OT- External hard drive advice/ recommendations needed
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Phoenix_Rising
Posts: 11,417 Member
in Chit-Chat
I couldn't pass up asking all you tekkie folks my question. :flowerforyou:
I have an older 80gb desktop and a newer 160gb laptop. Specifically, I need to back up EVERYTHING on the 80gb desktop because I'm getting ready to never see it again and I need my photos from it. I'd also like to backup my current laptop (160gb total, about 80gb utilized) but that can be done at a later date. My data needing backing is mainly photos. There are some data files (Word, Excel) and some music files.
I need to know a couple things....
1. What is the best external hard drive I can get?
---- Stipulation: I need it by tonight or tomorrow morning. No time for internet purchasing. In stock store items only. I live in a reasonable sized city. I have access to Walmart, Staples, Office Depot, Best Buy, HHGregg (do they sell them??), etc. I am hoping to spend ~$100. Less is obviously better.
2. Will a 250gb do, since my two computers together only total 240gb at most?
3. How in the world do they work? Is there just a nice little 'easy' button I press? (I realize different models may differ here.)
4. How long do transfers take, generally speaking of course? Let's talk my 80gb desktop... Are we talking an hour? 4 hours? a day?
5. Anything else I should know about external hard drives in general. Keep in mind, all I know is they are little boxes that act like my jump drive but hold a lot more.
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR INPUT!!!!
I have an older 80gb desktop and a newer 160gb laptop. Specifically, I need to back up EVERYTHING on the 80gb desktop because I'm getting ready to never see it again and I need my photos from it. I'd also like to backup my current laptop (160gb total, about 80gb utilized) but that can be done at a later date. My data needing backing is mainly photos. There are some data files (Word, Excel) and some music files.
I need to know a couple things....
1. What is the best external hard drive I can get?
---- Stipulation: I need it by tonight or tomorrow morning. No time for internet purchasing. In stock store items only. I live in a reasonable sized city. I have access to Walmart, Staples, Office Depot, Best Buy, HHGregg (do they sell them??), etc. I am hoping to spend ~$100. Less is obviously better.
2. Will a 250gb do, since my two computers together only total 240gb at most?
3. How in the world do they work? Is there just a nice little 'easy' button I press? (I realize different models may differ here.)
4. How long do transfers take, generally speaking of course? Let's talk my 80gb desktop... Are we talking an hour? 4 hours? a day?
5. Anything else I should know about external hard drives in general. Keep in mind, all I know is they are little boxes that act like my jump drive but hold a lot more.
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR INPUT!!!!
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Replies
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I couldn't pass up asking all you tekkie folks my question. :flowerforyou:
I have an older 80gb desktop and a newer 160gb laptop. Specifically, I need to back up EVERYTHING on the 80gb desktop because I'm getting ready to never see it again and I need my photos from it. I'd also like to backup my current laptop (160gb total, about 80gb utilized) but that can be done at a later date. My data needing backing is mainly photos. There are some data files (Word, Excel) and some music files.
I need to know a couple things....
1. What is the best external hard drive I can get?
---- Stipulation: I need it by tonight or tomorrow morning. No time for internet purchasing. In stock store items only. I live in a reasonable sized city. I have access to Walmart, Staples, Office Depot, Best Buy, HHGregg (do they sell them??), etc. I am hoping to spend ~$100. Less is obviously better.
2. Will a 250gb do, since my two computers together only total 240gb at most?
3. How in the world do they work? Is there just a nice little 'easy' button I press? (I realize different models may differ here.)
4. How long do transfers take, generally speaking of course? Let's talk my 80gb desktop... Are we talking an hour? 4 hours? a day?
5. Anything else I should know about external hard drives in general. Keep in mind, all I know is they are little boxes that act like my jump drive but hold a lot more.
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR INPUT!!!!0 -
lol, lots of questions in general. This is a pretty easy one though.
1st, hard drive storage is cheap, all the major hard drive manufacturers use similar techniques to make their drives, so the quality is generally going to be the same. And when you are talking about USB for backup, you're limited by the USB speed anyway, so getting a super "fast" drive, really shouldn't be a concern (trust me, the differences you might see, don't outway the costs for something as simple as backing up a drive).
What you may want to look for is something with a good warranty like a maxtor or a Western digital drives, preferably with good directions as well, and maybe a free backup utility, but that's secondary.
The REAL thing you want to look for is as big of a drive as you can get (from a well known manufacturer). Here's an in-store product from WD that looks like it would work, 115 bucks, but 1 terrabyte of storage, which is great! And it's USB2 which means it's pretty universal. So it can store all your music/pictures/other crap , a LOT more, and still have room to do system backups if you need it too.
