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5 Ways To Backup Your Data...
Article By:
Jason Kohrs
Article Source:
articlealley.com
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3.
External Hard Drives
As the name might imply, external hard drives are generally the same type of
drive you might find inside your system, but housed in a smaller, external
enclosure of its own. The enclosure will feature at least one data interface
(such as Firewire, USB, or Ethernet), and the capacity is only limited by
the size of hard drives presently available and the user’s budget.
The Ximeta NetDisk is an example of an external hard drive that provides a
user the option of connecting an additional 80GB, 120GB, or 160GB of storage
to their system by using either a USB 2.0 or Ethernet connection.
Installation for such a device is rather simple, and may involve the
installation of some basic software, as well as making the necessary
connections between the computer and the external enclosure. |
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The
capacity of external hard drives makes them ideal for backing up large
volumes of data, and many of these devices simplify the process by including
software (or hardware) features to automate the backup.
For example, some Seagate External drives feature a “one-button” backup
option right on the case.In addition to being a convenient method of backing
up large volumes of files locally, most external hard drives are compact
enough to be portable. The inclusion of a common data transfer interface,
such as USB, allows an external hard drive to be connected to just about any
modern computer for data transfer, or for more than one computer to share
the external hard drive as a back up.
4. Additional Hard Drives
By simply adding an additional hard drive to you system, you can protect
yourself from data loss by copying it from your primary drive to your
secondary drive. The installation of a second hard drive isn’t difficult,
but does require a basic understanding of the inner working of a computer,
which may scare off some users. We do offer a “how-to” section on our site
for many tasks such as installing a hard drive into a computer system.
To take the installation of a second hard drive to another level of security
and reliability, the hard drives may be installed in a RAID array. RAID
stands for a Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks, and can
be configured in several manners. A thorough discussion of RAID and all of
its variations would be an article all by itself, but what may be of
interest to this discussion is what is known as RAID 1. A RAID 1 array
requires two hard drives of equal size to be installed on a RAID controller,
which will then mirror one drive to the other in real time. Many
motherboards now come with RAID controllers onboard, but the addition of a
PCI slot controller card, such as the Silicon Image Sil0680, is an
inexpensive purchase that will add RAID to any system. With a RAID 1 array
in place, if one hard drive should ever fail, the system won’t miss a best
by continuing to run on the remaining good drive, and alert the user that
one drive may need to be replaced.
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5. Online Storage
Online services, such as Xdrive, allow users to upload their files to a
server for safe keeping. Although it may be convenient to have the data
available wherever an internet connection is available, there are a few
limitations.
The services generally charge a monthly fee relative to the amount of
storage space required. At Xdrive, for example, 5GB of storage costs $9.95
per month, which can quickly add up to more than one would spend on any of
the other options discussed.
Security is supposed to be very tight on these
services, but no matter how secure it may seem, it is still just a password
keeping prying eyes from your potentially sensitive documents.
The speed of your internet connection will also weigh heavily on the
convenience of your backup, and no matter what type of connection you have;
it can’t compete with local data transfer rates.
Final Words
Although not a comprehensive list of options available for backing up your
data, the five items listed provide some simple and relatively affordable
means to ensure that your data is not lost. Data loss is an extremely
frustrating and potentially costly situation, but one that can be avoided.
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