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General discussion

External HDD - drg and drop or software?

Sep 7, 2006 4:49AM PDT

Hello out there. This is my first post, so sorry if I'm doing it wrong!

I just purchased a MyBook essential 250GB hard drive for backup purposes (yes, I know that it is not ideal, but for now, better than nothing!) It did not come with any software, but I can drag and drop files / folders into it. This seems adaquate for protecting these specific files. What other big advantages would I get from additional software (such as Genie backup manager, Ghost, retrospect, etc.)?

Thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

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Fails what is acceptable backup criteria.
Sep 7, 2006 4:57AM PDT

This is not my list but the items include.

1. More than one copy.
2. Offsite copies.
3. Write protect on the media.

Your USB drive is a fine copy but fails as a backup device. The common USB drive meets none of the above criteria.

BUT AT LEAST YOU HAVE A FINE COPY...

Bob

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drag and drop vs software
Sep 7, 2006 5:02AM PDT

Thanks Bob- I have seen your wise help in other threads, but have only completed step one thus far. What about the drag and drop vs software? It seems software would be more complete and have automatic downloading, etc, that would be useful.

Thanks again,

Kenny

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Here's a thought.
Sep 7, 2006 5:10AM PDT

Drag and drop is fine to get a second copy of files. I usually never bother to backup an OS completely since such is time consuming and other issues. You can look to Acronis for that solution.

As to other backup software I don't use it for at home since my system is as follows.

1. Copy to some USB drive (fast, dirty, done)
2. Send the important works to a server via OpenSSH. Pretty fast, secure against worms, done.)
3. When I have time, copy my works to a rotating set of DVDRW disks. Longer in time but covers the areas about multiple copies, media rotation and off site storage.
4. Finally I have the usb memory key for the handful of files I never want to lose. This I carry with me.

Since I can write software, it's not a big deal to schedule a batch file to automate item 1.

Bob