Here's the link.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8001583#ProductDetail0 -
Oh, as to how long.
it depends on how much stuff you want to transfer, I.E. if you have an 80 gig drive, and 70 gig of it is stuff you want to copy (you probably don't care about the windows system files), and you use a USB2 hard drive, then it will probably take oh, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes or so (technically, it would be much faster, around 3 minutes, but USB shares the bus with other stuff, so it never really transfers at the full 420 MB/s rate, so...) . But if the old computer has only USB1.1 connections, then that's a lot slower (probably 45 minutes to 6 hours depending on a lot of factors).0 -
I had been debating a 1TB drive but didn't know if I should go big. Thanks Banks!!!0
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I agree with SHBoss, I'd go with the terabyte hard drive. I got mine at Best Buy for $130, it will have more than enough room for anything you can think of. If you browse around, you may be able to find a better price. I only went to Best Buy because I had a gift certificate.
Good luck with your purchase.0 -
Banks covered everything I was going to say... I was hoping he would help you out. If you want to stay under $100, you might not get a whole TB from a good manufacturer. I found ones from Seagate that had good reviews, and was 500GB for $90. Here's the link: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10575413
Most of these drives are plug and play, so they work just like you said... plug them in and start dragging files over. Have fun!0 -
I have a (pink!) Western Digital (WD) Passport. external. It's about the size of a wallet (a thin one!) and is super easy to use. Plug in, and hit "Sync"! Depending on the size of your files it coudl take a while but once you transfer everything, when you go to "Sync" again, only data that has changed/been added/been deleted will be synced.
I paid about $150 for mine I think, but well worth it. I think it has 160 gigs. The prices have come down I'm sure though.0 -
thanks for asking this question
I have had the same question for a couple weeks as we have our own business and i really need to bcak up our desktop( main computer) laptops are all networked to it and everything is saved on it.
I had no idea what to get either. I just really need it so i can back files up, think the desktop may be on it's way out soon, it's 5 years ols now and can't afford to lose any of our business files.
Going to go check out the links that were posted!!
THANKS AGAIN!!0 -
Banks covered everything I was going to say... I was hoping he would help you out. If you want to stay under $100, you might not get a whole TB from a good manufacturer. I found ones from Seagate that had good reviews, and was 500GB for $90. Here's the link: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10575413
Most of these drives are plug and play, so they work just like you said... plug them in and start dragging files over. Have fun!
Thanks for that info, and also for the assurance of the ease of dragging files for transfer! Gives me a little piece of mind. I hate getting new equipment and not knowing how to operate it!0 -
I have a (pink!) Western Digital (WD) Passport. external. It's about the size of a wallet (a thin one!) and is super easy to use. Plug in, and hit "Sync"! Depending on the size of your files it coudl take a while but once you transfer everything, when you go to "Sync" again, only data that has changed/been added/been deleted will be synced.
I paid about $150 for mine I think, but well worth it. I think it has 160 gigs. The prices have come down I'm sure though.
Okay.... seriously, I would love a cute little pink wallet sized hd. :laugh: Or orange, my favorite color!!
But in a rush, I probably will end up buying something bulky and black. As long as it works, I'll be satisfied.
Hitting a 'sync' button sounds easy. Thanks!!!
BTW-- I was behind a car the other day with a license plate that read FSHRNRD. I went to check your profile, and since you don't live in the same state as I do, I surmised it wasn't you.
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thanks for asking this question
I have had the same question for a couple weeks as we have our own business and i really need to bcak up our desktop( main computer) laptops are all networked to it and everything is saved on it.
I had no idea what to get either. I just really need it so i can back files up, think the desktop may be on it's way out soon, it's 5 years ols now and can't afford to lose any of our business files.
Going to go check out the links that were posted!!
THANKS AGAIN!!
I've known for quite some time that I needed to back up. I've just been lazy and cheap and not done it.
However, since April 2005 I have taken over 30k photos, probably keeping at least 15k. (I delete a lot, ha.) These chronical my daughter's life thus far. If I lost them, I'd just .... I'd be sad, to say the least. And my desktop is approximately 7 or 8 years old.
And if you lost your business files, you'd be sad, to say the least.
Get a hard drive and back up, lady!!! :bigsmile:0 -
I have a (pink!) Western Digital (WD) Passport. external. It's about the size of a wallet (a thin one!) and is super easy to use. Plug in, and hit "Sync"! Depending on the size of your files it coudl take a while but once you transfer everything, when you go to "Sync" again, only data that has changed/been added/been deleted will be synced.
I paid about $150 for mine I think, but well worth it. I think it has 160 gigs. The prices have come down I'm sure though.
Okay.... seriously, I would love a cute little pink wallet sized hd. :laugh: Or orange, my favorite color!!
But in a rush, I probably will end up buying something bulky and black. As long as it works, I'll be satisfied.
Hitting a 'sync' button sounds easy. Thanks!!!
BTW-- I was behind a car the other day with a license plate that read FSHRNRD. I went to check your profile, and since you don't live in the same state as I do, I surmised it wasn't you.
you'll pay extra for 1 touch backup, and those colors too.0 -
you'll pay extra for 1 touch backup, and those colors too.
