External Hard Drive recommendations?

CopySynch is free and is an unbelievably powerful piece of software. I've used it to copy large directories such as the windows dir that's currently in use and it's not batted an eyelid. whereas other powerful software such as SuperCopier 2 beta 1.9 has broke down and cried. The latter is normally very good and blazingly fast, just couldn't copy the Windows dir. for some reason. I prefer SuperCopier for dragging and dropping lots of directories between drives, because of the speed.

Choose whether you want to Copy,Move, Synchronize, Mirror etc. and Copysynch does it in seconds. Jobs can be saved and run again.

Xxcopy also free, is an extremely powerfull Command Line or Batch File copier that can do just about anything. The command:
XXCOPY C: J: /CLONE will clone one drive to the other whilst you continue working on the computer (if you wish).

I've been using Traditional Backup software for years (Norton, Seagate etc.) It was needed with floppy, cd, dvd, tape spanning and you had to put up with it's faults (can't restore the files without the backup program etc.) but it's no longer needed for HD to HD backups. It's easier to just clone the dirs. you want by copying them over. It can be done initially using Explorer. Even easier than Explorer is the NT4 version of
Windows Filemanager. Vista users see here on how to get and install winfile.exe. Xp users just get the 32 bit winfile.exe from that link and put it in your Windows dir. This allows drag drop copy to drive icons.

shim

Thanks John & Shim. I will hopefully order a new hard drive and housing at the end of the month. I currently have no method of backing up my photos other than DVD so need to sort this out. My PC is starting to get quite slow at times and I am concerned that if it's the hard drive I will lose everything.

Proper backup software like Acronis True Image is good for compressing the backup, or for ensuring absolutely all system & hidden files are included when backing up Windows.

But when I don't need any of that, I just copy stuff manually or use XCOPY. I didn't know about the "/clone" switch. Thanks for that, Mr Shim.

Image files are fine, I still use Drive Image, but Acronis is said to be one of the best. The only disadvantage is that you need the original software to access the files, if it was compressed and the following backup takes as long as the first. On restore it can be a pain in the butt if you spend hours deleting files that you don't want and then they all get copied back from an image All the software above just copies any new or changed files over and deletes any that no longer exist on your main drive. I'm quite sure they all ask you to confirm this. One massive advantage of image files is that they preserve the Directory dates, something that copying does not.

Pete it's XXCopy not XCopy... Free for personal use. You have to pay for the network version, but it's a lot better than XCopy or MS Robocopy (included with the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit) which is the industry standard for backing up across networks.

shim

I have purchased the WD Passport 320GB from Amazon which arrived today, after reading the reviews on amazon, it was recommended to delete all the SW especially the WD Sync Sw that came with it if you just want to use it for an EHD, which I do.
I plugged it in and TG did not automatically download any SW. Tried to copy over a folder to test and no probs, but wd not let me delete said folder.
I am not very au fait with these things - it has been suggested that I just format the WD Passport EHD via my Windows XP converter FAT32 to NFTS which will make life a lot simplier, this seems logical - I am correct in doing this?

PS) if I do format it, do I check boxes 'Quick Format' or 'Enable Compression' ot neither? please?

Lilly

For back up software I find Comodo BackUp http://backup.comodo.com/ to be excellent it has a no frills UI but it certainly gets the job done. Easy to set up and best of all it's free

#Thank Grey Top but I dont really want any back up SW at all, I am quite happy just copying over 'My Docs' once a week. Just want to know if I reformat it as above, it will be OK?

Lilly

Quick format does not check the disc, so I would not use it especially the first time. "Enable compression" will mean you can get more on the disc, but it will take longer to read or write. Unless you are going to be tight on space, I'd leave this unticked as well.

Reformat NFTS and yes Lilly a Quick format will be fine and do not tick Enable Compression

Format to NFTS like Terry said, it gives you the most options and if you delete something you have a fair change to recover that if needed

Sorry, can I make sure the general concencus is:

I should leave the 'quick format' & 'enable compression' boxes -
both UNTICKED ? as it is a new external Hard Drive.

thanks Lilly

I'd suggest so. Do NOT do Quick Format, and DO NOT enable compression. If most of your backup things are pictures / music / films etc, they won't be compressed much (if at all), it will slow down the copying process.

Echoing said before
My computer>right click on drive>selsect format
When format window appears
capaciry- size
File system- options FAT32 or NTFS ,NTFS is better
Allocation unit size- leave it default size
Volume name- any name can be given
Format options
tick box quick format
enable compression- do not tick
click start.
same location can be reached via Right click my computer icon>click manage>click disk management>right click on the drive name and select format, this method shows all the drive in system.
best wishes

As usual I'm baffled. I thought the passport was plug and play.

Read the quick start instructions but at heart.

Plug it in the USB port, decline any offers of installing software on the autorun

Copy a test folder - and if that fails then something is badly wrong. Stop at that stage.

Then create a subfolder and move all the stuff in the top/root folder on the Passport to that folder probably including the thing called autorun.

I think you're using a PC so the Passport should be recognised as a new USB drive and you should be able to use it right away. If not I think there's something wrong.

I would emphatically not reformat it - the installation instructions don't tell you to do this do they?

I've presumably misunderstood something as you're making this sound way too complicated.

Mike

Hello Lilly,
If your PC has not had Windows XP installed using NTFS and and your HDD's set up as NTFS, this could be the problem!
XP is designed to use the NTFS system, and although it might work, it wont work efficiently if your HDD's are not using NTFS!