External HD for back up

[donread]

Any thing special to look for or dodge with these?

Using Win7, 500g HD
Thanks, Don

[nofam]

Stay away from clumsy people who knock them off tables? (Aye Darkstar )

Seriously though, stay clear of the cheap nasty trademe ones, and stick with reputable brands like Seagate or Western Digital. You'll pay a little more, but it's worth it in my opinion for the piece of mind.

Match the drive's connections to those of your PC (i.e. don't pay for eSATA capability if you don't have it on your PC), and remember that 3.5" drives, although holding more and costing less than 2.5" ones, need an external power supply, which can be annoying.

I'd recommend using a backup app that does a full backup the first time you use it, and then only backs up the things that have changed on subsequent runs. It's much quicker that way. I use Synctoy.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, back up at a regular schedule, and store your hard drive out of the house (in a shed or something), or better yet, at a mate's house, at work etc.

There's no point doing it if you leave it on top of your PC, and there's a fire/burglary/act of God.

[AvonBill]

Buy two.
Do as nofam has suggested and use something like Synctoy. I use Syncback.

You can set the sync check to be once an hour or so. The first copy takes ages. Subsequent copies will be pretty quick depending on how much you have changed in the last hour. That protects you against system failure.

Swap the drive once a week or so with the second one that you have stored in the shed or at a mates.

[Greven]

The win7 backup app is great, but I use synctoy so I can kill 2 birds with 1 stone - backup my files & share them with others by letting them borrow my backup drive.

[donread]

Thanks people.
2.5" Seagate it will be.