External HDs (Backing Up Data)...

[ChefChiTown]

Some of you may have noticed, and some of you may have not (or did, but just didn't care), but I haven't been around lately. Now that I'm back, I need your help. Oh, and just to answer any "where have you been" questions, I've been in the hospital. I got hit by a car and I've been lying in a hospital bed for a few weeks. Awesome, huh? I'm alright, BUT...my computer is not.

Long story short, my laptop had a virus which made everything completely stop working. I couldn't access Windows, I couldn't access anything. The only solution was to format my HD, so I lost eeeeeverything that was saved. It's absolutely devastating when you lose every single file you had saved on your HD. Those who have been there know exactly how shitty it feels. Anyway, in case I have to revert to formatting my HD again in the future, I'm looking for the best way to back-up all of my data so I don't lose all of my work...and/or porn.

Does anybody have any suggestions or reviews on external HDs or other forms of back-up? I'd appreciate any input.

Thanks.

 

[busenbust]

Hope u get better soon Chef. Will post later on my suggestions.

 

[pantyfun]

why dont you save all your files to disc?

 

[Vanilla Bear]

Hey Chef is that really you?! Where have you been?!

Glad you're back and okay.

Yeah external hard drives are the best solution. But better don't use one big one. (If you have LOTS of data)
Better use a few smaller ones, because if you lose the drive or it dies, too you lose all your data again. :o

Best manufacturers are Seagate and Western Digital.
But don't take the latest WD model. Take the one before that. I heard the newest one has a crappy software with it.

 

[GregCentauro]

My exprience is that external HDs are pretty much all the same. If you just use them for storing data, the cheap ones are as good as the high-end products.

I'm currently on my fifth external HD. 1500 GB for 130 dollars.

 

[busenbust]

Hope u get better soon Chef. Will post later on my suggestions.

Have a read here also.
http://board.freeones.com/showthread.php?t=346444&highlight=external+drive

 

[mentalman]

Sorry to hear about your accident. As far as external hardrives Western Digital has the best ratings and reviews. I own one myself and it works great. It's also good peace of mind knowing your shit is backed up....imo

 

[mrtrebus]

This one is supposed to be good, its on my christmas list!
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/06/22/review_external_hdd_samsung_story_1tb/
Oh & get well soon etc etc

 

[Facial_King]

Glad you've recovered, Chef, and are alive and kicking (yeah? can you kick?). Now we can argue again! I've been saving up a lot of police brutality stories just for you.

Anyway, care to share the details of the accident?

Were you walking or on a bike or something when you got hit by the car??

Was the driver found at fault?

(Did a cop come along and beat you with his night-stick and taser you in the neck, just to show you who's boss?? - again, )

If you're willing and ready to share, please do!

 

[busenbust]

This one is supposed to be good, its on my christmas list!
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/06/22/review_external_hdd_samsung_story_1tb/
Oh & get well soon etc etc

Nice link:thumbsup: (shame about lack of eSata port).

 

[lechepicha]

Does anybody have any suggestions or reviews on external HDs or other forms of back-up? I'd appreciate any input.

hi there, buddy. Hope you're feeling better.

Let's see: there's several posibilites for backup data (not excludent between each other)

1. manually (local). It's always a good thing to get used to save your important data (only the important!) in MORE than 1 site. In my case (i'm an IT Pro) i got extremely important files, and i back them up EVERYDAY in 3 different computers (2 at home and 1 in work). Sounds like a pain in the ass, but once you get used to it, it's something that you do without even notice.

2. manually (remote). You can use free web services like SkyDrive and Dropbox, where you can upload a lot of information to your private and secure account. For free. Some of them support setup automatic uploads.

2. automatically (local). You can use software like Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image to make "images" of your entire drive and send them to and external hard drive or the internet. Also support incremental backups.

3. automatically (remote). You can buy service with any Data Center in your country (or city), so they give you space (and communication channel) so you can "mirror" your computer. It's the best option, but it's not cheap.

hope that helps. Please don't hesitate in ask for anything you want further

wave2:

 

[ChefChiTown]

Thanks for the input so far and the kind words. I'm definitely considering an external HD, so I'm going to check out the recommendations and see how much they are around these parts.

Glad you've recovered, Chef, and are alive and kicking (yeah? can you kick?). Now we can argue again! I've been saving up a lot of police brutality stories just for you.

Anyway, care to share the details of the accident?

Were you walking or on a bike or something when you got hit by the car??

Was the driver found at fault?

(Did a cop come along and beat you with his night-stick and taser you in the neck, just to show you who's boss?? - again, )

If you're willing and ready to share, please do!