I know, I know.
But that is how manufacturers lure us women in.
OOOOOOH LOOKIT-- PINK!!! :bigsmile:
(That's how they get me at least...... as I deflect, in case I get attacked by a feminist :laugh: )0 -
thanks for asking this question
I have had the same question for a couple weeks as we have our own business and i really need to bcak up our desktop( main computer) laptops are all networked to it and everything is saved on it.
I had no idea what to get either. I just really need it so i can back files up, think the desktop may be on it's way out soon, it's 5 years ols now and can't afford to lose any of our business files.
Going to go check out the links that were posted!!
THANKS AGAIN!!
I wouldn't use this for business backup. Even small business. For under 500 bucks you can get a cheap, RAID 5, network attached storage device. This offers a lot more flexability, and because it's RAID 5, there's far less chance of loosing your data.
RAID means Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or independant, which ever you want) Disks. It basically means, many physical drives, performing as one drive. It means that if 1 drive dies, you can just pull it out, put another drive in, and the array rebuilds itself as good as new. No more single point of failure.
FYI, I used to do Small business computer and Networking (I had my own company) for about 5 years, so I know a lot about inexpensive business backup solutions.
For example:
here is a good one.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1208417
400 bucks, Buffalo is a good name, easy to set up. And offers 750 GB storage for RAID 5 (500 GB if you MIRROR instead, mirroring is safer, but you get less storage)0 -
Banks to the digital rescue!
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you'll pay extra for 1 touch backup, and those colors too.
I know, I know.
But that is how manufacturers lure us women in.
OOOOOOH LOOKIT-- PINK!!! :bigsmile:
(That's how they get me at least...... as I deflect, in case I get attacked by a feminist :laugh: )
I'm shaking my head right now :ohwell:
You guys are why apple's still in business. LOL!
Just kiddin Lauryn!:flowerforyou:0 -
FYI lauryn, if all you want to do right this second is transfer the files to the new laptop, you can go to Bestbuy or something, and ask them if they have a "direct USB transfer cable" (wallmart wouldn't have this, it's too technical for them). Then you can use the Vista easy file and settings tranfer to do it. The cable should only be about 35 bucks, and it will allow you to shop online and find a FAR better deal and find something you really want instead of something that just works for you. Here is the link for microsoft's easy file transfer.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928635
It's pretty easy, there is a wizard to walk you through it. Especially if you really wanted to save your favorites, emails, settings...etc along with your pictures and music and stuff.
you just plug the cable into the new and old PC, then walk through the wizard, I used to do this all the time for customers.
Side note, this eliminates the need to copy the files twice.0 -
I have a (pink!) Western Digital (WD) Passport. external. It's about the size of a wallet (a thin one!) and is super easy to use. Plug in, and hit "Sync"! Depending on the size of your files it coudl take a while but once you transfer everything, when you go to "Sync" again, only data that has changed/been added/been deleted will be synced.
I paid about $150 for mine I think, but well worth it. I think it has 160 gigs. The prices have come down I'm sure though.
Okay.... seriously, I would love a cute little pink wallet sized hd. :laugh: Or orange, my favorite color!!
But in a rush, I probably will end up buying something bulky and black. As long as it works, I'll be satisfied.
Hitting a 'sync' button sounds easy. Thanks!!!
BTW-- I was behind a car the other day with a license plate that read FSHRNRD. I went to check your profile, and since you don't live in the same state as I do, I surmised it wasn't you.
Haha. STALKER! j/k :0) I'm in MA, just south of Boston.0 -
FYI lauryn, if all you want to do right this second is transfer the files to the new laptop, you can go to Bestbuy or something, and ask them if they have a "direct USB transfer cable" (wallmart wouldn't have this, it's too technical for them). Then you can use the Vista easy file and settings tranfer to do it. The cable should only be about 35 bucks, and it will allow you to shop online and find a FAR better deal and find something you really want instead of something that just works for you. Here is the link for microsoft's easy file transfer.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928635
It's pretty easy, there is a wizard to walk you through it. Especially if you really wanted to save your favorites, emails, settings...etc along with your pictures and music and stuff.
you just plug the cable into the new and old PC, then walk through the wizard, I used to do this all the time for customers.
Side note, this eliminates the need to copy the files twice.
Hmmmmm.
This is an option. I had thought those data transfer cables were much more expensive.
I mean, that would work for now, absolutely. I doubt I have more than 60gb on the old computer, and I have that available on the laptop. That does enable me time to shop around online and look for a deal...
Banks, you are too awesome!! THANK YOU!!!0 -
BTW-- I was behind a car the other day with a license plate that read FSHRNRD. I went to check your profile, and since you don't live in the same state as I do, I surmised it wasn't you.
Haha. STALKER! j/k :0) I'm in MA, just south of Boston.
Stalker? Moi?
Only be concerned if I find you on Facebook. *muahahahaha* I'm totally a Facebook stalker!! :bigsmile:0
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