[5282jt]

I am looking to make a backup and to store lots of pictures. I have heard about Jump drives and External hard drives. I mainly want to make a backup, in case my computer crashes [again ]
Also, I would like something other than cd's and dvd's to store and transfer pictures from computer to computer. Nothing fancier needed - I guess?
What say ye?
Thanks

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hi welcome to geekstogo, when you say"nothing fancy", you are talking to the right person.

First off I like harddrives, pinching them from any old computer I come across, then depending on the size(laptop or desktop size that is) I place them in an external harddrive caddie, the laptop type work off USB power but the desktop type need theexternal power source that comes when one buys the caddie, I normally format the harddrive in fat32 and then I am away storing data to my heart's content. The point to remember though is that all harddrives have a lifespan so unless one is burning to DVD or CD, which is 100% sure,one really should have the same data stored between two harddrives and check from time to time that all is still OK(this goes for new harddrives too, and in fact I find the old drives to be far more robust) and that's about it, the caddie costs peanuts and the harddrives are free. The other things is that if your friend has an external harddrive, then it becomes the easiest and cheapest way to give data to someone, no burning at all and a 15gb harddrive is still a great size in MP3 or avi stuff, and photos by the bucketload and yet how often do we see people just chucking their old computer away

Edited by fleamailman, 26 July 2007 - 07:32 AM.

[fleamailman]

hi welcome to geekstogo, when you say"nothing fancy", you are talking to the right person.

First off I like harddrives, pinching them from any old computer I come across, then depending on the size(laptop or desktop size that is) I place them in an external harddrive caddie, the laptop type work off USB power but the desktop type need theexternal power source that comes when one buys the caddie, I normally format the harddrive in fat32 and then I am away storing data to my heart's content. The point to remember though is that all harddrives have a lifespan so unless one is burning to DVD or CD, which is 100% sure,one really should have the same data stored between two harddrives and check from time to time that all is still OK(this goes for new harddrives too, and in fact I find the old drives to be far more robust) and that's about it, the caddie costs peanuts and the harddrives are free. The other things is that if your friend has an external harddrive, then it becomes the easiest and cheapest way to give data to someone, no burning at all and a 15gb harddrive is still a great size in MP3 or avi stuff, and photos by the bucketload and yet how often do we see people just chucking their old computer away

Edited by fleamailman, 26 July 2007 - 07:32 AM.

[dsenette]

i agree with the flea....any computer i get my hands on get's all the drives ripped out....i've got a closet with about 10 CD rom drives (some are burners and there might be one DVD drive in there) and probably about 6 or 7 hard drives of various sizes....if i need to store something...i can just chuk one of those drives in an enclosure and go to town....very handy to have around (of course....had one last night throw a read head...not a good thing)

[5282jt]

Thanks Fleamailman and Dsenette!
That sounds like good advice! I see junked PC's all the time!
One question:
What is an external harddrive caddie? Something easily available to buy?

[dsenette]

yeah....just an enclosure that you plug a hard drive into that translates it to usb...you can get them any where that sells computer gear...if you're using desktop hard drives make sure that you get a 3.5 not a 2.5 enclosure