Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Mr.OmegaMan on 18 January 2015, 21:30:03

Title: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Mr.OmegaMan on 18 January 2015, 21:30:03
To backup all the pictures / videos / files etc... From the laptop before doing a factory restore due to it running dreadfully slow.

Was thinking of getting one of these (link below), Any options on which to go for I don't really need one bigger than 1TB the laptop is only a 650GB with around 12GB free space left.

Samsung M3 1TB USB 3.0 Slimline Portable Hard Drive - Black https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008PABFX8/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_twcVub0869Y5S
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: The Sheriff on 18 January 2015, 21:34:47
Surely they are all much of a muchness. It's only a disk in a box. ::)
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Mr.OmegaMan on 18 January 2015, 21:36:26
Surely they are all much of a muchness. It's only a disk in a box. ::)

That's what I thought but reading the reviews put me off just jumping straight in  ;D
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Andy B on 18 January 2015, 21:49:01
I bought one of them for my daughter at Christmas ...... she choose - I bought it  ::)


though I upgraded it to the 2Tb version for her.  ;)
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Mr.OmegaMan on 18 January 2015, 21:56:12
I bought one of them for my daughter at Christmas ...... she choose - I bought it  ::)


though I upgraded it to the 2Tb version for her.  ;)

Good to know Andy    :)

Does seem to be the best one out of them all :y

Never bought one of these before but needs must.
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Andy B on 18 January 2015, 22:18:48
....
Never bought one of these before but needs must.

It'd probably be a good idea for me to get one too .......... I lost loads of photos a few years back cos none of them were backed up  :-[
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Mr.OmegaMan on 18 January 2015, 22:48:28
....
Never bought one of these before but needs must.

It'd probably be a good idea for me to get one too .......... I lost loads of photos a few years back cos none of them were backed up  :-[

Now that they've become more affordable its worth the peace of mind, Presuming that the backup does't fail like some reviews suggest  :-\
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Andy B on 18 January 2015, 23:08:03
...... Presuming that the backup does't fail like some reviews suggest  :-\

maybe I need to buy a back up for the back up .....  ;D ;D
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Entwood on 18 January 2015, 23:09:16
Bit "belt & braces" .. but I not only back up all data .. including photos .. to an external drive, I have burned all photos to DVDs which sit there in their boxes unused .. but if the disk AND the backup ever failed I have not lost those precious memories.  Printed/developed film did, at least, have the advantage of a reasonably "permanent" media ....

I know DVD's theoretically don't last forever, but if kept away from light and looked after they seem to be pretty good... and discs are very cheap now ...

:)
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: TheBoy on 19 January 2015, 17:43:28
Those portable drives aren't ideal for long term backup.

That aside, anything usb2 or higher. usb3 probably not worth a premium due not naturally slow xfer rate of disk itself.

Remember, it has to be reformatter to ntfs if any file is bigger than 4Gb.
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: aaronjb on 19 January 2015, 17:51:50
USB3 vs USB2 is night and day if you're transferring bulk data (though if it's lots of small files, what TB says applies), assuming it's not the cheapest nastiest drive on the market, of course.
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: TheBoy on 19 January 2015, 18:06:50
USB3 vs USB2 is night and day if you're transferring bulk data (though if it's lots of small files, what TB says applies), assuming it's not the cheapest nastiest drive on the market, of course.
I actually didn't look at the link, assumed it was a 2.5" sata on one of those ultra nasty usb to sata interfaces.

USB's 40MB/sec (480Mb/s) capability is more than good enough for those setups, as the drive will likely be less than 400Mb read, and half that for write.
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: zirk on 19 January 2015, 18:09:48
What about the newer Hybrid 2.5 Hard Drives with the Solid State read write buffers, anyone using them?

example - https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pc+world+2.5+hard+drives&oq=pc+world+2.5+hard+drives&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.13064j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#tbm=shop&q=pc+world+2.5+hard+drive+solid+state&spd=4248358480598505377
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Mr.OmegaMan on 19 January 2015, 19:55:03
Those portable drives aren't ideal for long term backup.

