which external mobile hard drive?

[pren]

Evenin' all.

My wife, the teacher, is in need of a decent mobile hard drive/data storage device for her school work.

Having been given several 'budget' USB sticks by her school (all of which failed) she's decided to invest in something she can rely on. It would need to be easily/safely portable as it would be used to transfer her work to and from school. The work is backed up in school and at home but she's sick of losing her days work because the device has failed between work and home :evil:

I don't really know where I am with these, but something like this is what she's looking at.

How reliable are they? We've got a lot of data on our main PC (docs, photos, music ..) that should really be backed up. Would something like this be a safe solution? Are there any makes to go for/avoid?

Many thanks.

Bryn

 

[mickthetree]

Hey Bryn

I get all of my IT gear from these guys. always had great service.

I've got thisdrive and use it everyday.

But they have reviews of loads of their stuff. Read the reviews and find one you like.

Wont find it much cheaper on the web either.

 

[xy mosian]

Hi Bryn,

Main thing to watch out for, imho. There are two distinct physical sizes. Housings containing Laptop sized, 2.5", hard drives and larger housings containing Desktop sized, 3.5", hard drives. Now the smaller versions are powered via the USB connection, which is fine in most cases but might require a Laptop to be mains powered while using the external drive. The larger ones need mains power, leads normally supplied, this can be a pain as the lead often has a chunky plastic box power supply somewhere in the middle.
Personally I'd go for a smaller one, for convenience, and possibly consider a device with captive USB lead, saves leaving it in the wrong place.

Some of the smaller types come 'ruggedised', bit tougher to you and me, almost bouncy casing etc., and some come with backup software included.

Probably more confusing than helpful, sorry.

xy

 

[TrimTheKing]

For precisely the same reasons as your missus I carry one ofthese with me in my laptop bag every day and it is great, although I have the 400G model which I got a good deal on on the day I went.

Very basic, laptop HD in a rubber case, will take a lot of bashing, although any HD will only take so much. It comes with a 3" long USB cable and is very small.

Excellent product and I've been really happy with it. HTH.

 

[seanybaby]

I suppose it all depends on how much space she needs? I suspect she only needs 10-50mb per day?

Any USB stick will do!

If she's paranoid use two sticks.

Or even for free you can upload your stuff to a free file store website and download at home.

 

[laird]

I now get my memory gear from http://www.offtek.co.uk/highspeeddrives.php?subcat=66
I tried an external HD from a computor shed, just about had time to download everyything into it before it crashed, losing the lot. The techs pointed out that HD's aren't really designed to be carried about. When I came back off the ceiling and asked why they had taken my cash and just what was their definition of "portable". We parted in acrimony (but at least I got a full refund - still lost the info though.
I've used flash drives every since, with no problems.

 

[wizer]

I like the Western Digital portable hdd drives. I've got 2 and I bought both parents one.

 

[matt]

Put the files here (for free) and save messing with devices and duplicates: http://www.getdropbox.com/

If you're committed to using an external device then personally I'd stick with USB sticks. They're solid state technology rather than having any movable parts and should, on the whole, be far more reliable than a hard disk solution.

 

[Gower]

Had 2 LaCie (marked Porsche Design !!) drives for several years. Can't fault them. They were pretty cheap at Staples at the time. They are USB and take power separately from the PC.
Cheers,
Jim

 

[pren]

To quote my wife "They're a useful bunch, aren't they?" :lol:

Many thanks for all that!

XY: I didn't know that about the different sized HD's. I'd seen the spec on some of them and actually thought it referred to it's physical dimensions! :lol:

Matt: I'd been looking at online file stores but hadn't come across one that was free. Cheers! Will look into that.

SeanyBaby: Yeah, around 20mb I think is all she really needs. It's mainly for word docs and Powerpoint presentations. After all the issues with crappy USB sticks, she really wanted something she could rely on.


One thing that has occured to me: hard disc drives aren't solid state, are they? I'm thinking of something that spins up a floppy disc type thing that's read by a lazer. Is that it? if so, then I can see why they might not be best suited to being carried around. :?

In that case, either an online file store or a good USB stick would be best.On that line, I was looking at one of these i-Disc 'BulletProof' USB sticks featured on The Gadget Show. Now I doubt my good lady is going to get shot at/burned/fired from a cannon any time soon but I guess that if they went to the trouble of building a shell like that then they'd put something inside it that was actually worth protecting?

Any thoughts?

Many thanks again!
Bryn

 

[matt]

One thing that has occured to me: hard disc drives aren't solid state, are they? I'm thinking of something that spins up a floppy disc type thing that's read by a lazer. Is that it? if so, then I can see why they might not be best suited to being carried around. :?

