External/Portable Hard-Drive

[knucklehead 530]

  Since I've spent the better part of three days trying to get rid of this "AntiVirus 360" virus, which I did, but I feel it's about time to start backing some files up, cause next time I might not be so lucky. Question is; If I got one of these portable hard drives, say 500 gig, can I partition it some how to use it to back-up two different computers? Or are they a one to one kinda hardware? Beware of the AntiVirus 360!

[Jay2703 704]

I have a western digital and it will allow you to use it (backup software) on multiple computers.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

you can partition an external hard drive same as you can an internal one.

[knucklehead 530]

Thanks guys, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

[designed 0]

They are plug and play where ever you go.

[Guest fivestar]

knucklehead if you get it again go download www.malwarebytes.com it is totally free and will remove it.  I would actually go ahead and download it and run it now as it is one of the best free antimalware programs out there.

[knucklehead 530]

Thanks Five, that's what I finally found to get rid of it. Of course that was after I up-graded my other two spy/malware programs that didn't touch it.

[routesmith 0]

as far as a portable hard drive goes, I would seriously consider something with a built in raid controller unless you back your stuff up every night. that way if a hard drive dies, its not the end of the world.

Wayne

[knucklehead 530]

Tell me more about this raid controller. Please. I probably won't back up every day. Sounds good though. Thanks  Mike

[Beardown 0]

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

download that full scan will remove 360

[routesmith 0]

Well here is an example

http://cgi.ebay.com/GALAXY-4500MGB-Quad-Bay-Raid-Pro-NAS-3-5-4-Bay_W0QQitemZ380088336826QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item380088336826&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

This has multilple hard drives and can stripe the data across drives, therefore if there is a drive failure you just replace the drive and no data is lost..

here is a little blurb:

"The 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro is designed to house two to four 3.5" SATA hard drives with the option to setup your drives with different RAID configurations. Use it as a reliable backup for your important data with RAID 1 or 5, for optimal performance and speed with RAID 0, or simply combine multiple drives in one location to create one large volume with JBOD. The 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro comes with a removable hot swap rack, making installing and replacing the hard drives quick and easy.

Network Attached Storage (10/100/1000)

Multiple users can access the 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro to share and exchange files via Gigabit Ethernet connection. Set up shared folders and let users access the files via local network connection using SMB or FTP. For admins, the web interface offers useful tools such as user and share management, disk utility, plus other system and network tools to let you manage the 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro with ease.  "

It can be used on your USB chain or just stick it on the network somewhere and you will be good.

Wayne

[dustinjtrr 0]

Well here is an example

http://cgi.ebay.com/GALAXY-4500MGB-Quad-Bay-Raid-Pro-NAS-3-5-4-Bay_W0QQitemZ380088336826QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item380088336826&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

This has multilple hard drives and can stripe the data across drives, therefore if there is a drive failure you just replace the drive and no data is lost..

here is a little blurb:

"The 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro is designed to house two to four 3.5" SATA hard drives with the option to setup your drives with different RAID configurations. Use it as a reliable backup for your important data with RAID 1 or 5, for optimal performance and speed with RAID 0, or simply combine multiple drives in one location to create one large volume with JBOD. The 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro comes with a removable hot swap rack, making installing and replacing the hard drives quick and easy.

Network Attached Storage (10/100/1000)

Multiple users can access the 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro to share and exchange files via Gigabit Ethernet connection. Set up shared folders and let users access the files via local network connection using SMB or FTP. For admins, the web interface offers useful tools such as user and share management, disk utility, plus other system and network tools to let you manage the 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro with ease.  "

It can be used on your USB chain or just stick it on the network somewhere and you will be good.

Wayne

thats a good suggestion, but probably overkill for his application.  you would have to factor the cost of that unit, plus drives to go in it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136282

that would be a little less costly.  it's actually 2 500gb drives, so if you mirrored them you would have 500gb of usable space.  there is a 2tb version as well if you need more space.  it's like $50 more. 

if you read the reviews people ding them for stupid things.  "Shiny case always has fingerprints on it", "This "1TB" drive is actually two 500 GB drives packaged inside a relatively large plastic box." <== someone missed the point of the drive. 

either way, if you are really worried about drives dying then raid 1 is the way to go, but remember if you have an external then you have one copy there, and one copy on your computer.  so it's already a redundant setup.

[haumana 1,221]

If you really want portability, than I would recommend getting a 2.5" external. If you get the 3.5" you'll need external power for it, the 2.5" will be self-powered (via USB).

I love NAS stuff. I finally broke down and installed one at home. I got tired of using flash drives to go from computer to computer, and didn't want to "share" my hard drives.

As for backing up ... if you only want to do data, you can use something simple like Folder Clone. If you want it to be a little more automated, than usually whatever external hard drive you buy will usually come with something free, if not I like Acronis.

