[aaaa44]

I backup my data onto dvds regularly, but I want a second backup method for peace of mind and so I don't lose any data between backups if my internal drive fails or my data is corrupted or whatever other baddies could happen to my data. I read on a forum that an external hd with disk imaging software is the best method for backing up data. My internal drive is 320g. I am currently using about half of the hd's capacity. My operating system is xp home. I am thinking about buying the Seagate 500Gig STBX500100 external hd. It's $70 on Amazon. Is this hd a good choice for backup and what software if any like disk imaging software should I use with the hd? Does Windows or software that may come with the external hd already have an automatic backup feature? Thanks for any replies.

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Consider having a look at this Aaaa.

http://www.acronis.c...ucts/trueimage/

[Wolfeymole]

Consider having a look at this Aaaa.

http://www.acronis.c...ucts/trueimage/

[iammykyl]

Most cheaper drives do not have software, as Wolfeymole suggested you can buy, and that one is quite sophisticated, or use Freeware, or the OS backup features.
For file backup, simple, set it and forget it, I would look at a My Passport, > http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822236191
You can also use cloud backup as I do with Google Chrome, Google Drive, other Browsers may have similar.

[Kemasa]

The online services are interesting (as long as you are not paranoid :-) and it does give you the ability to go back in time. Overall, the cost seems to be fairly reasonable for what you get. I am not sure if the link above is a one time price or a yearly fee.

If you get a disk, I would go with a larger disk since it is not much more expensive. I prefer to get the disk and the enclosure separately since then if the enclosure fails, you don't void the warranty by taking the disk out.

For example, check out the drives on NewEgg and you can get a 1-1.5Tb disk for $80-$89. The case that I like is $30 (Rosewill RX-358). So, for a bit more you can more than double your backup space.

It is important to be able to go back in time since if a file gets corrupted, it might take some time until you notice, but in the meantime the corrupted file will continue to be backed up. This is why a DVD copy is good.

Online backup article

It mentions that IDrive and Mozy have a free 2Gb service. It does not list all the services out there, so it might be worth investigating if you are interested in those types of services.