opinion needed

**amyb** · March 7th, 2005, 09:42 AM

I am looking into changing the way my work does backups. They can't afford an expensive tape backup. Does anyone have any opinions on external backup drives such as Maxtor, Iomega? Input appreciated. Thank you.

**meatwad** · March 7th, 2005, 09:44 AM

I'd say external hard drive. They're inexpensive enough.

**MobilePCPhysician** · March 7th, 2005, 09:56 AM

Maxtor One Touch External Hard Drives. One touch backup.

http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Brows...67&bcDeptName=
Hard+Drives&bcClassId=142595&bcClassName=External+ Hard+Drives

I try to talk them into getting two. One for off-site storage.

**amyb** · March 7th, 2005, 10:10 AM

Really Maxor? I was looking at computer shopper and Maxtor got panned. Do you use Maxtor for an external backup drive?

**MobilePCPhysician** · March 7th, 2005, 10:17 AM

I personally use it, and I have at least 15 of them out there working. So far, so good. Some are over one year old, I think. Not one complaint yet. For small office, home office, they are great.

I will also use a raid controller card in raid one on customers that require another level of backup.

Having them press a button once a day is about all I want them to worry about.

**Archer** · March 7th, 2005, 10:43 AM

How much data AmyB,how often and what budget [and user] constraints?

**amyb** · March 7th, 2005, 11:34 AM

About 5g of data. The budget for a backup drive is around $200. This is for a church.

**Archer** · March 7th, 2005, 11:41 AM

Just a suggestion but you could install a removable drive tray and some back up software like Symantec Ghost or Acronis True image then have them image the drive on a regualar basis it depends how critical the back ups are i.e. daily,weekly,off site etc

**amyb** · March 7th, 2005, 11:46 AM

IMHO the backups should be weekly (since Sermons, Bulletins, Budget, monthly newsletters are very important files here). In my recent research (I forget which drive), Ghost was included.

**MacGyver** · March 7th, 2005, 11:34 PM

I also recommend the removable hard drive. As long as they keep it off site except when actually performing the backup. Easy to use, easy to extract data off of when you need it, and cheap. You can even buy an empty USB 2.0 enclosure and put whatever hard drive you want in it. Should be able to do something to suit this church for about $100.

**silencio** · March 8th, 2005, 12:17 AM

I'm a big fan of Ghost V9. Online image creation is slick.

**jitBob** · March 8th, 2005, 10:40 PM

If you don't mind an internal tape backup this fits your bill. It is very easy to take the tape off site after every backup and this machine is fairly fast.

**meatwad** · March 9th, 2005, 10:48 AM

Do they make a Holy Ghost v9?

Tom's just did a review on ext hard drives. Here

**amyb** · March 9th, 2005, 12:48 PM

Thanks! I will read the reviews. I'd rather have an external. No fuss and muss. Oh..my nails! <aside> I have no nails, I bite them!

**amyb** · March 17th, 2005, 11:08 AM

I thought I wouldn't be able to find a network capable external backup drive, but I did! I purchased a SmartDisk 80GB Netdisk 3.5in Ethernet / USB 2.0 Combo Network Hard Drive. Has anyone had experience with this drive? Any likes or dislikes?