External Back-up Drive Recommendations

What brand would lurkers here recommend for a USB back-up drive?

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson
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"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

We've uses a Simple Tech 250G drive for over a year. On continiuosly. Hasnt failed yet.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

Can't recommend one but Costco occasionally has a 80MB or so Western Digital, last time around New Year AFAIR, under $100. Otherwise these look like good deals:

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Me, I am waiting until someone finally comes out with a reasonably priced HD that can be accessed over the LAN. Preferably over a well encrypted WLAN so it can be tucked away in a "quiet and safe" place.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

Looked it up... looks good!! Anyone second the motion ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Isn't that just a matter of plugging it into one machine on the network, assigning it a drive letter, and sharing it via the network, but password protected?

I have four machines (hard-wired network via CAT-5) that I can access from anywhere.

Plus a couple of free spots for visitors to plug in.

I don't do wireless, though I may add WiFi to the laptop for when I travel.

One of my recent (client) visitors fired up his laptop and announced that one of my neighbors was un-secured ;-)

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Yeah, but one of the house rules here is to turn everything off when finished. So I'd have to slap my head and run into the house again when doing a schematic in the yard.

Same here. All CAT-5 but also a WLAN that can be turned off. The laptop I just got is really nice. It has an extra big well-lit button to turn its WLAN on and off. No finger acrobatics or mouse clicking. Plus some other niceties. It's the first laptop (other than my old Contura) where I had the impression that they really did the design reviews with users in there.

Thou shalt not ignore WEP.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

[snip]

Our "house rule" is computers are never turned off ;-)

[snip]

What brand? I'm in need of a modern laptop... my Vaio is a bit dated.

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Western Digital MyBook seems to be good bargain. It stands up like a book and conveniently fits in many small fire-proof safes, true plug-and-play.

$109 for 250GB version:

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$199 for 500GB version:

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Other deals:

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Note that 500GB and 750GB are currently the standards for massive singular disk drives, so any TB+ drives are most likely multiple drives acting as one, with concomitant implications.

-Le Chaud Lapin-

Reply to
Le Chaud Lapin

After having seen the aftermath of a carpet fire that a blown switcher supply left (metal casing had melted down) we won't do that ;-)

Twinhead Durabook D14RA from these guys:

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Came with RS232 although they didn't advertise that. I can already picture how much grief that is going to spare me in the field. Mag alloy case, the good stuff. I don't know if it would run Vista but I don't care. In fact, I bought it now because I didn't want to get stuck with finding only Vista-loaded machines whenever that's rolled out. Anyhow, the Cypress guys at the PSoC seminar were mighty impressed because it always finished first during compile runs. Way first. "What do you mean, yours is done? Do you have a rocket in there?" Don't know their RAM sizes though, mine came with 1GB.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

Forgot to mention two things I do not like about this new Twinhead laptop that I feel you ought to know: The touchpad buttons are IMHO way too small and recessed for the average male thumb size. So for any serious CAD work you need an extra mouse or trackball, even on the road. Dell does a way better job there. Then, it's more of a mil-type machine and the CPU fan is rather loud. The guy next to me wanted to know whether that was some kind of afterburner.

Of course, because of the rugged enclosure these things are heavy, AFAIR about 7lbs sans power supply.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

~zap~

Or WPA-PSK, if available. (Slightly tougher to crack.)

-- Michael Darrett, Senior Computer Resource Specialist Wireless network setup, computer upgrades and repair. Sacramento, California

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Reply to
mrdarrett

Well, got to live with whatever the router allows plus there is another HW firewall. But WEP would already require a lot of effort to hack and we live in a pretty stretched out area. The house is quite "attenuating" as it is and someone would have to be in the yard to mess with things. Also, they would have to get it done in under 10 seconds or need a fresh set of underwear because there is a Shepherd and a Rottweiler who both disapprove of such activities.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

I got an Acomdata 250G USB drive at Fry's (in Phoenix) last year, and it's been pretty reliable. I found that it would hang with USB1.0 port, but works fine with 2.0. Not sure if that's the drive or the PC/OS though.

