Backing up to an External Hard Drive

[Herts Heart]

Unlikely to disappear?

I really miss my pick-and-mix
but not
my self-controlled backups


Other things I miss in addition to Pick-and-mix................
Quink,
Times before chauvanism, feminism, veganism, arianism, anyotherism,
Lyons Corner Tea Rooms,
Watneys Red Barrel,
Party 7's
(Real) Dandelion & Burdock
British Rail
EggNog
Polaroid Cameras
NOKIA Mobile Phones with separate batteries (Man bags)
1200 (baud speed) modems
405 line TVs
STD 8
Super 8
VHS
NHS

Why would "they" change "them"
 
Why not put your trust in things that can never change ...........................


"Trolleys" made out of pram wheels (recycling at it's most practical and enjoyable?)

 

[Darwinian]

I certainly wouldn't recommend using a memory stick for anything other than temporary storage. They are nowhere near as reliable as an internal or external hard drive.

Hi Jim,

USB sticks and other forms of 'flash memory' are far more reliable than internal or external hard drives. The reason for this is that hard drives consist of many moving parts (A rotating platter of disks, a moving head which seeks portions of the disk to read/write data to). For this reason, hard drives fail at a much higher rate and a higher frequency than flash memory like USB sticks (which have no moving parts).  Perhaps you had a bad experience with a cheap USB stick. Dont want to appear as a know it all but I thought it might be important to let you know in case you have all your data sitting on one external hard drive :/

From the wikip[edia article on Flash Memory:

"Flash memory does not have the mechanical limitations and latencies of hard drives, so a solid-state drive (SSD) is attractive when considering speed, noise, power consumption, and reliability"

Cheers
Tom

[Latchfordian]

Hi Jim,

USB sticks and other forms of 'flash memory' are far more reliable than internal or external hard drives. The reason for this is that hard drives consist of many moving parts (A rotating platter of disks, a moving head which seeks portions of the disk to read/write data to). For this reason, hard drives fail at a much higher rate and a higher frequency than flash memory like USB sticks (which have no moving parts).  Perhaps you had a bad experience with a cheap USB stick. Dont want to appear as a know it all but I thought it might be important to let you know in case you have all your data sitting on one external hard drive :/

From the wikip[edia article on Flash Memory:

"Flash memory does not have the mechanical limitations and latencies of hard drives, so a solid-state drive (SSD) is attractive when considering speed, noise, power consumption, and reliability"

Cheers
Tom

Hi Tom

Thanks for your comments, but I'm still not convinced about the use of USB sticks for important backups. I am familiar with the operation of hard drives having used them for more than 20 years and during that time (professionally and personally) I have never had a failure. On the other hand I've had to bin 2 unreliable USB sticks, though in fairness I have to say that my current Maxell 16Gb stick has given me no problems at all. I know in theory flash memory should be more reliable and indeed more and more internal and external drives are now using solid state technology. However, I will quote part of a report from Lancaster University :-

"USB memory sticks (also known as pen drives) are extremely useful, a lot more reliable than floppy disks, and one of the best ways to move data around. It is best to use them for transport rather than long-term storage. They should not be used for the primary copy of your work or to make permanent backups."

I concur with that view if only for the fact that the sticks are more likely to be lost or stolen or damaged. I would never trust one with my backup. My primary backup is on a very reliable (fingers crossed) Seagate external drive with a secondary backup online with Microsoft SkyDrive, as I mentioned earlier in this thread. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree Tom but thanks all the same for your view.

Jim

[Darwinian]

I'm interested in MS SkyDrive. Do you get 25GB free as part of your Windows license? At the moment I use Dropbox (2GB free online storage) and UbuntuOne (which comes free with the Linux Distribution I use and provides 5GB free). And I take your points about hard drives/usb sticks. It is down to personal experience.

Cheers
Tom

[Latchfordian]

I'm interested in MS SkyDrive. Do you get 25GB free as part of your Windows license? At the moment I use Dropbox (2GB free online storage) and UbuntuOne (which comes free with the Linux Distribution I use and provides 5GB free). And I take your points about hard drives/usb sticks. It is down to personal experience.

Cheers
Tom

Anyone can get onto SkyDrive which is part of Windows Live. If you go to the link I gave earlier (http://www.windowslive.co.uk/skydrive) and click on "Start using your SkyDrive" you will be taken to the Windows Live sign in page. If you don't already have a Windows Live id then click on "Sign up" to get one. Once you have the id you can start using SkyDrive ........ 25Gb of free online storage! Like I said before, Microsoft are unlikely to disappear overnight, unlike many of the others offering free online storage, usually only 5Gb or less.

Jim

[mrs griff]

I have seen the Sky Drive facility when I use hotmail ,now might be a silly ? but can I use it to back up FTM 2005 which as all my family info on it , I have it on a USB stick at the moment .

Kind Regards

Mrs Griff.

[Nick29]

I certainly wouldn't recommend using a memory stick for anything other than temporary storage. They are nowhere near as reliable as an internal or external hard drive.

Hi Jim,

USB sticks and other forms of 'flash memory' are far more reliable than internal or external hard drives. The reason for this is that hard drives consist of many moving parts (A rotating platter of disks, a moving head which seeks portions of the disk to read/write data to). For this reason, hard drives fail at a much higher rate and a higher frequency than flash memory like USB sticks (which have no moving parts).  Perhaps you had a bad experience with a cheap USB stick. Dont want to appear as a know it all but I thought it might be important to let you know in case you have all your data sitting on one external hard drive :/

From the wikip[edia article on Flash Memory:

"Flash memory does not have the mechanical limitations and latencies of hard drives, so a solid-state drive (SSD) is attractive when considering speed, noise, power consumption, and reliability"

Cheers
Tom

Flash memory used in SSD's can be written to about 1,000,000 times before it fails.  And this is the 'best case' scenario, based on the latest technology.  Flash devices used in cheap USB sticks have a much lower life expectancy.  I would not recommend using cheap USB sticks as backup media, because (unlike mechanical drives), USB sticks often completely fail without any warning.

[Latchfordian]

I have seen the Sky Drive facility when I use hotmail ,now might be a silly ? but can I use it to back up FTM 2005 which as all my family info on it , I have it on a USB stick at the moment .

Kind Regards

Mrs Griff.

You can store anything you like on SkyDrive, up to a total of 25Gb. However, at present it does have the restriction that you can only upload files and not folders and even then there is a limit of 50Mb per file. What you can do though is to combine a number of files into a single zip file, up to that 50Mb limit. If you are not familiar with zip files then simply select all the files you require, right click anywhere in the highlighted area and then click "Send to compressed (zipped) folder". Although called a folder it is in fact a single file and can therefore be sent to your SkyDrive. If you do this for backup and need to restore the files, simply download that zip file from SkyDrive and double click it to restore the files.

If your family history collection is anything like mine then it probably amounts to a lot more than that 50Mb, particularly if you save census images etc like I do. In that case you will obviously need to create a number of these zip files. As I said earlier in this topic, my primary backup is on an external hard drive with a secondary backup on SkyDrive. If your only backup at present is on a memory stick then my advice to you is to move it somewhere else ASAP Mrs Griff. The thought of losing the results of many 100's of hours of research fills me with dread, as I'm sure it does you. That's why I believe in belt, braces and string! 

Jim

[mrs griff]

Thanks Jim & Nick

I think I will get and external hard drive I think they are reasonably priced  so it's time i did get to grips with one , as I have a lot of info on my FTM  2005  not sure about the SSD at the moment .

Kind Regards Mrs Griff