How To Lose All Your Data Part 2
So, let’s pick out a backup drive.
The first thing to sort out is which type of drive you should buy. While there are many brands and variations to choose from; external hard drives are not all too difficult to sort out. When you get right down to it there are two main types:
Direct Connect – This type of drive is directly connected to your computer with USB, Firewire, or eSata; in other words, a cable.
Network Connect – This type of drive is connected to your network, usually through Ethernet cable, but sometimes wirelessly.
Flash drives (aka USB keys or Jump Drives) could be considered a 3rd type of external hard drive, but they are only suitable for smaller backups, so we’re going to eliminate them from the discussion for now. Keep them handy though, they still have an important role to play in protecting your data. We’ll get back to them soon enough.
If you have 1 or 2 computers that need to be regularly backed up, you can use a local drive or multiple local drives. Directly connected drives are a little cheaper and backup is generally faster. Most importantly, they are somewhat more reliable and easier to setup and maintain due to the complications that are inherent in networking.
Of the three direct connections, eSATA is the fastest, followed by FireWire and then USB. Many drives support multiple connection types and you should choose the fastest connection type your computer can support. All computers will have USB, many Apples and some PCs have Firewire, and eSATA is an option on both platforms, though you won’t find it on older computers at all.
Any more than two computers though, and you should go with a Network Connected drive. The upside with a network drive (particularly in smaller organizations or households with limited IT budgets) is that it gives you a shared storage area; a place where you can easily share files with coworkers or family members. Many of the devices also come with other supplemental functionality such as remote access, print servers, and media streaming.
One feature that you should probably avoid on either a direct or network connected drive is RAID, Redundant Array of Independent Disks. RAID is a valuable technology that can be a part of backup; but it is poorly supported on these types of devices, and may not provide any value for most users. If you think you need a RAID device, consult with an IT professional.
When it comes down to purchasing the drive, perhaps the most apparent difference is size. Size does matter, but not terribly much; these drives have enough space for most users to back up to for quite a while. As of this writing, there are 1 terabyte drives available in all the configurations discussed above and they are affordably priced. 2 terabyte models are priced attractively too, but may not provide anything more than empty space for most users.
Most of the other technical considerations are probably not terribly important for most users and vary quite a bit from model to model. Over time my experience with Western Digital, Iomega, and Buffalo products in this category has been fairly positive. My experience with LaCie drives on the other hand has been particularly galling.
The important thing at this point is that once you have acquired a backup drive and of course walked through the steps in the previous article, you are ready to start backing up. For that though, you’re going to need some software. What’s the right package for you? We’ll figure that out in part three of this series on backing up.
