Solved Which External Drive Should I Get?

[meltie]

Guys,

Can someone please help me figure out which drive to get?

I want to use it to back up my entire system and all programs - just in case anything ever goes wrong, so I don't have to start from scratch.

I have Vista Home Premium on an HP m8530f computer. This computer comes with slots to put in external hard drives. This is great, except I don't have a clue what to put in one of them

I've read several posts on this and have gotten some good information, but still confused.

So far I've learned from the threads that I need to: (please correct me if I've misunderstood the below)

1. Get an SCSI or SATA drive (removable won't serve my purpose)
2. Get a program such as Acronis True Image to "make an image of my computer"

I'm thinking I should get a relatively large capacity one (what do you suggest? my computer is 700GB).

Then . . . I'll have to figure out how to "set" the drive "letter". One thing at a time though. I'm not computer savvy.

Thank you all in advance for your help.

Meltie

 

[richc46]

I think that you would be better served by the free Macrium rather than pay for another.

 

[Shadowjk]

If you want a large HDD then you may need a 2TB and what sort of make and model were you looking for?

Hope This Helps,
Josh

 

[TeamanFL]

I think that you would be better served by the free Macrium rather than pay for another.

Do you know of anyone who has actually restored to a new HD using Macrium? It all seams to be black magic to me. How do I know if I am safe with that Macrium backup file?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I think that you would be better served by the free Macrium rather than pay for another.

Do you know of anyone who has actually restored to a new HD using Macrium? It all seams to be black magic to me. How do I know if I am safe with that Macrium backup file?

Hello meltie.

Yes, a lot of people are having good success with Macrium and it is free, have a look at the tutorial at the link below.


Imaging with free Macrium

 

[meltie]

Good stuff everyone. Thanks. Still a little confused though - go figure

Looks like Item 2 in my post is resolved. Macrium looks good. I'll use that for imaging. Thanks Rich. Thanks BFK


On to Item 1. Still need some help on how to select an external hard drive.

*In reply to Josh's response above -- I don't know, I need everyone's guidance on this.


Reading info on the Macrium website and tutorial have me thinking more about Item 1. Sharing my thoughts and questions below.

a. It says "Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD"
Question: What's a firewire drive? Is that a better option than a hard drive?

b. The Tutorial says "The recovery instructions work perfectly well with a "traditional" installation where the MBR resides on the C partition".

Thought: As my computer has only two partitions, C & D, with D being where the manufacturer's restore is . . . I believe it would be wise to have my Macrium "image" on something other than C or D - yes?

Question: I don't suppose I could just use CDs? Probably not, but had to ask.

Sooo, can you please offer suggestions and guidance for the new external hard drive? Is my understanding about SCSI and SATA correct? Does the make and model matter? Are some easier to use with HP computers and Vista or does that not matter?

I'll wait to hear back before I proceed further.

Thanks again everyone. I appreciate your time and advice.

Meltie

 

[richc46]

I am reluctant to recommend an external hard drive, since even the best many times breakdown days after you make the purchase. You should stick to a name brand, Western Digital Comes to mind. I think that unless you have a lot of information to back up 1TB, would be more than enough.

CD will take way too long for large back ups. An external hard drive is best.

You will have your back up on a separte hard drive, not on the aforementioned partions. C etc.

Make and model is only important as to cost and reliablity, they are all basically the same.
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,4642,00.asp

If I were buying I would go with Western Digital and this
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Hard-Drives/External-Hard-Drives/abcat0504003.c?id=abcat0504003

 

[meltie]

Okay. Thanks. That helps.

Really needed to know if I had to have a certain size, speed, configuration . . . that sort of thing.

I'll go to the links provided and then give everyone an update on what I did and how it worked.

Thanks again.

Meltie

 

[ilikefree]

I am reluctant to recommend an external hard drive, since even the best many times breakdown days after you make the purchase. You should stick to a name brand, Western Digital Comes to mind. I think that unless you have a lot of information to back up 1TB, would be more than enough.

CD will take way too long for large back ups. An external hard drive is best.

You will have your back up on a separte hard drive, not on the aforementioned partions. C etc.

Make and model is only important as to cost and reliablity, they are all basically the same.
Hard Drives - Reviews and Price Comparisons from PC Magazine

If I were buying I would go with Western Digital and this
External Hard Drive: Firewire & USB External Hard Drives - Best Buy

+1 For WD

 

[meltie]

All,

I feel like I must be dense or something. I went to the links. Read the review and then buyers reviews on Best Buy website.

Here's what's confusing me. Do I need to do anything to make the drive I purchase NTFS? Or will Vista do that automatically for me when I plug it in? If not, what do I do?

The SATA thing is also still confusing the heck out of me. Should I just ignore that and go with the Firewire/USB Drive? Or do I need a SATA/Firewire/USB Hard Drive?

Aside: Won't hold it against anyone if the drive stops working - after all, we didn't build the drive

Thanks for your help and patience. Sheez, I feel dumb!

Signed: "one still confused" Meltie

P.S. If I'm making this harder than it has to be, please tell me.

 

[Fiery]

I am reluctant to recommend an external hard drive, since even the best many times breakdown days after you make the purchase. You should stick to a name brand, Western Digital Comes to mind. I think that unless you have a lot of information to back up 1TB, would be more than enough.

CD will take way too long for large back ups. An external hard drive is best.

You will have your back up on a separte hard drive, not on the aforementioned partions. C etc.

