Help Needed in buying External Hardisk for backup purposes

[newmemberz]

Hello all,

I've just recently upgraded to Leopard Recently and I want to make use the back up features.
I'm thinking to buy External HDD about 500Gb for my photos backup.
Is there any particular brand to recommend or to avoid?

And What's RAID?
Is it necessary to buy RAID?


Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[megaweb]

Have you consider a Network-attached storage (NAS) for backup ? Although the speed is limited to LAN connection, but backup is easy and convenient as it works as a network storage.

 

[wazzup5]

Get this ->

 

[Jason Ho]

If you looking for a external HDD, I will recommend Seagate Free Agent 500GB. It comes in a few favours : 320GB, 500GB, and 750GB. Each capacity comes in two versions: USB 2.0/eSATA or USB 2.0/eSATA/FireWire 400.

I bought the 500GB USB 2.0 . It works great as a personal desktop backup for me. Paid around S$250+/- for it.

If you are looking at NAS, D-Link DNS-323 is a good choice. When I got it a few months back, it was like $400+. During the last IT show, the price drop to like $200++.

The features of this DNS-323 includes
SATA Drive Support (2 x drives slots available)
Internet Access via FTP
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Port
USB Print Server Port
Supports (Standard, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID1)

I use it (with 2 x 500GB - Raid 0) on my home network to share files and also I have it enabled so that I can ftp in from any internet connection.

Overall I paid around $400+ (for NAS box-cheaper now I guess) + $400 (for 2 x 500GB) for the entire NAS setup. Compare to the $250 Seagate Free Agent 500GB, its quite a big difference.

So I guess it all boils down to your budget and needs (& wants) .

 

[TMC]

where is a good place to buy?

 

[kitkat]

Bought the seagate free agent 500 Gb , USB , for $219. Worth it .

It should be cheaper now.

 

[TMC]

oops sorry I was referring to the Dlink 323 casing.

 

[raincool2005]

Get this ->

oh... this is good, been having these on my servers since Feb 2007.

However, i realised the new HP servers are quite noisy nowadays.. fans issue ?

 

[Jason Ho]

oops sorry I was referring to the Dlink 323 casing.

Try Sim Lim Square or Funan, but the last I heard, stocks are always unavailable.

 

[phoakm]

How about this one? Can put 4 harddisk. :sweatsm:

http://www.drobo.com/

Not available local.

 

[Ola]

If you looking for a external HDD, I will recommend Seagate Free Agent 500GB. It comes in a few favours : 320GB, 500GB, and 750GB. Each capacity comes in two versions: USB 2.0/eSATA or USB 2.0/eSATA/FireWire 400.

I bought the 500GB USB 2.0 . It works great as a personal desktop backup for me. Paid around S$250+/- for it.

If you are looking at NAS, D-Link DNS-323 is a good choice. When I got it a few months back, it was like $400+. During the last IT show, the price drop to like $200++.

The features of this DNS-323 includes
SATA Drive Support (2 x drives slots available)
Internet Access via FTP
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Port
USB Print Server Port
Supports (Standard, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID1)

I use it (with 2 x 500GB - Raid 0) on my home network to share files and also I have it enabled so that I can ftp in from any internet connection.

Overall I paid around $400+ (for NAS box-cheaper now I guess) + $400 (for 2 x 500GB) for the entire NAS setup. Compare to the $250 Seagate Free Agent 500GB, its quite a big difference.

So I guess it all boils down to your budget and needs (& wants) .

:bigeyes: very brave of you to run RAID 0 and use it to share files. :sweat:

 

[TMC]

that one looks good. anyone coming back from US or UK soon? LOL

 

[Klose]

Hello all,

I've just recently upgraded to Leopard Recently and I want to make use the back up features.
I'm thinking to buy External HDD about 500Gb for my photos backup.
Is there any particular brand to recommend or to avoid?

And What's RAID?
Is it necessary to buy RAID?


Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Just get the 500GB Western Digital My Book IEEE1394 and USB 2.0

 

[Jason Ho]

:bigeyes: very brave of you to run RAID 0 and use it to share files. :sweat:

well I have the Seagate 500GB for important files backup

 

[Yatlapball]

Two Free Agent 500GB with FW-support. hmmmmm....

 

[o00001]

If you are using it just for backups and not to bring around why not buy a IDE/SATA to USB convertor together with a normal internal HDD? will cost $25 for the convertor and $200 for a 500gb HDD nowadays...

 

[wildstallion]

If you are using it just for backups and not to bring around why not buy a IDE/SATA to USB convertor together with a normal internal HDD? will cost $25 for the convertor and $200 for a 500gb HDD nowadays...

Thats what im doing, very cheap and works a treat. Just dont cheap out on the casing, might aswell get a gd one if your going to be using it for a long time.

 

[ceecookie]

How about Maxtor?
During PC/IT Exhibitions,Maxtor'll usually slash the prices of their HDDs as a limited time promotion so check SITEX if they count.

160GB Maxtor HDD retails for only $99 during promos.
Casing is integrated as well.

 

[Klose]

How about Maxtor?
During PC/IT Exhibitions,Maxtor'll usually slash the prices of their HDDs as a limited time promotion so check SITEX if they count.

160GB Maxtor HDD retails for only $99 during promos.
Casing is integrated as well.

Maxtor doesn't fall into my good books for data storage :think:

 

[newmemberz]

Wow...
Thanks peeps for the response.

I think NAS wouldn't be quite practical in my case.

Umm..... The thing I concern is that I will be storing all the original data in External HDD and as the time goes my collection will be piling up.
So should I buy 2 External HDD so that to back up each other just in case 1 HDD died so I still have a backup.
I've heard about RAID before but I don't really understand how it works.

TIA!