external hard drive

seremarcus · 08-25-2009, 10:41 AM

Got my new Lenovo thinkpad, now I need a back up, portable external hard drive. Any recommendations? What is everyone using?

Elaine

DelfinoM · 08-25-2009, 10:53 AM

Just a idea, if you got the T500(built in),T400(addon) or W series you can use the media card bay to backup(important files) by sticking in a good size SD card, installing a good backup program and leaving it there without the need to remember to hook up a external.

AKiss20 · 08-25-2009, 11:10 AM

Seagate or Western Digital, can't go wrong with those. If you don't need the passports (small, portable externals) you can easily get 500gb-1tb for 90-150 respectively. External storage is dead cheap, and I wouldn't recommend you bring your backup around with you everywhere anyway as subjecting that drive to the same conditions as your laptop will make it more likely that they will both fail near the same time (although the probability of that is still ridiculously low).

But Seagate and Western Digital are industry standards for externals.

seremarcus · 08-26-2009, 11:15 AM

Excellent, thank you. Costco has the WD on sale right now. I wasn't sure if one of these was better then the other.

Elaine

OperaDad · 08-26-2009, 12:26 PM

Tip:

If you leave the laptop in your dorm most of the time; leave the external HD attached; and schedule automatic backups: Problem - some external HD's have a problem with recognition when they have spun down, so the unattended backup fails. This was a known problem with Seagate Externals 2 years ago. I don't know if they have solved the problem.

Also, WD's have a problem with MACs - Can't be used to boot if you loose your internal HD.

Quote:

installing a good backup program and leaving it there without the need to remember to hook up a external.

Doesn't help if the laptop is stolen.