I try to stay away from Norton/Symantec software because they are background memory hogs.

[wasatchcars 0]

I have a 2nd computer networked to this computer.

Is there a program or way to have my 2nd computer automaticaly back up this computer?

Then if somthing happens I just switch computers

[haumana 1,221]

Folder Clone should work.

[dnewcomb 0]

On the hardware side, I suggest people take a look at this:

Cause I do alot of photography and things that use memory cards, it comes in handy like you wouldn't believe.  Good for when you have multiple drives with alot of data.  Price is $59 AUD, so if you find em in the US, it'd be around $30 I guess.

Software wise, you can just use a freely available program made by Microsoft called "robocopy".  Yea, it's DOS based, but the most important thing is that it can copy faultlessly.  If you want more info on robocopy, I can help you out with it.  And remember - this backup drive is backups...not a working drive!  It shouldn't have to get moved around a whole bunch - nor used alot either.  Just dump data on it, confirm the copy (robocopy does that on the fly) turn it off and put it away in a fire proof safe.  (No I'm not joking there).

[wasatchcars 0]

That sounds like a great program I was just reading there site.

I will be trying it tomorrow no more burning all my files on DVD evert week (if I rember to)

thanks guys 

[routesmith 0]

Well here is an example

http://cgi.ebay.com/GALAXY-4500MGB-Quad-Bay-Raid-Pro-NAS-3-5-4-Bay_W0QQitemZ380088336826QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item380088336826&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

This has multilple hard drives and can stripe the data across drives, therefore if there is a drive failure you just replace the drive and no data is lost..

here is a little blurb:

"The 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro is designed to house two to four 3.5" SATA hard drives with the option to setup your drives with different RAID configurations. Use it as a reliable backup for your important data with RAID 1 or 5, for optimal performance and speed with RAID 0, or simply combine multiple drives in one location to create one large volume with JBOD. The 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro comes with a removable hot swap rack, making installing and replacing the hard drives quick and easy.

Network Attached Storage (10/100/1000)

Multiple users can access the 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro to share and exchange files via Gigabit Ethernet connection. Set up shared folders and let users access the files via local network connection using SMB or FTP. For admins, the web interface offers useful tools such as user and share management, disk utility, plus other system and network tools to let you manage the 4500MGB Quad Bay Raid Pro with ease.  "

It can be used on your USB chain or just stick it on the network somewhere and you will be good.

Wayne

thats a good suggestion, but probably overkill for his application.  you would have to factor the cost of that unit, plus drives to go in it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136282

that would be a little less costly.  it's actually 2 500gb drives, so if you mirrored them you would have 500gb of usable space.  there is a 2tb version as well if you need more space.  it's like $50 more. 

if you read the reviews people ding them for stupid things.  "Shiny case always has fingerprints on it", "This "1TB" drive is actually two 500 GB drives packaged inside a relatively large plastic box." <== someone missed the point of the drive. 

either way, if you are really worried about drives dying then raid 1 is the way to go, but remember if you have an external then you have one copy there, and one copy on your computer.  so it's already a redundant setup.

Agreed thats a little more price friendly. RAID 5 isnt REALLY necessary,  this would be my suggestions as well... Although there are a lot of good suggestions on this thread I would go with some manner of hardware redundancy if I were you. I do, I have worked too hard on some of my designs for a hardware failure to take me down, also there are ways to make picasa a local drive to you too.

Wayne

[Guest]

That hard drive dock looks pretty awesome... might need to pick one of those up.

[swaneejuggalo 0]

The dock is nice but if you have a 5.25 bay open use one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817122105 they are nice keeps the drive cool thus improving the life of the drive. I'm not really a big fan of externals unless used to back up files and then tuned off.But your always better off with a nice aftermarket comp case with  proper cooling say a 120mm front fan drawing air over the drive bays or a product like i suggested with cooling fans because with data backup you need to be sure.

Another route for a hard copy is a dual layer bluray disc burner with a 50 gb storage capacity per disc that i still want to deploy to backup really important files.There is a problem with this however with cost being about 45$ per 50 gb but it gives you a true hard copy....

Also a virus can jump to and from through usb and even jump partitions.

We need a linux based program with a nice GUI for cutting  we all could run. For all those who haven't used linux i would suggest fedora 9 or ubuntu distro.  Get the live cd and play around with it it's really sweet.I have my hd on one comp tripple booted with fedora 10,windows xp and Ubuntu 8.04 (I believe) hardy heron. I tried booting SB thru wine but it didn't work.

[wasatchcars 0]

Folder Clone is GREAT I am using the 30 day free trial now and will be buying it (unless I can find a registration code).

It backs up any folder you want to any device you want.

I have it backing up all my files to a second computer and to a flash drive.

I will never loose a file again.

I suggest it for everyone.

http://folderclone.com/

And NO I don