How To Backup Your PC With A USB Hard Drive
72
Backup Your PC With A USB Hard Drive
- The abundance of cheap available storage via USB hard drives has made not backing up your PC or important files almost criminal.
What is a USB Hard Drive. Well it’s a hard drive you would usually find inside your PC in a external case and portable so you can move it from PC to PC, it transfers files via you USB port on your PC.
There are generally two types:
Externally AC Powered
One that requires a outside power source. And the other that is powered from the USB port only. The very large drives are usually powered drives that you plug in to the wall. They are usually quite large say over 200 GB in size. I have two of these types myself. They are very common and are increasing in size and lowering in cost everyday it seems.
USB Port Powered
The other is the type powered by the USB port, these are typically notebook PC drives in a case. They are smaller in size and say under 200GB, they get their power from the USB port on the computer, they are very handy much like a VERY large USB Flash Memory drive. The only drawback is that they are not available in the Ultra large sizes the power drives are and they do tend to cost more than the powered drives.
The type you buy is based on how you plan to use it I believe . I have multiple computers and people that use them a lot in the house. They also tend to keep a lot of data so for me large cheap space is of value so I use several large AC powered drives to backup my PC’s to make my life simple and cheaper. This means I have fewer large drives to worry about that are large in size that are cheap.
I also have several smaller USB powered drives to allow me to transport very large files relatively convieniently without having to haul around a power supply. I tend to like these when dealing with laptops.
Both types of these drives are usually detected automatically and installed by Windows XP and Vista. They show up as removable drives. These drives are treated just like you existing hard drive. You can simply copy files to them like a folder on your existing hard disk. A word of note, be careful unplugging these dives, type to right click on the drive and stop the USB device and then remove it. IF this is not a option to you, you can just unplug them but it’s possible you could suffer data loss. Also keep in mind these are still traditional hard drives. IF you drop them of bang them hard the heads on the disk will crash and you will likely have a dead or damaged USB drive so treat them carefully.
Transfer Speeds:
Although most of these drives will work on the older USB 1.1 standard it is not optimal, in fact it would be horribly slow. The USB 2.0 transfer speeds are light years faster than the old USB 1.1. If your PC still has only the USB 1.1 ports, I’d suggest looking into buying a USB2.0 PCI card and putting that in you PC to get the speed of USB 2.0. It will speed backups up wildly over USB 1.1.
Backup Software:
Most of these drives include some form of backup software, I’m not a fan of the built in Windows systems backup options so I always either use the things like Maxtor One Touch or my personal favorite a product called Acronis True Image Home.
This software is great, it lets you make a 100% copy of your hard drive. If your drive totally fails, go buy and install a replacement hard disk. The software should have guided you through making a bootable CD. Insert that bootable CD you boot your PC from the special CD the software provides you.. Make sure you have booted your PC with your USB hard disk plugged in . You then are offered a few options and you choose your backup image and restore it to your new drive that you installed. Once you finish it instructs you how to reboot etc and like magic your PC is up and running.
This Assumes a Valid Backup to restore from:
The previous sections assumes you have a good backup that is recent. Backups are like brushing your teeth , you have to do it regularly or they rot and need repair. I tend to do it later at night and just do it one after another while watching TV. It’s easy and it keeps my wife happy, she’s managed to kill a few hard drives in her day. The point here is set a schedule and try to hold to it.
We depend on our computers for banking, communications, and entertainment. Can you really afford to lose all out MP3 files or emails or all your Browser bookmarks.
So What do I need to backup my PC :
Lets review the checklist: -
Check your PC make sure it’s USB 2.0 capable.
-
I suggest if it’s not USB 2.0 to go Buy PCI USB2.0 card and install if your at USB 1.1 if you stay at USB 1.1 your file transfers will take too long to make backing up drives practical.
-
Get a USB external Hard Disk.: Choose your type. Personally I recommend getting a AC powered unit that over 300 GB that should suite most folks fine.
-
Install your USB drive, plug it in .
-
Use your software or get Acronis True Image
-
Make your first backup
-
Make a backup schedule and stick to it make it like brushing your teeth.
-
I recommend a full backup each week, keep two backups and delete any further back, if your paranoid burn them to DVD
-
If your not into backing up totally I’d copy over all your important files to the USB drive. Things like “Your Documents” bookmarks etc..
-
That works for some people. It’s not a method I use or recommend but it is a alternative.
-
Give this all a try , it’s not meant as a total guide but more a start. Give it a try. As usual be careful and research well.
Backup Links
- Signature Mini | SimpleTech :: by Fabrik
USB hard disk
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
MikeNV says:
4 days ago
I have a couple powered external USB drives that I use to back up my business. I find that backup software for small business and individuals is highly suspect to problems especially if it compresses files or tries to keep track of file updates. I just organize my information into folder and when I want to back up I drag and drop those folders. It can take about half an hour sometimes but it's very convenient then if at a later date I need the backup file it's a simple drag and drop from any other computer I hook up to.
Get one for your back up. External Hard drives are cheap and easy to use.
BTW: USB 3.0 4.8 GBPS should hit stores very soon. Might be worth a few extra dollars for 10x the speed!