ferrettkitt Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Has anyone had experience of using an external hard drive? I've amassed quite a few pictures and would like to move them off my PC so that I can improve its performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosie Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 The cubed one downloaded (or did he upload?) all my pictures last night off of my lappy onto an external hardrive. He got it from PC world and says that if you only use it to back up therefore its sat most of its time not doing anything then its fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick W Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Easy to use I back up everything including work stuff on mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antarmike Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 I use a WD External Hard Drive and I keep a back-up of all my pictures and work on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo578 Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 (edited) yes used them for some years now as a general day to day storage and a larger one which is used as a weekly update -sounds extreme but I spent 2 months trawling through a damaged internal hard drive extracting files using a file recovery software -20gb of which about 4gb was lost to a faulty hard drive disk -including college work -fortunately after graduation.:wow: Currently using a Freecom and a Maxtor, both usb2-both even work on older usb1, neither of which have given a moment problem -for the most part any of the main brands are good and are really inexpensive 1.5TB can but gotten for about £60 if you look around the internet. Edited April 22, 2011 by steveo578 correction of giga for mega Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike65 Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 I have been running 2 for a while now. They are used for backing ip of photos, music and anything else I consider important. Also keep DVD copies, can never be too careful. Miost are simple to use and just need power and a USB connection to your computer, then it is just like an internal harddisc, Just copy and paste. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Modern ones are just plug and play. I use one to store all my photos and archives. Keeps the main drive cleanear and the computer faster. I have also started using AVG PC tune up. That has really perked things up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferrettkitt Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 Thanks for the replies that was the information that I was looking for. My CD rewriter has given up the ghost I could replace it but it would be better if I found another way of storing all my info away from my pc if it goes pete tong for some reason. I can't back up my website which is another reason for going for an external hard drive. How many of you look back over you're cd's I haven't looked at any of mine for ages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G506 Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 I use a 'Buffalo' hard drive at work, it has been spot on. I use it every day, it travels with me, never let me down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo578 Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 (edited) Remember that USB sticks have huge capacity these days and can be quite useful for short term storage until weekly updates to external hard drives can be done. 16gb sticks are common but higher capacity are becoming common -Corsair are really good and especially so if a USB stick becomes faulty. Eventually they will develop into "solid state" external memory which are unlikely to break down. Correction of all mb references to gb - old enough to have used and even built Zx80s and Nascom 1 so the idea of gigabyte memory is beyond my conception Edited April 22, 2011 by steveo578 correction in italics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 In MY Day, 32kb and tape cassettes were considered good enough! :-D Now its into Terrabytes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferrettkitt Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 (edited) In MY Day, 32kb and tape cassettes were considered good enough! :-D Now its into Terrabytes! Certainly remember tapes what about floppy discs Correction of all mb references to gb - old enough to have used and even built Zx80s and Nascom 1 so the idea of gigabyte memory is beyond my conception I'll sort out a motorised zimmer frame for you :cool2: Edited April 22, 2011 by ferrettkitt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Just remember that if you move the photos off your PC onto the external drive you've still only got them in one place, so no backup! Buy two external drives while you're about it - they're cheap enough these days. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enigma Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 A external is usefull. Just copy your photo's to it as stated before in case it dies. Keeping important photo's in 2 places is better than 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLUF Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 (edited) If you want something hand a portable I can recomend the Samsung S2, they now offer a 1TB version and currently selling on ebay for around £75 inc p+p.. its very neat and small size for its capacity... 11.1 x 8.2 x 2 cm ; 195 g http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239086 sorry forgot to put this as well.... DOH!!! http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=samsung+s2+portable+1tb&_sacat=See-All-Categories Edited April 23, 2011 by FLUF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveo578 Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 I'm sure it's a mistype but I sure Ebuyer.com are a bit tired to be mistakken for ebay:-D -samsung stuff is really quite good but there is also a Western digital ITB on Amazon for £43. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 I must say since getting an external HD the uses multiply. When I'm at events and take photos they go straight onto the external drive, keps the laptop clear of stuff and working a lot faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLUF Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 (edited) I'm sure it's a mistype but I sure Ebuyer.com are a bit tired to be mistakken for ebay:-D -samsung stuff is really quite good but there is also a Western digital ITB on Amazon for £43. Have editted my posting DOH! sure there are cheaper units of same memory size put not as small and portable (no need for external power supply) Edited April 23, 2011 by FLUF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david1212 Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 We use 2.5" Western Digital ones at work for weekly backup rotating every 4 weeks. 2.5" run off USB so don't need mains power. The only problem can be some laptop USB ports are power limited. As others have said be sure to have at least two copies of important files. While it takes time always sensible to make data DVD's of photographs etc. as they can't be erased. Statistically unlikely but if your computer throws a major wobbly while the external drive is attached both drives could get corrupted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferrettkitt Posted April 26, 2011 Author Share Posted April 26, 2011 I am not bothered about running an external power sourced hard drive just getting something in place will be the ultimate goal pennies withstanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLUF Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 in that case mate, spend the 70ish and get the samsung.. no external power supply need and pocket size... with 1TB capacity.... and even a choice of colours.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 In MY Day, 32kb and tape cassettes were considered good enough! :-D Now its into Terrabytes! Terabytes - my god man - where have you been all this time?? Exabytes are the order of the day now for serious work with zettabytes and even yottabytes looming on the horizon!! in that case mate, spend the 70ish and get the samsung.. no external power supply need and pocket size... with 1TB capacity.... and even a choice of colours.... The daughter Mk 1 has used one of these for over a year without issue traipsing back and forth to Uni with it. Highly recommended. We have a 1.5 Tb drive here hooked up to my PC used for back-ups and, with the change to a Buffalo router, are thinking of mounting a 2 Tb drive to that as a central repository Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 In the immortal words Neil! 'Whaat?' :??? Roll on the Qunatum computer! Have you heard of Memrestors? They can form AND, OR, NAND and NOR with only two connections to each component! Bring back the days of tapping a valve with the end of a screwdriver, and 90% of faults were heater cicuit faliure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toner Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 In an ideal world, you would have your data stored in at least 3 different locations with regular testing of the backup. For most people I'd say have at least 2 hard drives and back up to DVD when you can, make sure they are stored properly and test them on a regular basis. Yes, sadly I am an IT bod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoranWC51 Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Not all external hard drives are good. I had my SeaGate 1.5 TB HD give up the ghost, due to a known malfunction in the software. When asked to retrieve the info I had thereon, among them 6 months work as a photographer, they replied: "No dice" It would cost me from 1500-2000€ (!!!!!) to retrieve the info. So: Don't buy a SeaGate if you want to be sure to keep your files.... Same thing happened with a 2 TB Lacie HD. It just stopped working one day. The three [!] hard drives I use now are all WD (Western Digital) 2 TB units, 2 with USB2 connection and 1 with eSata connection. They never missed a beat. Goran N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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