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

HD Enclosures - auto backup solutions? what to look for?

  • 02-12-2004 3:38pm
    #1
    pencil
    Closed Accounts Posts: 606 ✭✭✭


    I need to get a proper Backup solution happening here - I currently have just shy of 100GB of multimedia & web work on this machine (spread over 2 drives, not counting an OS dedicated drive). These two HD are then backupped on to a fourth internal archive Hard drive.

    This solution is fine & dandy as far as machine crashes go BUT if the house was broken into & my machine nicked - I'd be fu@kedddddddd - to say the least!

    I'm looking to take out this fourth internal HD & put it in a external HD case.

    What should I be looking for when purchasing a External HD case?
    What kind of software is good for automatically backing up stuff (I have Ghost here but haven't used it)?

    I've seen & fancy those 'One-touch Backup' drives in PCworld - is there any DIY solution like this available (this needs to be cheap - broke after shelling out on the laptop yesterday)

    Cheer guys


Comments

  • #2
    pencil
    Closed Accounts Posts: 606 ✭✭✭pencil


    Just went through Ghost & it looks perfect for the job


  • #3
    RicardoSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,264 ✭✭✭RicardoSmith


    Do you have firewire or USB2?

    You can buy any HD and enclosure and stick a 3.5" drive in it. Some are better made than others, have better cooling or are bigger/smaller etc.


  • #4
    pencil
    Closed Accounts Posts: 606 ✭✭✭pencil


    Ricardo,

    I have both, USB2 + Firewire, although I only have one firewire.

    Which of the two is fastest (USB2 or Firewire)?


  • #5
    RicardoSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,264 ✭✭✭RicardoSmith


    Firewire,is faster but less PC's have FW. If you need to get your data off from another computer that can be an issue. All you need is one port. Firewire devices can be daisy chained. One plugs into the other, and you can buy Firewire hubs if you don't want to do that.

    Personally I went USB2 because I want more compatibility with other PC's. USB2 being fast enough for me. Some drives have both FW and USB2. These drives are hard to beat, even building your own. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Maxtor.html


  • #6
    savemejebus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,662 ✭✭✭savemejebus


    If you're using ghost I'd recommend firewire, as ghost can be terribly slow when backing up over usb. I went for this enclosure http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=123722&cks=PRL and i'm very happy with it.


  • Advertisement
  • #7
    pencil
    Closed Accounts Posts: 606 ✭✭✭pencil


    deadly - I had ordered that exact one earlier - good to hear


  • #8
    RicardoSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,264 ✭✭✭RicardoSmith


    savemejebus wrote:
    If you're using ghost I'd recommend firewire, as ghost can be terribly slow when backing up over usb.

    Shouldn't be that big a difference, unless theres a bug in Ghost or something.


  • #9
    savemejebus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,662 ✭✭✭savemejebus


    Shouldn't be that big a difference, unless theres a bug in Ghost or something.


    I didn't think it should take that long either but it was 4+ hours on usb while it took 35 minutes on firewire. I tried it using a few different USB settings in the ghost advanced panel but nothing improved on 4 hours. At one setting it was stating that it would take 13 hours :eek:


  • #10
    RicardoSmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,264 ✭✭✭RicardoSmith


    USB2 has theoretical bandwith of 480Mbit/sec, Firewire 400Mbit/sec.

    However in practise Firewire is faster due to the way the technology works, its puts less load on the CPU. Also all the devices on Firewire don't share bandwith with other Firewire devices, whereas USB2 devices share bandwith with other USB devices. But theres no way its 8 times slower or even 24 times slower! Thats simply a badly designed USB bridge chipset on your enclosure, or a bug in the software you are using.

    For most disk intensive applications firewire is faster, sometime as much as twice as fast, especially when working with sustained reads and writes like video production etc.


Advertisement