Well, I went out jogging and when I came to an intersection, a car came around the corner (without seeing me, obviously) and plowed right through me. Surprisingly, nothing is broken but I lacerated my kidney and herniated some disks in my spine, so my back is all out of whack. I had trouble standing and even sitting up. So, for what they referred to as "precautionary measures", they made me stay in a hospital bed for a few weeks. But, the good news is that one of the nurses on my floor was ridiculously hot and had one of the most perfect (and I mean PERFECT) asses that I've ever seen. I just hope she didn't catch me getting a boner while looking at her. Actually, yeah...yeah, I do hope she caught me. And I hope she told all of her friends about it.

And, no...I wasn't beaten by a gang of ruckus-happy police officers. But, there's always next time, you know?

 

[wingman00]

http://www.newtechnology.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/datatraveller-3001.jpg

256 GB USD flash drive

 

[Jagger69]

Damn, Chef. That's scary. I'm so glad your weren't seriously injured. Shit....you could easily have been killed. That'll teach you to go jogging!

I use a Toshiba external hard drive.....320 GB. I back up all my data files to it reasonably regularly.

 

[zell]

Glad to hear you're o.k.,Chef.

As for external HD's,I've been looking into getting another one myself.I've almost filled up my 160gig and now it's time to upgrade. If you've heard of the superstore Fry's,you can get a 1tb(1000 gigs!) for about 80 bucks.That's pretty fucking insane if you ask me.I think it will be extremely hard for many people to even come close to filling one of those up.And if you do,it will take years upon years to do it.

 

[Namreg]

OH GOD, IS THE CAR OK?

only joking...

as far as your question goes:
there are only a handful of drive manufacturers out there (western digital, seagate, toshiba, and samsung). they make virtually all of teh drives you can buy in the US market. so no matter which external drive you buy (including the best buy store brand, for example) it will always have on of their drives inside the box.
i bought some best buy crap for 100 dollars a few months back, and it has a 1TB western digital drive in it.

all you need to know really is whether you want to pay extra for nicer backup software (do you need automatic/scheduled backups, or can you do it manually?), and do you want to network it? if so, a NAS box might be better. a NAS box is essentially an external hard drive box that uses an ethernet interface instead of a USB port. it attaches directly to a router just like a PC, and is accessible to any machine that is on the same network. that might be good if you wanna stream movies to another PC (or even PS3), but NAS boxes are pricey.

 

[JacknCoke]

I thought you had disappeared, get well soon Chef! I have a WD its older and has been through hell and back but still works! 3.5 years of moving from apartment to apartment. Its lasted longer then both of my laptops!

 

[ed007]

i’ve had a few minor road accidents. the type where you spend a few days in bed then it’s straight back to business as usual as fitness is my business. so i’d hate to imagine what it must have been like to spend several weeks or months in hospital after what must have been a fairly serious road incident. i wish you a speedy and full recovery. :thumbsup:

on the subject of data loss i saw a very interesting news bulleting 6 months -1 year ago where it was said that when you format your hard drive the data is still there you just don’t know it. :dunno:

apparently if you get hold of the right equipment you can retrieve some or all of your data or more importantly criminals can retrieve your data i.e. credit card details. i’m no IT specialist so i cannot confirm this.

yesterday i was forced to format my hard drive. then i remembered there was something i deleted that i wanted to have another look at. drat!!! it must be gone i thought. but i took a look in the recycle bin and i was shocked to discover there was everything i had assumed was gone. so maybe it’s true and it’s definitely worth doing some research to discover if some or all of your data is still on your hard drive.

to those that are charitable and give away old PCs to be recycled for use in third world countries. BEWARE. :eek: remove your hard drive first. :violent:

 

[raychik]

You might be able to use "Pandora Recovery" to get back some of your lost files even if your hard drive has been formatted. Its free and available for download via download.com. I used it to recover some pics that I thought were gone forever after formatting my hard drive. Good luck and I'm glad you're okay!

 

[busenbust]

Some of you may have noticed, and some of you may have not (or did, but just didn't care), but I haven't been around lately. Now that I'm back, I need your help. Oh, and just to answer any "where have you been" questions, I've been in the hospital. I got hit by a car and I've been lying in a hospital bed for a few weeks. Awesome, huh? I'm alright, BUT...my computer is not.

Long story short, my laptop had a virus which made everything completely stop working. I couldn't access Windows, I couldn't access anything. The only solution was to format my HD, so I lost eeeeeverything that was saved. It's absolutely devastating when you lose every single file you had saved on your HD. Those who have been there know exactly how shitty it feels. Anyway, in case I have to revert to formatting my HD again in the future, I'm looking for the best way to back-up all of my data so I don't lose all of my work...and/or porn.

Does anybody have any suggestions or reviews on external HDs or other forms of back-up? I'd appreciate any input.

Thanks.

I believe also you had a previous (same?) problem with your laptop in the not too distant past. Whatever your existing anti-virus/anti-malware software is, it's not doing its job effectively. I use: Avast, SpywareBlaster; Microsoft Windows Defender and SpyBot (and my router's port blocking).:thumbsup: