external HDDs

neoRAGE · 3 Dec 2007 at 23:09

Hello,

I am looking to buy an large volume external HDD, still deciding on a model but there was just one question i needed answered: do any of them come with "safety" if there is ever a fault in the drive that enables me to recover data? the reason i am asking this because i will be placing all my personal photos instead of on DVDs for permanent backup. so does this kinda technology exist?

please help....

regards,
neorage

jak731 · 4 Dec 2007 at 00:28

with hdds you can usually get most to all of your data back if it get corrupted or formatted (especially if its a quick format) through data recovery software (both free or not free programs will suffice). however if the drive heads are broken then there is nothing that can be done unless you have access to a computer data recovery lab or whatever they are called and you replace the heads and put the drive back together again without breaking it. (this is as far as i am aware impossible for the average computer user).

rpstewart · 4 Dec 2007 at 09:47

neoRAGE said:
Hello,

I am looking to buy an large volume external HDD, still deciding on a model but there was just one question i needed answered: do any of them come with "safety" if there is ever a fault in the drive that enables me to recover data? the reason i am asking this because i will be placing all my personal photos instead of on DVDs for permanent backup. so does this kinda technology exist?

please help....

regards,
neorage

What you're talking about is not a backup, it's simply a single copy of the data. You still need a backup as well.

fobose · 4 Dec 2007 at 10:58

I think your best bet is to have RAID 1 in your computer, and have an external backup too. Depends how worried you are about losing your data.

neoRAGE · 4 Dec 2007 at 11:04

ok, in my head i think i was meaning the software option, that sounds like a plan. i already thought of a RAID setup with mirroring but trying to find a slightly cheaper solution. any ideas on good software?

regards,
neorage

p.s. thanks to all that replied back.

Hawk Tuah · 4 Dec 2007 at 11:21

If you're copying all your files to an external Hd, the only failsafe way to not loose them, is to have two mirrored drives.

I bought myself a 500gb external HD for exactly that. It is a mirror for everything on my PC, so in the event of HD failure, I will not loose any data.