Roger said:
Hi all,
Merry Xmas to all you helpers. Here is my question,I wish to buy an
external hard drive for my back up. I Run Xp pro SP2 my USB Hub is 1.1
which is powered with four ports. I don't have much material to store so
around 250 gb would be ample. Most advertise USB 2.0 I believe this should
be ok for my 1.1 Hub but things would backup more slower. Can you give any
advice as I need to use something simple for my system back up just in case.
PS should it be a desk top or portable unit as latter appears cheaper
Regards Roger
There are two ways to get drives. You can buy an enclosure with disk
ready made. Or, you can buy an enclosure separately from a drive mechanism
(two purchases).
The following comments address the ready-made external disk market.
The 2.5" ones tend to have better reviews than the 3.5" ones.
So that is a mark in favor of that particular type. I searched
Newegg in the external drive section, sorted the resulting units
by rating. and this is a device with good ratings. 90% of respondents
gave this a 5 star rating. What you're looking for in these reviews is,
"it was dead when I got it", or "it died after three weeks and took
all my data with it".
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822136388
The 2.5" drive is bus powered, and typically does not include a power
supply. That means it will draw up to 5V @ 500mA from the computer
USB bus.
In some cases, the 2.5" drive doesn't succeed in spinning up properly,
due to exceeding the 500mA by a little bit. Some external 2.5"
disks come with a "Y" cable, with two connectors which plug into
the computer. One connector uses just two of its pins, to carry
additional power. The second connector is a regular USB connector.
Using this scheme, as long as the computer delivers power on both
leads, the 2.5" drive will spin. The two USB connectors together, give
up to 1000mA.
3.5" drives draw so much power, that they come with their own
adapter. In some cases, the provided adapter dies, leaving the
disk intact but unusable until a replacement power source is located.
So a 3.5" drive is likely to work immediately when you get it,
but if the power brick or built-in supply ever has a problem,
you could be searching for a replacement power brick or a
complete replacement enclosure. Same comments apply, if you lose
the adapter (which happens, as you'll find people looking for
adapters, and they don't even know what ratings it has).
One reason 2.5" drives may have better reviews, is because they
may product less heat in long term usage. The majority of 3.5"
products won't come with a fan for cooling. Since I like to
see a fan in my disk enclosures, I buy my own enclosure and
add a drive mechanism to it. That takes me five minutes of work
with a screwdriver. If there is a warranty issue, it is
either the enclosure warranty that I use, or the hard drive
mechanism warranty. So there can still be warranty coverage
by building your own solution.
The quality of empty hard drive enclosures that are for
sale, is quite variable. Some are total garbage. Some are
OK. Again, the reviews on Newegg can advise on which
are total dogs.
The best advice is, drives are cheap, and you should own two.
Make backups to both, and chances are, when you need to
do a restoration, one of the drives will work. You can alternate
between the drives, rather than make two backups each time.
That way, if one drive dies, you're using a bit older
backup from the other drive, but you're still covered.
You can use "Safely Remove", then disconnect the drive when
it is not being used. The main advantage of that, is protection
against lightning. If the backup drive is put in a safe place,
without an electrical connection, then if the PC is completely
blown up some day, your data may still be safe on the
external enclosure. If you're not worried about this, then
leave it connected. Most of the enclosures will spin down,
after a short period of inactivity. I like to disconnect
mine, because that's the kind of person I am.
HTH,
Paul
Just buy it and stuff