[jpzk]

Hi everyone.

I am looking for a backup "device" so that I can back up my laptop contents.
This would be used only for backing up what's on my C:/drive so that I have a full copy of what's inside just in case of an "accident".

Some details:

Acer Aspire E15 (ES-571-5666) Win 10 64 bits
Storage 465 GB Seagate
Intel Core i5 1.5GHz
Intel HD Graphics 4400
8 GB DDR3
USB 3 available (I mean, it's there)

The hard disk drive has 380/450 GB free.

Is there anything out there that is very inexpensive, secure/reliable, and portable and you would highly recommend?
I would prefer something that connects directly to the USB3 port so that there are no cables in the way.

I was thinking that "maybe" a 64 GB USB3 "Data Traveller" from Kingston would do the trick but is this a secure and viable option?

Thanks!

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Last edited by jpzk; 02-17-2021 at 02:48 PM.

[JohnMc]

You don't mention what 'reasonable' is but this or it's sized siblings would serve you well.

(edited for right link)
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1346575-REG/samsung_mu_pa1t0b_am_t5_1tb_portable_ssd.html

[AstroDave]

How "inexpensive" do you want? And, perhaps even more important, what do you mean by "full copy ... just in case"????? Just your "data" or an image of your entire C: drive?

For not a lot (~$50 new), you can get something like Western Digital 1TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive (do a search on google or your favorite search engine). This has lots of room to grow as you fill your hard drive, and comes with its own backup software. And, Windows 10 has various backup options.

Send me a PM for a solution.

[jumbleview]

32 GB is too small. I believe you have now ~70GB occupied.

[C_Jones]

I use Western Digital My Book external drives for most of my backups. I have not bought any in quite awhile, so most likely they have more storage available than previously. The ones that I got seem to be plug and play. I just looked on the internet and saw a listing for the My Book drives on Amazon. It has a choice of which size memory in Terabytes for the drive to select from. A shortcut to the listing is below.

amazon.com: WD 4TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 - WDBBGB0040HBK-NESN: Computers & Accessories?tag=pentaxforums-20&

[MarkJerling]

Hi everyone.

I am looking for a backup "device" so that I can back up my laptop contents.
This would be used only for backing up what's on my C:/drive so that I have a full copy of what's inside just in case of an "accident".

Some details:

Acer Aspire E15 (ES-571-5666) Win 10 64 bits
Storage 465 GB Seagate
Intel Core i5 1.5GHz
Intel HD Graphics 4400
8 GB DDR3
USB 3 available (I mean, it's there)

The hard disk drive has 380/450 GB free.

Is there anything out there that is very inexpensive, secure/reliable, and portable and you would highly recommend?
I would prefer something that connects directly to the USB3 port so that there are no cables in the way.

I was thinking that "maybe" a 64 GB USB3 "Data Traveller" from Kingston would do the trick but is this a secure and viable option?

Thanks!

Firstly I'd recommend that you run Macrium Reflect on your machine when you do run a backup as that backs up everything, including the operating system. Next, I'd advise against an external harddrive as your only backup solution which is only ever going to be as good as where you store it or where you've left it, assuming it does not fail and assuming it's not destroyed in a fire. By all means, use Macrium and an external harddrive to back up your machine, but also set up your machine to back op to the cloud to something like Microsoft Onedrive. If you already have a Microsoft 365 account then you will find that comes with generous storage on Onedrive.

1 and 2 Tb drives are cheap now, so I'd go that route for the external harddrive option.

[tncowdaddy]

I have several Seagate Backup Plus Portable drives and never had a problem. You can get a 2 TB for under $60.

amazon.com: Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD ?tag=pentaxforums-20& USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, PS4, & Xbox - 1-Year Rescue Service (STGX2000400): Computers & Accessories

That said, I agree with Mark's cloud suggestion. My parent's lost their home in a fire a couple years back and my dad's PC and 2 backup drives were lost with them. He'd spent YEARS transferring his extensive vinyl record collection to digital (several hundred albums). He had no cloud backup, so the records themselves, the digital copy and 2 backups literally went up in smoke!