Make and model is only important as to cost and reliablity, they are all basically the same.
Hard Drives - Reviews and Price Comparisons from PC Magazine

If I were buying I would go with Western Digital and this
External Hard Drive: Firewire & USB External Hard Drives - Best Buy

I am with you 100% on your comment of "since even the best many times breakdown days after you make the purchase" I even bought a named brand of Western Digital, that corrupted after 2 weeks, so I had it replaced. And just in case of any hard drive failures, I went and bought an extrea 1TB Western Digital My Book Elite, so in total 2 external hard drives. 1 is kept in our fireproof safe, and updated on a semi regular basis. The WD Elite is hooked up permanently to my PC . That one I use for my vista backups, and backups of all programmes I do not have on disk, and of course my mp3's. That is not to say either of them wont die on me, but am going on 24 months now, and both are still going strong.

 

[eldinv]

I think that you would be better served by the free Macrium rather than pay for another.

Do you know of anyone who has actually restored to a new HD using Macrium? It all seams to be black magic to me. How do I know if I am safe with that Macrium backup file?

I have. The process was only about 15 minutes for a 20GB image backup. I love the program and it saves me from nightmares of reformatting my drive. I have since created a data partition and removed a lot of personal files from my C drive and so the last time I created an system image backup was only 7GB, I bet that would have less than 10 minutes to recovery.

 

[eldinv]

Good stuff everyone. Thanks. Still a little confused though - go figure

Looks like Item 2 in my post is resolved. Macrium looks good. I'll use that for imaging. Thanks Rich. Thanks BFK


On to Item 1. Still need some help on how to select an external hard drive.

*In reply to Josh's response above -- I don't know, I need everyone's guidance on this.


Reading info on the Macrium website and tutorial have me thinking more about Item 1. Sharing my thoughts and questions below.

a. It says "Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD"
Question: What's a firewire drive? Is that a better option than a hard drive?

b. The Tutorial says "The recovery instructions work perfectly well with a "traditional" installation where the MBR resides on the C partition".

Thought: As my computer has only two partitions, C & D, with D being where the manufacturer's restore is . . . I believe it would be wise to have my Macrium "image" on something other than C or D - yes?

Question: I don't suppose I could just use CDs? Probably not, but had to ask.

Sooo, can you please offer suggestions and guidance for the new external hard drive? Is my understanding about SCSI and SATA correct? Does the make and model matter? Are some easier to use with HP computers and Vista or does that not matter?

I'll wait to hear back before I proceed further.

Thanks again everyone. I appreciate your time and advice.

Meltie

When imaging you cannot save an image to the same drive your imaging from.

As far the D drive that's your recovery partition and should never be touched. That partition is an extra level of protection if lets say you need to format PC and don't have a system image.

If you only want to get an external hard drive there are many options out there. Basically, the decision comes down to price and space needed. The norm nowadays in terms of space is 1 Terabyte. The most common external hard drives can connect to PC using USB 2.0/eSATA/.

There are Firewire 400/800 external drives out on the market but they are usually more expensive and are more common in a Mac system.

For your purposes, I recommend a USB 2.0/eSATA external hard drive. Here's one.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4083482&Sku=M261-8214

This will connect to your PC via USB cable and you probably don't need to format it. It should just show up like a flash drive. If formatting is needed that can be done under the disk management section; right click on My Computer>Manage>Disk Management.

If you want to take advantage of the faster read/write speeds of the eSATA connection, you just need to buy a PCI eSATA connection, that will go inside the PC and the port will be on the back of the PC near the I/O shield.

Hope I help a little and didn't confuse you more.

Good Luck and Happy Imaging!

 

[Shadowjk]

If you want a proper Strong Backup Drive then I would Recommend A Lacie drive for they are strong and Sturdy But if you want a portable Laptop Drive then I would recommend a Western Digital

Hope This Helps,
Josh

 

[elton-77]

As a user of 6 external drives I shall throw in my 2 pennies worth.

Seagate FreeAgent drives have given me years of faithful service in the 250GB and 500GB sizes [I use 2 of both] but when I wanted to backup my music collection I required something bigger. So I plumped for the Seagate 1.5TB drive based on previous experience. The first drive failed within 2 weeks by freezing and making noises that shouldn't be heard outside of a workshop! The replacement drive lasted 3 months before succumbing to the exact same fault. The replacement offered in the store was another one just out the box but I insisted on having it demonstrated there and then - you guessed it, it was as noisy as hell, so I had my money back.

So I then tried a Samsung Story 1.5TB and this drive is magic; So good that I now have 2 [the second being a backup to the first].

Hope this helps.

 

[meltie]

Okay - now I'm getting it. Brain freeze has passed LOL. These last few posts definitely helped.

Thanks.

 

[elton-77]

Sadly, no matter what drive you get - they can all fail! But experience with certain drives counts for a lot. Earlier posts mentioned Digital Western drives but not having used them I cannot comment.

Hope all goes well anyway.

 

[pacinitaly]

Seagate... !!!
Seagate... !!!
Seagate... !!!
Seagate... !!!
Seagate... !!!
Seagate... !!!
Seagate... !!!

I have Maxtor externals ( 250GB,320GB,500GB.etc)

now I use Seagates


6yrs no problems at all


WD click,click,click...........

 

[meltie]

All,

Took me a while to get back here as I had a problem with the computer.

To close this out, I purchased an Iomega Prestige 1TB Desktop Hard Drive. Went with Iomega as they have a 3 year warranty and have had good experience with their products in the past.

As I also had to partition my drive and wanted a little more info on using Macrium, I read an "excellent" thread on the Windows 7 site. I highly recommend reading this. WHS also posted a tutorial in the thread. The gentleman who does the tutorials is fantastic!! Thank you WHS. I have included the address below for ease.

Windows 7 Forums > Windows 7 help and support > Tutorials » Imaging with free Macrium

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Meltie

 

[meltie]

Resolved