External Hardrive

roystheboy · 24-07-2010, 12:21

Hi I am looking for an External Hardrive that will backup all whats on my P.C. ,all programs films games pics, so if ever my P.C. crashes I will be able to just plug in and restore all whats on my P.C. back to normal, I want to be able to put programs like Nero and my Printer antivirus and stuff like that could some kind person recomend a really good one that will do all that hope so thanks take care best regards

haydnwalker · 24-07-2010, 12:25

Any USB2 External Hard Disk will be suitable for what you want. It really depends on how big your PCs hard disk is as to the capacity of the external one.

If you have a 120Gb in your PC you could do with a 250Gb External one (so roughly double it to give you space for 2 backups or 1 backup and some software to reinstall).

I recommend the Seagate FreeAgent Go series (I have a 500gb Model) as they don't require external power (it runs directly from the USB Bus).

martyh · 24-07-2010, 12:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by roystheboy

Hi I am looking for an External Hardrive that will backup all whats on my P.C. ,all programs films games pics, so if ever my P.C. crashes I will be able to just plug in and restore all whats on my P.C. back to normal, I want to be able to put programs like Nero and my Printer antivirus and stuff like that could some kind person recomend a really good one that will do all that hope so thanks take care best regards

do you want a NAS drive or a usb drive

i use a 500gb Buffalo NAS ,i find it very reliable mine is 2yr old this one is the updated version of mine http://www.buffalo-technology.com/pr...nkstation-pro/

i also have a 500gb seagate usb drive which connect into the nas drive via usb

roystheboy · 24-07-2010, 12:36

Thanks my P.C. has a 320 GB so what would you recon I need for that ,and will it save the programs like nero and antivirus so all i need to do is reinstall them Instead of looking for all of them again cheers I need all the help I can get as I want to get the right one first time thanks again take care best regards

DaiNasty · 24-07-2010, 13:10

If you invest in a backup program such as Acronis True Image this will make a complete 'image' of your hard drive across to the backup drive. That way you don't have to re-install anything as you can simply copy the last image from your backup and have the pc exactly as it was when you saved it.

How much of your 320Gb hard drive is currently used?

roystheboy · 24-07-2010, 13:37

that sounds really good where can I get one of those and they straitforward to use and 250 gb used thanks again take care best regards

24-07-2010, 14:07

if your pc has a spare sata connection you can get a Sata to Esata backplate and then you can use Esata instead of USB which is loads better

I use USB/ ESATA caddies off a guy on ebay the caddy costs £15.50 and you can bung any Sata HDD in there so buy a 500 gig and an backplate the whole kits only gonna cost you £60

Esata basically means you can use the drive @ full speed just the same as your drive in the pc . It also bypasses any possible pitfalls created by USB connections

roystheboy · 24-07-2010, 14:17

Thanks for your help but please excuse me I really dont know what you mean I am sorry I am not to clever with a P.C. but what you said sounds difficult to do ,I dont think I could do that thanks again

DaiNasty · 24-07-2010, 14:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by roystheboy

that sounds really good where can I get one of those and they straitforward to use and 250 gb used thanks again take care best regards

£18 from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acronis-True...9979265&sr=8-1

250Gb used. So you could get away with a 500Gb backup disk at a pinch as True Image can compress your files a bit. Personally with storage so cheap I'd look for a 1Tb disk to enable keeping more than one backup image.
Also, you can set Acronis to do a scheduled backup daily or weekly, whatever you want so you don't forget it. All you have to remember is to make sure the backup drive is connected and running.

roystheboy · 24-07-2010, 15:14

Hi sorry for being a stupid but do I need to get an external hardrive as well as what you said .and please could you explain how this is used because I dont have a clue what to do with it thanks again take care best regards roy.

Matty_ · 24-07-2010, 20:49

You will need to get an external Hard Drive as well Roy, take a look on Amazon they have some at very good prices e.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-500G...pf_rd_i=561904.

As for Acronis True Image 2010 there has been a few bugs in 2010 but they have mostly been fixed now (allthough i never encountered any). It really is a pretty straightforward application to use and also has some other feature like "Try and Decide", which when switched on allows you to do whatever you wan`t with your computer but once you re-boot all changes are gone.
You can also make a repair CD which enables you to recover even if your system (software wise) is totally bricked.

So if you do go down the Acronis route in my opinion the first thing you should do is update to the latest version.

Which operating system are you using Roy and do you have the discs?

Remember if your not sure just ask, someone on the forum will be able to help/point you in the right direction.

Hom3r · 24-07-2010, 21:47

There are external HDDs, that you can connect to a TV and watch the videos on it.

24-07-2010, 22:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by roystheboy

Hi sorry for being a stupid but do I need to get an external hardrive as well as what you said .and please could you explain how this is used because I dont have a clue what to do with it thanks again take care best regards roy.

To use an external hard disk for making a backup you need two things - the external hard drive, itself and a program to do the backup.

As already mentioned, Acronis 'True Image' is one such program, others include Norton Ghost & Paragon 'Backup & Recovery' (Which has a free version).

The principle is generally the same for each, the program is first used to burn a 'recovery CD' - to use this your system must be set to be able to startup with a bootable CD (Most systems are already setup to do this).

You then use the program to backup (copy) your internal hard disk to the external one.

In the event of needing to restore the backup, you boot up using the recovery CD, with the external disk containing the backup connected, then choose the restore option from the resulting menu.

roystheboy · 25-07-2010, 09:45

Thanks everybody but I think thats a bit more than i bargaind for ill just stick to what I am safe with and thats a External hardrive if I can find a good one , thanks again for all your help take care best regards

DaiNasty · 25-07-2010, 10:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by roystheboy

Thanks everybody but I think thats a bit more than i bargaind for ill just stick to what I am safe with and thats a External hardrive if I can find a good one , thanks again for all your help take care best regards

Get away with you Roy, you're only a few years older than me and I'm sure you can figure it out with a bit of help.

Basically just get yourself an external drive and a backup program. That's the simplest solution. As was mentioned earlier you can even get the backup software for free so you could try it out and see how it works for you.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/