Best backup drive - external or internal?

Pulsedriver

Pulsedriver

Pulsedriver

Soldato
Joined
19 Dec 2003
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3,112
Location
UK
Hey folks;

I am about to set up my 2x 1tb Samsung F1 drives in a RAID0 array.

However, I was thinking with regards to backup (Acronis True Image)

I have already, a 250gb external freecom usb drive, however, I'd prefer not to leave that connected all the time, and it also makes a rather strange noise when I turn the PC power off (from the mains) so i'd prob prefer not to have to do that to it all the time lol. It's also not ideal in terms of desk space - or leaving on top of the PC looks untidy.

Anyway, I was thinking, is a good solution simply to buy a 250gb or so drive, put it inside the case (plenty of room left) and just simply have it as a backup drive?

Or am I being lazy - and should keep the usb drive connected as a backup drive?
 
I was in this position a while ago, well until the Icy Box's controller decided to melt itself. I then put it inside and now it's just used as and when I need it, which is good as there is no messing about. But it then means that all my data is in one location so if the computer blows up (???) I've lost all of it. Or if my PSU gets taken out by something I stand the chance of loosing my backup drive.

I do however have a question, why have 2TB's of space and decide to buy a 250GB backup drive. If you have 2TB's you've bought that much as you plan to store a lot of something and so surely wouldn't you want that backed up as well??

A lot of people are going for Network Attached Storage devices that can have multiple drivers for additional space.
 
Hey :)

I bought 2 x 1TB as I used to have them as C and D drives, OS/Games etc was on C and on D I used it for video / audio projects.

In fairness what would need backing up would really only come to about 50-100 gb it would grow over time, but I got a good deal on the Samsung F1's at the time so went all out! Im one of these people I prefer installing everything again, instead of using a mirror backup for OS etc. I prefer to put a fresh install on, along with the updated versions of programs that I regularly use.

I don't want to partition the RAID0 drive just going straight for maximum performance, hence why I never chose RAID1

So, a NAS box, connects straight to a router - and can be accessed by any PC on the network - does it use any security protocol? (So Joe Bloggs can't enjoy browsing your backup drive etc) im sure it must as wireless using WPA but a NAS is wired...?
 
Trouble with NAS drives are they only offer slow transfers over LAN connections. This may not be an issue if all your backups are automated to occur when the PC is not in use, otherwise it's quite a drain on the PC for an hour or two.

I have a MyBook 1TB for storing backups, and it might be useful if I could get the *** thing to connect via eSATA. As it is, firewire is the fastest connection I have to it.

I have a dedicated 500GB internal drive for backing up the OS drive, copies of backups are archived from there to the MyBook. Nothing else is supposed to use the 500GB drive and it's set to spin-down when not in use, but I'm not at all sure it does as Vista insists on poking it into life at regular intervals.
 
As said above, probably external would be safer storage in case of system meltdown.

I just run 2 hard drives internally, not in raid, and occassionally move data over.
 
I just use a syncing program for my internal backup drive, the only thing I don't have backed up are the OS and apps. All my downloads, doucments, pictures, videos and games are.
 
+1 for a mybook via esata,
i get ~100MB/s sustained transfer speed for backing up my video drive :)
Quiet too.
 
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