In that case, either an online file store or a good USB stick would be best.On that line, I was looking at one of these i-Disc 'BulletProof' USB sticks featured on The Gadget Show. Now I doubt my good lady is going to get shot at/burned/fired from a cannon any time soon but I guess that if they went to the trouble of building a shell like that then they'd put something inside it that was actually worth protecting?

Any thoughts?

Many thanks again!
Bryn

See my earlier post about solid state versus hard drives (i.e. you're right).

It might be better to understand more about what actually happens with the USB sticks. I've used numerous USB sticks - some really crappy free ones too and never had a problem. This is one that I actually paid for and use regularly without a problem: http://www.johnlewis.com/230436550/Product.aspx

 

[cambournepete]

I use one of these for work.
I carry it around in one of these.
I also have one of these USB sticks for work.

 

[Night Train]

I use a Freecom Tough Drive for my stuff. I back it up on a second one so I always have two copies of everything.

It can run from a usb while the laptop is on batteries and it can, and has been, dropped from 2m up onto concrete with no data or function loss. It has a built in USB connector and so no additional leads are needed.

They also come in higher capacities, custom finish, white and pink.

 

[kityuser]

I would steer well clear of external harddisks.
she should invest in a usb stick from a reliable manufacturer , I quite like kingston as a brand. Choose an "industrial" grade stick, not a £9 jobbie from tesco!

for the really paranoid choose double redundancy get 2 sticks and keep clones.

Steve

 

[Racers]

Hi,

I can't see why she had USB sticks fail they are just about bullet proof.

Any external disk drive will be quite tough unless its running, when any sharp knock can cause the heads to crash in to the disks and cause problems. I would stick :wink: with a stick and ask her if she is stirring her tea with it :wink:

Pete

 

[misterfish]

I've always found USB memory sticks reliable, but in my support role I did have some 'clients' that kept reporting problems. This turned out to be a problem with their working practices rather than the hardware - they tended to remove the memory from the USB socket too quickly. I 'advised' that they click the 'remove hardware' icon in the system tray, click the device in the list and wait until the message that it is safe to remove the device is on the screen before actually unplugging it.

The other problem was caused by options with some devices to encrypt the data where the actual built in encryption software is cr*p and I always steer clear of using it preferring CSEG approved third party solutions instead.

Misterfish

 

[TrimTheKing]

Put the files here (for free) and save messing with devices and duplicates: http://www.getdropbox.com/

If you're committed to using an external device then personally I'd stick with USB sticks. They're solid state technology rather than having any movable parts and should, on the whole, be far more reliable than a hard disk solution.

Are you really happy to trust your personal data to an external source? It might be the IT Security bod in me but we had one of our white hats work with a few of these companies and hacked them in minutes. Okay (just) for photo's etc but anything that contained any identifying or important data I wouldn't go near them.

Not for me thank you very much!!! I have carried my Freecom drive for over 12 months, and before that a WD one. Agreed, they have moving parts so could cause problems if mistreated, but you would have to repeatedly bang it around, while it's running, to cause issues.

People will shout me down about this and say how they had them fail immediately, and I can only go from personal experience, but the ones we recommend for our office staff have had 1 failed drive (other than ones people have spilt coffee over etc), out of over 6000, in the last 3 years! I like them odds.

 

[kityuser]

bare in mind through all of this that IT people are just that, IT people.
Especially when it comes to storage. At my old work we had 3 toshiba deskstar drives fail, they became known as "deathstars" and it was deemed company policy never to buy a toshiba disk again.

At my new place guess what they use toshiba disks for everything and never had a problem, but they hate seagate disks!


the moral, whatever you get x number of IT bods will categorically state that your choice is wrong and will be endless trouble. What ever is suggested as a substitute will generate the same response from a different set of IT bods... in conclusion its best not to listen to anyone, but whatever you do don't rely on just one storage medium for important data.

Steve

 

[beech1948]

for these simple files why not set up a Google mail account and use their Google Docs as the storage medium. If she has internet access then she can get to them from anywhere.
Alan

 

[TrimTheKing]

bare in mind through all of this that IT people are just that, IT people.
Especially when it comes to storage. At my old work we had 3 toshiba deskstar drives fail, they became known as "deathstars" and it was deemed company policy never to buy a toshiba disk again.

At my new place guess what they use toshiba disks for everything and never had a problem, but they hate seagate disks!


the moral, whatever you get x number of IT bods will categorically state that your choice is wrong and will be endless trouble. What ever is suggested as a substitute will generate the same response from a different set of IT bods... in conclusion its best not to listen to anyone, but whatever you do don't rely on just one storage medium for important data.

Steve

Can't argue with that!