Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

External storage options

  • 11-04-2012 1:57pm
    #1
    Timistry
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 766 ✭✭✭


    Im looking for some opinions on external storage options. I moved to oz last year and brought 2 x 1TB HDs with me, one for all my music and the other for movies/TV series. Last weekend the music HD failed after only 5 months:o even though its stored in a protective case and never moves from my room. Its a Western Digital SE USB2.0 by the way.

    After some research on the net and a conversation with a data recovery expert I have lost faith in external HD's, which seem to fail within no time. Especially the ATA drives with USB connections. WD had the smart idea of attaching the USB connection directly on to board therefore excessive bending of the cable damages the board itself. Im told that bypassing a damaged WD board is impossible because all data is processed through an encryption chip....WTF! This is on top of the usual arm and head failures.

    Im looking at getting a new portable HD to replace the dead one. The data recovery expert suggested a SATA drive in an enclosure since firmware and USB connections are more easily fixed in this setup. Once my collection has been reinstated with some help from my mates, i was thinking of getting a eSATA raid enclosure for added piece of mind and excellent backup capabilities


Comments

  • #2
    Torqay
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,835 ✭✭✭Torqay


    As a rule of thumb, I always buy external drives in pairs and keep them synced. Stoarge is cheap and saving on the backup is saving at the wrong end.

    The drive should be replaced under warranty if it is only 6 month old. Of course, no warranty covers your loss of data, this is your responsibility.


  • #3
    uncle_sam_ie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,191 ✭✭✭uncle_sam_ie


    I can't afford my back ups to fail so, I'm using cloud storage. It could be an option for you.
    http://www.top10cloudstorage.com/cloud-storage/


  • #4
    armitage_skanks
    Closed Accounts Posts: 114 ✭✭armitage_skanks


    Timistry wrote: »
    Im looking at getting a new portable HD to replace the dead one. The data recovery expert suggested a SATA drive in an enclosure since firmware and USB connections are more easily fixed in this setup. Once my collection has been reinstated with some help from my mates, i was thinking of getting a eSATA raid enclosure for added piece of mind and excellent backup capabilities

    If you've got two drives in a raid enclosure and you knock it off the shelf, that's not a backup, your data is gone. RAID isn't a backup solution, it just lets you keep working in the event of a drive failure.

    A backup is something completely separate so that your data can survive accidental deletion, deletion/corruption by malware, droppage, theft, fire, bit-rot etc.

    Of course you can have both, but for a consumer it's generally more important to sort a backup first. RAID is more useful for businesses etc that need to keep operating through drive failures.


  • #5
    cookie1977
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,794 ✭✭✭cookie1977


    I use 2 x 1TB western digital elements drives with syncbackSE

    They are both copies of each other. One is kept locked up in work and the other is kept at home. Both are encrypted with Truecrypt (AES-Twofish-Serpent encryption algorithm). They contain music, moves/tv, pictures, files and folders. I then use sugarsync 30GB account to back up my files and folders and flickr pro account to back up my pics.

    Works for me.


  • #6
    mordeith
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,278 ✭✭✭mordeith


    Try one of these. 2tb going for €200 ex VAT on DABS4WORK.ie and includes 1 year data recovery in the case of accident, hardware failure etc.



  • Advertisement
  • #7
    Timistry
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 766 ✭✭✭Timistry


    Thanks for the replies!

    I had a similar idea to Cookie 1977. I had 2 operational hard drives which represented about 6 years of data collection. After thousands of downloads, cd rips, iso's etc the data became spread out and disorganised out over many folders on both hard drives and my PC. I was in the process of categorizing the data into folders like Movies, TV series, Docs, Albums, Collections etc, then sorting out the mp3 id3 tags using mediamonkey (its an awesome program). Once that was complete i was going to make a complete copy of these 2 hard drives on a 2TB drive, which would then be password protected, securely packaged and stored in a locked drawer never to be moved or used unless necessary. I was almost there.........

    Luckily though, one of my best mates back in Ireland and I have shared our data over the years so he has a copy of my failed drive, which I can clone:). Unfortunately he does not have the same OCD I have with regards to id3 tags and trying to organise it all again will be a nightmare:o

    I back up docs like my uni notes and pictures on DVDs, which I keep locked away for backup purposes


Advertisement