[Fineus]

I'm getting to the stage where I'm worried about losing my files as there's quite a lot to lose. I want to back things up.

I have a DVD writer. It's a solid and reliable drive and I have some media for it, but I don't like having loads of DVDs around... it seems all too easy to break / damage one.

However I'm tempted to invest in a 200/300GB external Hard Drive. I'd be able to keep much better track of this one drive and of course it'd be neater than having stacks of DVDs. It would however require a one-time expenditure of around £60.

What I really want though is something that - assuming I take good care of it - is reliable, stable, convenient to back up onto and so on. Something I can back up onto regularly without any real hassle (if I'm going to back-up, I want it be as easy as possible so that I'm encouraged to do it, rather than difficult and therefore something I put off untill it's too late).

Are there down-sides to external hard drives (aside from the portability of them compared to DVDs..)?

[Shade]

No major downsides that I've found after having one for a few years. Just make sure that either a) the port you want to plug it into (presumably USB or firewire) is on the front of your case, or b) get a hub. My old computer did not have a front port and that gave me much grief (and a few headaches, due to a certain steel beam I kept forgetting about) while crawling around under the table to connect it. Until I got an aforementioned USB hub.

They may also require their own power supply, though because of forgetfulness I've found that mine works just fine simply running off a powered hub despite the manual claiming it can't. That's about it really. If you disconnect it when not used, it's pretty much safe from anything and everything that might go on short of the room burning out or accidentally setting down a neodynium magnet on top of it. And given that it will suffer next to no wear as well, it'll last a long, long time before you need to worry about a new backup option.

[Nuke]

ive never much liked externals. id probibly go with a second internal if i had too. but i have plenty of extra space on my ipod plus a spare drive on another computer.

[übermetroid]

My experience.  DVD back ups get scratched.  No good.  Also have to keep making them over and over.  I have a stack with like 50 old back up DVDs.

External hard drive has not failed me yet.  Doing good.  Got the 500 gig WD pro one.

[Shade]

The problem with an internal as far as backups go, is that whatever affects the primary drive might affect the backup drive as well; they're in the same place, connected to the same machine, and get powered up and down the same number of time resulting in much the same amount of wear. A disconnected external drive is pretty much safe from all that and so is the superior choice. After all, the whole point of backing up data is to keep it elsewhere, so that it's safe if something happens to the system.

DVDs are ok for short term backups, but I wouldn't trust them for something you might want to keep for longer than, say, a year. Burned DVDs are nowhere near as durable as the printed DVDs that music, games and the like come on, and though proper storage will help, they will degrade eventually.

By the way, it just occured to me that if the amount of data you need to back up isn't too great, the best option might be to grab a high-capacity USB memory stick. Those things are damn near indestructible (I've seen one still work after it was literally run over by a car) which is always a good trait for backup media, as well as very portable.

[Tyrian]

I would go for an external, for all the reasons mentioned above.

However, if you want a little project, and the ultimate in ease of backup, buy a second internal hard drive and set it up in RAID 1.  Everything that goes on your main automatically goes to your second internal too.  If your main burns out, just change over to your second one, and its like nothing happened at all.  Granted, your computer needs to support RAID configurations though...

[jr2]

Buy and internal drive, and then buy an external enclosure for it.  ~$100 for the internal (~300 GB?), ~$30 for the USB 2.0 external enclosure.  I got mine brand new (both of them) from eBay, from some sellers with high ratings (lots of ratings, 95% or more positive = FTW).

EDIT: eh, I should mention that if you want to, you can get a laptop internal drive, and a 2.5 inch external enclosure.  That way it fits in you pocket & is powered solely by USB.  However, it's more expensive, and not as much storage capacity.

[Fury]

Like jr2 said, 2,5" externals are nice for not requiring external power supply. You may also want to consider an USB stick, they can hold as much as 16GB these days. For the same price you would get much bigger capacity if you go with HDD's, but USB stick does have its own advantages.

[Descenterace]

I would go for an external, for all the reasons mentioned above.

However, if you want a little project, and the ultimate in ease of backup, buy a second internal hard drive and set it up in RAID 1.  Everything that goes on your main automatically goes to your second internal too.  If your main burns out, just change over to your second one, and its like nothing happened at all.  Granted, your computer needs to support RAID configurations though...

RAID is not a substitute for backups. It merely covers physical failure of the hard disk, which is rare. User error, software error, and failure of the RAID card are not covered.

Backups protect data, RAID protects uptime.

[Col. Fishguts]

I've got an 250GB 3.5' drive in an aluminium case which comes with an integrated power supply. Not the smallest option, but that doesn't bother me.

It's much easier to maintain backups on a HDD than having to burn an new DVD every time you want to update your backups. Also, self-burned DVDs still are kinda unreliable.

[Nuke]

the problem with an external drive is that it becomes rather cumbersome to connect, disconnect and move around. eventually it just sits by your computer, plugged in, and stays there, wired to the same machine, and to the same power system. this doesnt to a lick of good if you get a prolonged sag/brownout/spike, or mother****ing lightning.

the usb flash is a good idea. its something small you can stick in the often unused pocket of your shirt or toss in the glove box of your car. but if you got a portable music player with of extra space, why not use that. youre gonna take it with you anyway. hell forbid any of us go anyplace without our music. the idea is essentially use off site backup. best backup results occure when you have multiple backup meathods though.

[Stealth]

I'm getting to the stage where I'm worried about losing my files as there's quite a lot to lose. I want to back things up.

man, i got to that stage 8 years ago :-/

personally, i'd say go with an external hard drive.  this is what i use at home, and this is one of the backup strategies i use for my IT department at the company i work for.  advantages of external hard drives over internal are definately not speed or performance; and they're definately not smaller physical size, etc. but they have one advantage over most other backup media: they're portable, and they're reliable.  they don't get scratched, broken, chipped, and you don't have to unscrew your case to get them out.

this is especially important for us, as we frequently have hurricane warnings and floods.  when this happens, managers are instructed to each walk by the server room, and grab one of the 1TB hard drives we have, and take them home with them.  When hurricane Rita hit, a little less than 2 years ago, we had people evacuate to all parts of the country, and they took the hard drives with them.  Should anything happen to me, i reasoned, or any number of managers, the company's data would still be intact.

so yes, i say go with an external hard drive.  you can set up daily syncs to it (as i do at home), shoot, with the size they have these days you can copy your entire hard drive to it nightly, via norton ghost or some similar solution

[CP5670]

External drives are probably the best option. As others have said, they're durable, easy to connect/disconnect and are rewritable, so you can make mass backups of everything regularly without worrying about filling them up.

I tend to just keep anything important on a couple of different computers, so you could say that's similar to using external hard drives.

[Fineus]

Thanks guys, I think the answer is definitely shaping up to be "external hard drive" and that suits me just fine. I think my most valued data has to by my photography over the last two years and I'd really hate to lose that. An E-HD would really help.

Thanks again!

[jr2]

How about compressed backup files + QuickPar files... in the extremely unlikely event that your backup files get corrupted, QuickPar will restore them easily... ask karajorma if you want to know more about QuickPar, I guess he's pretty good at it.

[Descenterace]

Best bet is probably 2 external hard disks. Swap them after you do a backup. This will ensure that only one of them is connected at any time, and as long as you swap them immediately after the backup it'll only ever be the outdated one that's attached and in danger.

At work our domain server is backed up weekly using this method. We also do daily differentials to a NAS, but that's probably overkill for home.