[AstroDave]

That said, I agree with Mark's cloud suggestion. My parent's lost their home in a fire a couple years back and my dad's PC and 2 backup drives were lost with them. He'd spent YEARS transferring his extensive vinyl record collection to digital (several hundred albums). He had no cloud backup, so the records themselves, the digital copy and 2 backups literally went up in smoke!

So, while you are at it, get more than one backup drive! Then, give one of them to a friend / take it to work / put it in bank safe deposit box so it's out of the house. And, consider a small fire-proof safe. You can get those via Target for under $100. I have ours out in the garage (a somewhat less flammable area (I think!)) and it contains one of my many backup drives.

[MossyRocks]

I'm in the inexpensive external hard drive camp. I have a couple of 4 TB drives I bought a few years back for about $100 each which seems to be about the best prices vs storage point still. I also have a big NAS machine (36TB of useable redundant storage). When it comes to backups the rule I recommend is the 3-2-1 rule:
3 backup copies of the data
2 different mediums
1 copy off site

Granted some data I'm not super concerned about it getting lost so I put forth minimal effort in backing it up. However for data that is really important I have lots of copies in several places. Finally if concerned with theft of devices and not wanting to have the thieves get access to the data there is encryption. I don't bother with devices with built in encryption as that is a black box and while some is probably correctly implemented there have been lots of cases of it not. So for encryption I use VeraCrypt as the current version is derived from the well regarded TrueCrypt project but is maintained. Lots of security experts have looked at it in detail and have stated it is good which is more than one can say about the devices with built in encryption.

[zjacreman]

I like the SanDisk Extreme SSDs. They're not very expensive ($160 for 1TB), fast, no moving parts, rugged protective shell, and tiny.

[ramseybuckeye]

I use Western Digital My Book external drives for most of my backups. I have not bought any in quite awhile, so most likely they have more storage available than previously. The ones that I got seem to be plug and play. I just looked on the internet and saw a listing for the My Book drives on Amazon. It has a choice of which size memory in Terabytes for the drive to select from. A shortcut to the listing is below.

amazon.com: WD 4TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive, USB 3.0 - WDBBGB0040HBK-NESN: Computers & Accessories?tag=pentaxforums-20&

I have a 3TB and a 6TB WD My Books, I have had the 6 TB for two years, I don't remember for sure how old the 2 TB is, but I think it is 7 to 9 years.

[zoneV]

Agree with using an external 1 or 2 Tbyte HARD drive - not an SSD. Also avoid SD cards and USB Thumb drives for long term storage. Best to get TWO external hard drives and alternate them for backups every other time. Store both in a secure location. Semiconductor devices have "charge leakage" and could be okay or not. They are best if used/backed up frequently (monthly or less). I use single or dual layer DVDs to show and back up the finished slide or video shows and really important pix. Hopefully my optical drives will out last me. It is way easier to accumulate large quantities of pix than in the film days. Not all of those pix deserve to be saved. So sayeth the guy that just sorted through about 8,000 slides and negatives of his father-in-laws estate. And has not touched about the same number from his own 50 years of film photography.

[Lowell Goudge]

I have used external USB hard drives for the better part of 20 years as back ups,

At the beginning, for work I was using a desk top as my prime computer but also had a notebook for travel.

I would use lap link to sync files between the two, and that has kind of stuck.

I still use it today, for home use and have all my photos and video synced between the hard disk and the back up.

Lap link is good because it will only overwrite modified files, so after the base back up is done, all you end up copying are new files and modified files.

The only issue I have had is one time only I had a few files corrupted in one directory on a restore because the files had not been read or written to in years.

But overall I have not lost any data either for work or personal use, including for work 3 hard disk total failures, one lap top catching fire, and one laptop dropping 4 feet while writing data to the hard disk.

New tools like onedrive have eliminated my need to absolutely use lap link for work, but I still use it for home use, although I could probably do with out it now

[C_Jones]

I have a 3TB and a 6TB WD My Books, I have had the 6 TB for two years, I don't remember for sure how old the 2 TB is, but I think it is 7 to 9 years.

They seem to be long lasting and durable. I have had several for years also. They are quite simple to use.

[jpzk]

Woah !!!
Lots of suggestions... and thanks to all of you.
Very tired right now .... I'll be back tomorrow, re-read the suggestions and surely with loads of questions.
Cheers!