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Living Room / Re: Recommendations for good external hard drive solutions?
« on: June 08, 2006, 05:37 PM »
I used to use removable drive bays in my computers, but since the advent of USB2, I use an inexpensive external drive case and occasionally hook it up to my computer to mirror the internal hard drive.
This has the advantage of portability (can hook up to any computer), and allows for a much smaller case size for the desktop computer (don't need extra 5 1/4" bays). I prefer the smaller computer cases now, such as the Antec Aria or Aspire X-QPack, which are compact enough to carry on longer trips, and look nice on the desktop.
What has not been mentioned in this thread is the software needed to do the backup/image. After trying various products, both commercial and free, I settled on one called CasperXP. It runs from the Windows desktop, so no need for boot disks. The latest version has a SmartClone feature, so after the drive has been imaged once, the next image only covers those sectors which have changed. This can reduce imaging time down to 10 minutes, which makes it convenient to do the backup more often.
With this combination (USB external and CasperXP software) I have been quite happy for the last few years.
This has the advantage of portability (can hook up to any computer), and allows for a much smaller case size for the desktop computer (don't need extra 5 1/4" bays). I prefer the smaller computer cases now, such as the Antec Aria or Aspire X-QPack, which are compact enough to carry on longer trips, and look nice on the desktop.
What has not been mentioned in this thread is the software needed to do the backup/image. After trying various products, both commercial and free, I settled on one called CasperXP. It runs from the Windows desktop, so no need for boot disks. The latest version has a SmartClone feature, so after the drive has been imaged once, the next image only covers those sectors which have changed. This can reduce imaging time down to 10 minutes, which makes it convenient to do the backup more often.
With this combination (USB external and CasperXP software) I have been quite happy for the last few years.