That aside, anything usb2 or higher. usb3 probably not worth a premium due not naturally slow xfer rate of disk itself.

Remember, it has to be reformatter to ntfs if any file is bigger than 4Gb.

What would you recommend for long term backup ?

I have around 650GB of data.

USB3 vs USB2 is night and day if you're transferring bulk data (though if it's lots of small files, what TB says applies), assuming it's not the cheapest nastiest drive on the market, of course.
I actually didn't look at the link, assumed it was a 2.5" sata on one of those ultra nasty usb to sata interfaces.

USB's 40MB/sec (480Mb/s) capability is more than good enough for those setups, as the drive will likely be less than 400Mb read, and half that for write.

Tut tut  ;D

Just for you TB

(http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p620/Agemo_Legend/7115162F-9717-4B20-A6AB-086F01658C06_zpsqrts4i2w.png) (http://s1158.photobucket.com/user/Agemo_Legend/media/7115162F-9717-4B20-A6AB-086F01658C06_zpsqrts4i2w.png.html)

I don't know much about hard drives but don't think this one I have in mind is a sata whatever that means :-\
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: DrAndyB on 19 January 2015, 20:11:26
I know DVD's theoretically don't last forever, but if kept away from light and looked after they seem to be pretty good... and discs are very cheap now ...
:)

I had some DVD's fail spectacularly a few years ago :-[.  Trying to recover some pictures from DVD (entire 4.7GB worth) and DVD got so hot reading the files it melted both the DVD disc and burnt the DVD Drive out !!!  :'(

At least you have other backups so  :y

I have just got a WD My Cloud Mirror 4TB NAS Raid unit and its a great bit of kit.  I would certainly recommend one.

If in doubt, back it up  :y
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: TheBoy on 19 January 2015, 20:44:17
What about the newer Hybrid 2.5 Hard Drives with the Solid State read write buffers, anyone using them?

example - https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pc+world+2.5+hard+drives&oq=pc+world+2.5+hard+drives&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.13064j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#tbm=shop&q=pc+world+2.5+hard+drive+solid+state&spd=4248358480598505377
We played with a 3.5" type about 2 yrs ago...   ...and shagged the cache quite quickly ;D.  I do know, however, the caches have got more reliable now though
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: TheBoy on 19 January 2015, 20:45:11
More than I'd pay Omegaman. But then I'd look beyond that abortion of a company called Amshambles.
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: TheBoy on 19 January 2015, 20:48:13
That reminds me, TheDaddy still has my 1Tb 2.5" WD drive from about 2yrs ago ;D.  I paid less than £70 for that then, which should give you some idea of costs if you do a bit of homework :)
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Mr.OmegaMan on 19 January 2015, 20:52:50
More than I'd pay Omegaman. But then I'd look beyond that abortion of a company called Amshambles.

Any recommendations?  :-\

I would consider cloud based storage but on my BT internet of around 2.0mbps download - 0.40mpbs upload it would take... Well i don't know exactly, But its safe to say that option is a no go.
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: Entwood on 19 January 2015, 21:06:25
have a look on ebuyer .. some reasonable deals there .. this is the 1Tb portable drive page .. they do other sizes as well ....

http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Storage/cat/Hard-Drive---External/subcat/-Portable-Hard-Drives?190=1TB

I've had the WD "My Passport" 1Tb for about 18 months (ish) .. no problems with it at all
Title: Re: Looking for a hard drive
Post by: TheBoy on 19 January 2015, 21:15:08
More than I'd pay Omegaman. But then I'd look beyond that abortion of a company called Amshambles.

Any recommendations?  :-\

I would consider cloud based storage but on my BT internet of around 2.0mbps download - 0.40mpbs upload it would take... Well i don't know exactly, But its safe to say that option is a no go.
Vitally important stuff should be backed up locally, and offsite (in case of fire/flood/yada yada yada). So cloud can work for you if you're organised to just throw critical stuff up there.

Obviously, with proper internet, cloud becomes very viable.

But the key is, you need at least 2 backups, and stored in different places.