in your external USB drive when you're going to use it.
That keeps it from overheating and extends its life.

I back up my own system to my USB drive about once a week, using Norton's Ghost 2003. Works like a champ!

Cheers mate!
The Shadow

Thanks very much to you all for your advice. Can someone tell me if backing up files to an external hard drive is safe enough or is there anything else I should do to make sure I don't lose my files?

Uhm....yeah.....but...... My WD thingy has 2 500GB drives in it....PLUS a big fan.... which spins up rather loudly. Most of the time the drive is just sitting there, doing nothing, and it's fine. As long as I don't let it get past a certain point it's fine. My husband, who is on the network, can't seem to grasp the concept of writing to the drive in short burst of about 3 GB max at a time, then letting it rest for about 15 minutes. As long as we DO let it rest for 15 minutes, the fans kick in during the initial copying, and the drive cools down after the copy is over, during the 15 minutes.

For some reason, the drive will use the fan for a short time only. I've no clue why. I've called WD about this, and they basically say the same thing you said, "well don't leave it on". Which basically isn't an option, as various computers over the network need to have access to the drive at varying times.
Anyway, for some reason, if the drive is hot for too long, the fans will simply stop, and the drive will stop working. It then doesn't matter how long I do not use it, it won't start working until I unplug it, let it cool down and then plug it back in.

Anyways, as for the OP, whichever drive you get, make SURE to look for and read reviews on the net before you buy. Just to avoid these types of situations.

NO mechanical device is SAFE. Every one of them is subject to failure at any moment without warning.
The question is never "IF" a hard drive will fail....it's always "When".
The only safe place for your valuable files is burned to a CD or DVD.
Then put that disk in a fireproof vault.

My own system gets burned to a DVD every week and that DVD goes into a Fireproof Vault about 20 miles away.

Having the little plastic disk sitting next to your computer when your house burns down, was really NO backup at all. Was it?

Cheers mate!
Shadow

Hmm even those self-burned DVDs aren't actually failsafe.... cos the medium actually degrades over time..... but I'm sure they should last a few years.....

I will agree in that these devices are cheap and designed for light-weight consumer use, nothing heavy duty. That being said, no device should overheat merely from being left powered on for a couple hours. That's a sign of very poor design.

Both personally and at work, we use little other than actual NAS appliances and SANs for storage. However, we do have several Maxtor OneTouch devices that we use in place of tape-backups. I've never really paid any attention to their performance, but I know that they stay often stay powered on for long periods of time (days or weeks). So, it would seem that maybe the Maxtor units are a better choice than the WD jobbies.

That's the same thing I've found in my 28 years as a computer tech.
I won't have a WD drive on the place.

I know....I know....some people just love them, but for me, being in the business, I just can't rely on them. When you're a PC builder and you have to stand the warranty on a PC for a year, you don't put in anything that you can't fully rely on. It's pure suicide if you do.

My dislike for WD drives is based on personal experience, not personal prejudice.

I run dual-fan HD coolers on all my internal HD's and never have one fail due to overheating. You can't properly cool a HD that's locked up in a tight little box.

As I said before, I have two external drives....a full size and a laptop drive.
I plug them in when I want to use them, use them and then unplug them. I never leave them connected when not in actual use. To me, that just makes good sense.

To each his own, I guess.

Cheers mates!
The Shadow