desktop backup drive

[kerry_grim]

I am helping my son regarding looking for a desktop backup hard drive to backup

his photography. I did a search and no matter which brand, one person has found

them very reliable while the next person has had bad luck.

 

Obviously, two or more backups are desirable. In the interim, he is backing up

to DVDs.

 

However my question is regarding G-Technology hard drives to be used with a Mac

laptop. They do have a two year warranty and cost more than the comparable

drives, say from Western Digital, but that does not necessarily make them more

reliable. Does anyone have good or bad experiences with this drive? I am

referring to the basic G Technology drive, not SATA, Raid, etc.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Carl Stone]

Those drives are expensive from Apple, as are most things from Apple. I just bought an

Icy Dock external enclosure, and a Seagate SATA drive, from Newegg for $146, delivered

to my door. The enclosure has a 1 year warranty, but the Seagate SATA drive has a 5 year

warranty. The Icy Dock has USB 2 or Firewire 400 interface, and they can also be had in

Firewire 800 and SATA interfaces, plus they're hot swappable. The case has a slide out

drawer, so that a different SATA drive can be swapped out, and the whole thing is dead

silent. If you have a PPC Mac, then in oder to make a bootable backup from an external

drive, you have to use Firewire, as those models will not boot using a UBB connection.

However, the newer Intel core duo models will boot from a USB connection.

 

While I write this, I'm making using mine to make a clone backup to my internal drive.

SATA drives come in many sizes, the one that I chose is 250 gigs. This does not come with

any backup software, but I already own Data Backup 3, and you can get SuperDuper free,

if you want to do cloned backups, but you must purchase to use it's other features. Carbon

Copy Cloner is also out there. HTH :o)

[sattler123]

I use two 500GB MyBook edition Western Digital Hard Drives and have had zero problems with them. I like the fact that they are compact and they shut down with your computer - many other external HDs need to be shut down manually - and I keep forgetting! There are more MyBooks in my future for sure.

[mwaks]

I to am uaing the same backup as Juergen. I even dropped it on the floor once or twice and its still working well with no problem.

[Spearhead]

There is a problem with your question, which is that anecdotal data is useless for determining reliability. There is no correlation between the small number of comments one gets on web forums and actual drive reliability. The only way to assess drive reliability is from a qualified sample that is large enough to make a judgment . People on web forums often mistake user error for device problems and tend to report problems more than successes.

 

Just as problematic is that many companies buy OEM drives and can change them at will, which changes the statistical reliability. For example, the G-Technology drive you mention currently uses a Hitachi drive, but since they don't guarantee that you are getting a Hitachi drive, they could switch to WD next week. Maybe they find some sort of spec incompatibility in a few months and the drives aren't faring as well as you expected. Similarly, the controller chip, which is also a factor in reliability, can come from multiple vendors with different reliability statistics.

 

You are better off buying on other issues like form factor, speed, etc. than on reliability reports that have no value.

[eric friedemann]

Another vote for WD My Books.

[barryh]

Seems to be a trend developing. My 500 GB WD My Book is doing its job flawlessly.

[digitaldog]

I have two G-Technology drives (Mini's for my MacBook Pro for location work), they are

awesome (but expensive). A quality product.

 

Also very nice are the Newer Tech MiniStack V3 units. I have one, one on the way for another

machine.

[raysgallery]

If eanyone is interested in a software RAID, MirrorFolder has been working pritty good for me for less the $40.00. It will do a 0, 1 or 5 Raid. Don't know if it is compatabel with Mac, but I think it is.

 

I'm a Mac want-a-be. I'm hoping the new Mac's will run Adobe PC software.

[mendel_leisk]

The cheapest and fastest and most efficient solution would be to add an additional internal drive. This could either be your backup drive, or, with the way drive capacities keep increasing, could become your new system drive, with the current system drive relegated to backup.

 

From your question I would assume there is only one internal drive in this system, so there would surely be at least one additional drive bay available, with power and data cables in there ready. I've had good luck with Seagate drives. As long as you have the right type (SATA for example), they can be used on either MAC or Windows. Also, SATA2 appears to be backward compatible with SATA, at least that has been my experience.

 

The only downside would be reduced security: you have all your eggs in one basket.

 

Using internal drives for back up has worked for me so far. I have files going back to '94, that have migrated from system to system.

[jtk]

My files (XP system) begin with a Mac Classic.

 

I happen to use Maxtors, two @ 120G and a new one @ 750G... I like the proprietary and bootable backup workflow and I like the aluminum cases (heat sinks). The big drive backs up the little drives and C-drive, and it either travels or goes to the safety deposit vault when I'm away (when it occurs to me).

[kerry_grim]

Thank you all. These are great responses. These answers did change my direction of thinking and we will decide on backup drive or drives and will try to do this without engineering it to death. Again, Thank you all.

[Marcus Ian]

Of course you can get archival quality gold DVD-Rs (+100 years), and CD-Rs (+300 years). Typically anywhere from a buck to a buck fifty depending on format / manufacturer / quantity (can we say value pack?). I know that's not what you're looking for, but you can't beat the reliability (supposed anyway).

 

Of course even if they last that long... who'd have a drive to read them?

[raysgallery]

For $50 dallors a year Winzip is offering to let you back up all you want on line. As good as it sounds I still don't trust the internet with my pictures. Money yes, pictures no.