Chris

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Reply to
Christopher Ott

Docking station available? One nice feature of my old (and slow) Vaio is I just drop it onto a matching docking station to connect it to my KVM and the network.

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

I have an NEC Versa with a little "WLAN" button on the front, A blue LED in the button illuminates when it's pressed in. Dead simple and obvious.

Set up the best possible WEP. I worked with a guy who occasionally drove around town looking for unsecured networks, about 50% were that way.

The LaCie external drives seem to have a reliable reputation, but YMMV

Barry

Reply to
Barry Lennox

You could give them a ring but I doubt it. Their market is more the rough field use.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

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Well, not really.

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HITACHI SHATTERS CAPACITY RECORD WITH WORLD'S FIRST TERABYTE HARD DRIVE

1TB Achievement Gives Consumers Colossal Storage Capacity for the Digital Lifestyle

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW 2007, LAS VEGAS - January 5, 2007 - Consumers' ability to store video, photos, music and other valued data will reach new heights as Hitachi Global Storage Technologies today announced the industry's first terabyte (TB) hard drive. Delivering superior performance and reliability, as well as capacity, Hitachi's 1TB hard drive meets the needs of consumers who want to create, share and store their digital information, and lots of it. Hitachi's Deskstar® 7K1000 will begin shipping to retail customers in the first quarter of 2007 at a suggested retail price of $399 (USD), or 40 cents per gigabyte (GB). This new consumer-friendly price makes ultra-high storage capacity more affordable and accessible than ever before.

[snip]

Pricing and Availability for the Deskstar 7K1000 The Deskstar 7K1000 SATA version will be available in Q1 2007 at 750-GB and one-TB capacities. The 1TB capacity point will have a suggested retail price of $399 (USD).

The CinemaStar 1TB hard drive will be available in the second quarter.

Technical Specifications

a.. Deskstar 7K1000 b.. 1000/750 GB - SATA (GB = 1 billion bytes, accessible capacity may be less) c.. 148 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density d.. 1070 Mb/s max. media data rate e.. 8.7 ms average seek time (with command overhead) f.. 7,200 RPM, 4.17 ms average latency g.. Serial-ATA 3.0Gb/s h.. 32 MB data buffer - SATA i.. 26.1 mm in height (max) j.. 700g in weight (max) k.. 5/4 platters, 10/8 recording heads - SATA l.. 300 G/1 ms pulse non-operating shock m.. 9.0 (5 disk)/8.1 (4 disk) watt idle power - SATA n.. 2.9 Bels typical idle acoustics o.. 5-60 degrees C operating temperature

Reply to
Robert

Ah, good. WEP's better than nothing, definitely.

This link mentioned that dedicated hackers can crack WEP in 3 to 10 minutes:

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...although I haven't tried the hacking tools myself.

Michael

Reply to
mrdarrett

Well, yes, if you watch the download of a huge video file which we don't do. Plus they'd be quite busy with our dogs by then (a.k.a. running as fast as they can). Also, when highly confidential stuff is done the wireless is off. Key changes also help a lot.

Most people just want freebie access and when they detect a network but discover that it's protected they just move on. Just as a thief usually doesn't try to break into a well protected house. They just look for the next one hoping it's going to be easier.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Reply to
Joerg

I wish - just had my house broken into, and it is pretty well protected. They tried to get through the front door and failed (but trashed the door in the process), then managed to break through a window and the 3/4" wooden shutter inside. The alarm system was going, but it takes a while for the police to be notified. Lost all but one piece of my wife's jewellery, and did £3k of damage. They hit 6 other houses in the area in the previous few days, the police told me that mine was the most secure house of any of them, and had no suggestions how security could be significantly improved.

Oh yes, we use a Seagate 300G USB drive for backup, probably the ST3300601. It is now concealed in a locked metal filing cabinet.

Regards Ian

Reply to
Ian

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