External Hard Drives

[juiced 0]

Hey, was thinking about getting an external hard drive to back up my music and pictures etc. The only thing is I don't want to have to manually add every new album or picture to the hard drive. Is there a way that I can sync the two, kind of like an iPod and iTunes get synced. When you plug in your iPod it takes on whatever changes you've made in iTunes. I tried to ask the IT person at work but I don't think they understood the question cause they started going off about how it depends on my lifestyle :lol:

[Jason Harris 31]

On a Mac, Time Machine will automatically sync any changes from the specified source to destination, so if you set up the drive that has the music to sync with the external hard drive, it should work. I would imagine there are similar programs in Windows.

[furlanitalia 1]

Yah, Time machine with mac is the best option. Other then that you'll most likely be stuck manually adding everything. I have two regular external hard drives (PC) and I can definitely say they aren't the most fun to use.

[shotty 7]

I can definitely say they aren't the most fun to use.

except for the massive porn folders.

[NYR1982 0]

It is definitely possible to do this in Windows but it may not give you the results you want. You would have to make the folders available offline then have them synchronize to a server, or in this case your external drive. I've seen this slow PC performance and increase startup and shutdown times. Please, if someone has experience with this, correct me if I'm wrong because it's been a long time since I've done this!

Many external drives come with their own software that features automatic backup capabilities usually through the touch of a button. The last drive I used, I configured it to run an auto back up every week but the option was available to do it daily. I'd also recommend scheduling automatic restore point creation just in case you ever need to roll back after a bad backup.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Maybe I'm reading this wrong...but do you want to use the external to make second copies of what is on your main HD? Or are you planning on just storing everything on the Ext. HD?

If you've got an extensive library of audio/video...why not just store it off the main machine.

[adam14 182]

I think he wants to coPy it, but he doesn't want to manually do it.

[Juice_Slowjamz 0]

On the Mac, Carbon Copy Cloner is far superior to Time Machine. Although, I've heard TM is a lot snappier in Snow Leopard.

[Ahriman 1]

I tried to ask the IT person at work but I don't think they understood the question cause they started going off about how it depends on my lifestyle :lol:

It does, however you just want a simple easy answer.

Really though what you want to really be secure is an off site backup. As in your data, backed up, in a different location. You can make 30 up to date copies of everything you have in your house, if your house burns down, aint none of them gonna help you restore everything.

On the Mac, Carbon Copy Cloner is far superior to Time Machine. Although, I've heard TM is a lot snappier in Snow Leopard.

Why would you say that. The only thing it can do that time machine cant is make a completely bootable image of the drive, which is generally NOT the purpose of people's backups. They want their data saved, not make a clone restore point (like Norton Ghost on a PC would do). Also time machine works on it's own, automatically, without any help or need to push a button. CCC is only as good as the last time you made a backup.

[fatwabbit 93]

I'm currently using two external hard drives, and I know the Western Digital HDD that I've got has a program that you can install on the first connection. It allows you to synch specific drives or folders so that all you need to do is to plug in, start the program and 'synch'

[Juice_Slowjamz 0]

I tried to ask the IT person at work but I don't think they understood the question cause they started going off about how it depends on my lifestyle :lol:

It does, however you just want a simple easy answer.

Really though what you want to really be secure is an off site backup. As in your data, backed up, in a different location. You can make 30 up to date copies of everything you have in your house, if your house burns down, aint none of them gonna help you restore everything.

On the Mac, Carbon Copy Cloner is far superior to Time Machine. Although, I've heard TM is a lot snappier in Snow Leopard.

Why would you say that. The only thing it can do that time machine cant is make a completely bootable image of the drive, which is generally NOT the purpose of people's backups. They want their data saved, not make a clone restore point (like Norton Ghost on a PC would do). Also time machine works on it's own, automatically, without any help or need to push a button. CCC is only as good as the last time you made a backup.

Among other things, you have to be running a Leopard system to backup via a network, you cannot backup your home directory if it is encrypted with FileVault. Oh, and it's slow, slow, slow.

[juiced 0]

Maybe I'm reading this wrong...but do you want to use the external to make second copies of what is on your main HD? Or are you planning on just storing everything on the Ext. HD?

If you've got an extensive library of audio/video...why not just store it off the main machine.

I want to have a second copy of things. So if I lose my main HD or it gets stolen or something, I don't have to spend hours re-ripping all my cds.

I forgot to mention in the original post that I have a mac, so you guys' answers have been really helpful. I just have one more question; My buddy uses time machine but he has a portion of his hard drive set up for it. Going off of another persons post, i take it it's possible to use an external HD instead? Is this easy to set up? And once I set it up, do I plug it in and it will update, or how does this work. I'm decently good with computers but i'm still a little new to macs.

