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Rather then spend days backing up data on my CD's, I'm thinking about buying an external hard drive to store backups and stuff I don't need day-to-day. My laptop has Firewire and USB ports. I'm looking to spend around $130/€100 and I'd like to get as much space and durability as possible out of that.

The problem is that I don't know much about the hardware, the companies that make them, or what to watch out for, so any help is welcome.

Recommendations?

Get somethign with a eSATA interface.
Don't go for that usb2, firewire crap it is never fast enough.

eSATA, big mb cache, 7200rpm, raid 0 (if you got the cash)
and your set

need4spd wrote:Get somethign with a eSATA interface.
Don't go for that usb2, firewire crap it is never fast enough.

eSATA, big mb cache, 7200rpm, raid 0 (if you got the cash)
and your set

Translate into English, please?

I think USB'll be... slow. Dunno about Firewire/IEEE-1394 data speeds.

I think USB'll be... slow. Dunno about Firewire/IEEE-1394 data speeds.

Since this is mainly for data backup, speed is not a critical factor. Also, I'm not very familiar with hardware, so something plug & play is preferable.

Get somethign with a eSATA interface.

Right. Buy an interface card, buy a USB wireless adaptor because I've only got one card slot, plug in an extra power adaptor because eSATA doesn't have it's own power feed...all under $150. That'll work

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:

need4spd wrote:Get somethign with a eSATA interface.
Don't go for that usb2, firewire crap it is never fast enough.

eSATA, big mb cache, 7200rpm, raid 0 (if you got the cash)
and your set

Translate into English, please?

I think USB'll be... slow. Dunno about Firewire/IEEE-1394 data speeds.

USB 2.0 is about on par with Firewire nowadays. Anything by the major brands like Maxtor or i/o Magic will be fine as far as brands go. I'd personally recommend avoiding the ones that require a secondary power source outside of the computer however.

Problem is, the only external hard drives I've seen without need for wall outlet power have been the 2.5" portable hard drives.

Edward Yee wrote:Problem is, the only external hard drives I've seen without need for wall outlet power have been the 2.5" portable hard drives.

And even some of them need a wall wart as well.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most computers lack external SATA ports? This would neccesitate opening up the case to plug in the external drive, which strikes me as a Bad Idea (TM). That said, an external SATA (or IDE for that matter) port strikes me as a Good Idea (TM), especially for someone like me who enjoys using multiple operating systems. I might see if I can get that on my next workstation, for the ultimate in hot-swappability.

I have a Western Digital 100 GB USB external hard drive that I've used as a backup and storage device since April and it seems to work just fine.

I suppose something by Seagate could also be worth recommending, since we're using those as our new internal hard drives...

What about Lacie? Are they any good?

Bounty wrote:What about Lacie? Are they any good?

I have a 250 GB Lacie and has no problems with it so far (1 year+).

Okay, another question: is it possible to clone the contents of my current hard drive to the portable one, reformat the laptop, install a new OS and then selectively restore files (like documents and images) from the portable drive? If the new install fails, or doesn't suit me, can I restore the laptop's HDD from the backup and have it work just like before?

I know it's theoretically possible, but I've got an HP laptop and maybe they some custom shit going on that prevents cloning.

I am seriously considering switching to Linux because I find that virtually any application I use has a Linux version, but I don't like to jump in without a net...

I bought a 320GB Lacie drive, USB 2.0, "Porsche design" version (whatever that means - it's a silver brick). €129.99/$168.5. It vibrates a bit but seems to work fine.

And:

Okay, another question: is it possible to clone the contents of my current hard drive to the portable one, reformat the laptop, install a new OS and then selectively restore files (like documents and images) from the portable drive? If the new install fails, or doesn't suit me, can I restore the laptop's HDD from the backup and have it work just like before?

?

Yes, of course. Norton Ghost is the classic application in this field, but by no means the only one. See towards the end here for a list.

You can also make it so you can boot off that drive depending on your system...

Bounty wrote:Okay, another question: is it possible to clone the contents of my current hard drive to the portable one, reformat the laptop, install a new OS and then selectively restore files (like documents and images) from the portable drive? If the new install fails, or doesn't suit me, can I restore the laptop's HDD from the backup and have it work just like before?

I know it's theoretically possible, but I've got an HP laptop and maybe they some custom shit going on that prevents cloning.

I am seriously considering switching to Linux because I find that virtually any application I use has a Linux version, but I don't like to jump in without a net...

I use Acronis True Image Home 10 for my desktop and laptop backup needs and it works perfectly, even when backing up/restoring the laptop OS install over my home network (the image file is stored on the desktop machine).
Plus you can browse through and extract individual files from archives with it like you say you want to do.
The only drawback with Acronis I've run into so far is that it doesn't make self booting optical media backups.
You can make a bootable 'rescue media' CD and then use DVD's of your image file to restore from, but you can't make the DVD with the image file itself bootable from the program itself.