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Recommendations for good external hard drive solutions?

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tomos:
Hi
as someone desperately trying to get to grips with all these new types of connections, brand names, PATA ATA & SATA, IDE & SCSI, etc.  :(      i throw out a plea for help :)


What I want are 2 things:

a backup drive that i might backup everything to once a week & keep off the premises
 &
another drive simply to have more space to work with and do more regular smaller backups to.

I dont fully understand these racks - are they external, internal or can they be either?
Okay, looking at the link in the DC backupguide for mobile external racks there seems to be both on offer there at directron.com
Do they then work with all HDs?

If they internal do you need extra fans? Likewise with external?

this ones a bit out of my price range but looks good!   
http://www.sabiostorage.com/   

From Review:
Racks come in two pieces, and inner tray and an outer rack. Hard drives are mounted in the trays, while the outer racks get installed in your computer case.

So you gotta first have space in your computer, then you need to buy:
Rack
Trays
Drives

does usb2 do for internal removable drives or do you need something more exotic!
I read (somewhere here I think) that firewire isnt so good.


Has anyone used the Maxtor one touch II (Retrospect) backup software?

sorry for barraging ye with questions :)
thanks for any help
tom

Carol Haynes:
Jargon Buster:

ATA - Advanced Technology Attachment. A disk drive implementation that integrates the controller on the disk drive itself.
PATA = Parallel ATA
SATA = Serial ATA

SATA and PATA are more recent developments of the old starndard ATA devices.

Most ATA hard disk drives come with various information eg. ATA66, ATA100 etc. basically the higher the number the faster the interface. They also come with a couple of basic specs such as 7200 RPM and 8.5ms. The RPM is the speed the discs rotate (generally faster is quicker) and the ms value is the average seek time for the device to move from track to track (the smaller the number the better).

They are basically all ATA drives but with different forms of controller integrated.

IDE = Integrated/Intelligent Drive Electronics. It is an ATA specification and the most common disk interface for hard drives, CD-ROM drives, etc.

SCSI = Small Computer Systems Interface, a high-speed communications protocol that allows and disk drives (and many other devies) to communicate with each other.

IDE/ATA drives are usually found in most PCs because they are cheap and easy to use. IDE and ATA are often used interchangeably.

SCSI interfaces and drives are found in more demanding environments because they are generally faster and more flexible in the way they can be set up.

For lots more definitions goto google and sent eg. define:SCSI  etc. in the search box.

mouser:
let me do a quick reply and others can chime in and elaborate.

the maxtor one touch drives and other similar external usb2 drives are the simplest and most straightforward solution, and can be used both for back up and as just an extra drive.  using them could not be simpler, you just plug them in and they are ready and show up as an additional drive.  they come with their own backup software but you can use any backup software.

now, advanced users can try an external usb2 drive with racks.
in this case you buy:
1) an external usb2 5.25" enclosure with an open front (i.e.: one that is suitable for mounting an external cd/dvd).  make sure it can handle very big drives (>160gb).
2) buy some rack kits (tray and rack) which again are suitable for your drives.
3) buy your hard drive (3.5").

the thing to make sure is that the external drive + racks match your had drive type/speed/size, which they will say.

so if you buy an ide rack, you need ide drives, etc.

superboyac:
the thing to make sure is that the external drive + racks match your had drive type/speed/size, which they will say.

so if you buy an ide rack, you need ide drives, etc
--- End quote ---

What if I have IDE drives in my desktop, but I buy the SAtavault so I can use esata, and I also buy an esata pci card for my desktop so I will have the connection available?  Won't that work?

I like the Satavault, because I can use whatever hard drive I want and I can use the same enclosure for more than one hard drive by slipping the trays in and out.

longrun:
Yes, that will work fine. I use the SATAVault with a PCMCIA eSATA card in my notebook, which has an internal PATA drive.

"I like the Satavault, because I can use whatever hard drive I want"--Just making sure you understand that you can use whatever SATA drive you want.

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