I have a nice new laptop and want to be able to back up the hard disk. I’m looking for something nice and easy to use, able to back up 100 GB of data via a USB or mini-IEEE 1394 port, with its own power supply (my USB ports are not powered). At present I have around 21 GB used, and am unlikely to hit 100 GB.
I’ve been recommended a Maxtor OneTouch external hard disk, together with Symantec Ghost software. I don’t fully understand what the latter product excludes (the 2003/oem description is confusing), or whether the Maxtor drive would come with its own backup software.
I’ve use the Maxtor for a few years to backup two desktops and a laptop. It is excellent. Mine came with one of the best backup programs around, Dantz Retrospect. Hightly recommend both.
It lets you create a bootable CD with a backup on it, and in two separate crashes, it was a lifesaver. Once restored, everything is back exactly as it was.
You can backup manually whenever you want, or create a schedule for as often as you please. You can not only restore, if necessary, the entire volume, but also any individual file or program. And it has a button on the drive so you can backup with, well, One Touch.
After the original full backup, the incremental ones go very quickly.
Most external hard drives should be Ok. All they do is take a regular internal drive and put a special case on it. You can find them for $100 or less for 120GB and I would recommend looking at www.newegg.com. You don’t really need ghosting software. They usually come with it or there is plenty of freeware that is pretty good.
External hard drives are about the easiest upgrade to do. You just plug them in and they just work.