[ndlancer95 0]

I think that this question may fit in here, so here I go. I have a 80gb PS3 system. Can I just connect an external hard drive to that and be on my way, or how will that work? Thanks in advace

[furlanitalia 1]

ndlancer95 - The PS3 has an option to backup to external drive. It's under settings.

Juiced - Check out time capsule if you don't have a wireless router at home (or even if you do). They just bumped it up to a 2 terabyte model, dropping the 1 Tb down to 329 (cdn). You could even get a 500gb one refurbished for 229, or a 1tb for 279.

http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/spec...mac_accessories

Definitely worth it in my opinion, unless you already have wireless N in your house, or don't have wireless N on your laptop.

[ndlancer95 0]

ndlancer95 - The PS3 has an option to backup to external drive. It's under settings.

Juiced - Check out time capsule if you don't have a wireless router at home (or even if you do). They just bumped it up to a 2 terabyte model, dropping the 1 Tb down to 329 (cdn). You could even get a 500gb one refurbished for 229, or a 1tb for 279.

http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/spec...mac_accessories

Definitely worth it in my opinion, unless you already have wireless N in your house, or don't have wireless N on your laptop.

Thanks, furlanitalia

[juiced 0]

Sorry to drag up a sort of old thread but I have a few more questions. Since I have a mac, I'm wondering if external drives work for macs and pcs. Or do I have to buy the ridiculously expensive apple hd so that it works. The other thing I'm wondering is why is there such a big price difference between some of them? One 500gb hd could be 80 and the next one could be 160. What is it that you're paying for when you go with the more expensive one?

[Rustpot 1]

USB is USB- this isn't the 3.5" disk where different formats came into play.

Take a look at the specs and the setup. Some may have several data interfaces, faster HDD speeds, larger caches, a better enclosure that is suited for something, a different form factor, a different transfer standard, etc. If all you look at is capacity and price you don't get the whole picture.

Take a 160Gb from Maxtor. It may be IDE/ATA with USB 2.0, 5400rpm, 4mb cache, 5.25", in a plastic housing. $25.

Then say a Western Digital 160Gb- SATA with USB 2.0 or external SATA, 15000rpm, 16mb cache, 2.5", aluminum housing with heatsink, $175.

They're both 160gig, but the second will be a fast drive with good heat distribution in a smaller size. You pay more for it though.

Edit;

Looking through there seem to be some "Mac compatible" externals. USB will be usable on both, it would see the drive like a large USB flash drive, this one just needs a power source. Also, eSATA is not available on Macs as far as I know, so don't buy or pay for that. You can get a 1.5Tb Seagate that is USB 2.0 for $130 that will work fine, one of my roommates has a Seagate 1Tb that he uses on his Macbook and I have hooked to my EeePc.

[Ahriman 1]

All that "mac compatable" shit is exactly that, it's bogus. Hard Drives and RAM are all the same provided it fits. That said, a Mac can read and write to a HFS+ formated drive and FAT32, and read only a NTFS drive. A PC (without additional software called Mac drive) can not do anything with HFS+.

So you wont be swamping the two between a mac and PC super easy but you can skip any thing that charges more for "mac compatible"

[Ahriman 1]

woah double post

[juiced 0]

hm, ok thanks for the answers. unfortunately I don't really know that much about computers, are there any brands I should concentrate most on? or certain specifics I should look for? I'm looking for probably a 1Tb one.

[Ahriman 1]

ok since you say you dont know much, (which I interpert to "I want it simple and easy and dont want to get my hands too dirty") this may be worthless to you, however, the best option you have is to get a regular internal hard drive, and an external case for it, unless you find some fire-sale / manufacturer's rebate offer, chances are you'll over pay for something thats already in a case.

You'll want to go to newegg.com, pick out any internal HD you like (3.5"), since you just want to back stuff up on it you dont care about it's powersaving features (which is bad if your using it as drive you use often while working). You care about 2 things only: capacity per dollar, and warranty period. Seagate and Western Digital are going to be your best best, that said just like some hockey sticks, someone is going to swear every WD drive they've ever had has failed and died, someone will say the same thing about seagate and 3 people will say the opposite about each. Just ignore these things because you're gonna buy the one with the longest warranty. 3 years, 5 years, whatever, it dies, you send it back on their dime, they send you a brand new one back.

The enclosure is just about as easy - pick out the cheapest one that doesnt have a comment saying "louder than a jet airliner." Also it would help if it said it had connector ports your computer and the hard drive has. FireWire, USB2, eSATA, whatever computer you have your computer has at least one of those. If you buy SATA hard drive you damn well better get a SATA enclosure, it shouldn't take much effort to be sure you got one that works.

Your package comes in 2-4 days (new egg is fast on shipping even with ground), you take the hard drive out of the antistatic bag, place the HD in the enclouser, connect the internal power and data cable, close the box, connect data cable to computer, connect power cable to the wall, flip on the switch.