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| Backup Devices - A Breif Rundown. |
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Portable/External Hard Disk Drives
External HDDs have been around since the start of the computer age, but what we’re talking about here is small, portable units, usually utilising a standard desktop or laptop hard drive.
There are two ways to get one of these devices, the first is to buy a preassembled external drive, such as the Maxtor One-Touch range, where all you have to do is plug it into your PC, through either Firewire or USB and away you go. These preassembled type drives will often be accompanied by backup software, usually with an option to press a single button on the drive and automatically perform a pre-configured backup.
The second option is to buy an external drive case, such as something from the Vantec Nexstar range, usually ranging from $20-$80 depending on what connections you want (USB or Firewire or both) and what type of drive it is made for (2.5” laptop drive, or 3.5” desktop drive, IDE or Serial-ATA interface etc…) and then put your own drive in it. The functionality is pretty much the same, and the cost per gigabyte is usually a lot lower than pre-made drives, but you will miss out on the backup software, which just means you will have to drag and drop the files into the drive yourself whenever you want to backup. For most people, this isn’t a big issue, and the money you save is worth the extra hassle.
Pros: Big storage space available, low cost per GB, fast transfer, universal connectivity.
Cons: Easily damaged (like any HDD it can’t be dropped), often bulky, lots of cables.
Also breif = brief!