Question about portable external hard drives!!
I know I’ve asked a similar question before, but I’m trying to buy a new portable external hard drive, as the one I have is about to run out of room…First of all, does anyone have any suggestions on which is the best one to buy? And second of all, I’m getting very confused by all of these hard drives that now say “USB 3.0”. And then some of them say they have “backwards compatibility with USB 2.0.” I don’t know what that means…What is backwards compatibility? I don’t even know if my desktop has USB 3.0 or 2.0…..It’s about 5 years old, so I’m guessing 2.0? Any help from all you smart people out there would be sooooo appreciated!!!! Thank you!!!!!! :))))
And have a great weekend!!!! :)))
Comments
Hi Laurie,
USB 3.0 is the latest and greatest. I’m sure that you have a 2.0 on your computer. You shouldn’t have any problems if you get a 3.0 that is backward compatible to 2.0. Backward compatibility means that it will still work with the older USB. You won’t get the same speed with it, but it will work just fine. If you get a newer computer then you will be all set. I have a USB 3.0 drive and it works just fine on USB 2.0
Have a great weekend yourself my friend.
Jay
Hi Jay!!! Okay, great…that helps a lot, my friend!!!! Thank you so, so much!!! :))))
– Laurie Search
Laurie, buy two hard drives. One for storage, the other for back-up (you can set them up to back up automatically). My computer is about the same age as yours, with a 320gb internal drive. I had a 320gb external drive too, so I kept all my files on the internal drive and backed up to the external. drive. They were both getting full (mostly with my pictures) so I bought two 2 1/2 terabyte drives, and I’m glad I did. Somehow, I picked up something that filled my internal drive and caused it to crash. Cost a couple hundred to have it rebuilt, then more time to reload all my applications, but all my files were safe.
Now, all I have on my internal drive is the applications. All my files are on the external drives. The price of drives has come down so much that getting lots of storage is fairly cheap, and well worth the peace of mind. One might crash, but chances are that both won’t. At least not at the same time.
Later,
Bob
Thank you so much, Bob, for this great advice!!! Yes, I’m making sure that everything is backed up in two different places…but I’m still scared to delete any of my images from my computer…I had an extra internal hard drive added to it so that I could continue loading images onto it…So you don’t have any of your images actually on your computer anymore?
I really appreciate your help, Bob!!! Thank you again!!! :)))
– Laurie Search
Nope. They’re all on the two external drives. One advantage is that when I do buy a new computer, I just plug in the external drives and I’m ready to go.
Plus, my computer is faster without all that stuff on the internal drive.
Yes, I bet it is!! I really do need to get the nerve up to remove all these images from my computer…after double-backing them up, of course!!! Thanks again, Bob…I appreciate it!!! :)))
– Laurie Search
hello!! re: ext hard drives (eHDs)… i am having a LOT of errors on a particular eHD right now. in fact, it’s been over a month that i have been TRYING to fix the problems: slowing down my system bootup due to not being accessible… acting like they are corrupt, and cannot view folders and files. it seems i stuffed too many files onto the eHDs. so many the partitions show up as being RED on windows explorer!! so i am copying files OFF the problem eHD then deleting files using command prompt since there is NO way of accessing the folders or files any other way. so be sure to NOT fill completely the eHDs or ANY hard drive. allow space in the hard drives or you might end up with problems!! good luck!!
Oh my goodness, that sounds terrible!!! I’ve got all stuff backed up on these portable hard drives, but am also wanting to get into storing stuff online. I’d like to have several bases covered if at all possible!! I’m so sorry to hear about your problems!!! Good luck getting that all sorted out!!!!! :)))
– Laurie Search
still trying, UP till almost 4am this morning, then the image-image backup i was trying just errored-out after 8hrs. so now i am TRYING again to backup by using Partition Wizard to copy all the partitions on the corrupt ext HD onto a clean and stable 1tb WD drive. it’s been going since 9am this morning and still running, not even 1/5th of completion, still going on 2 of 16 processes to run, and crossing my toes it doesn’t fail also. i would keep my toes crossed for you: i worry too much about stuff online and in the virtual hands of others who see your stuff (they all look) and…. what happens if they are in.. for example, and there’s a brown-out and the servers drop bigtime? same as my corrupt packed to the gills drives. what a mess! i want negatives and sleeves again!!
You can use a new USB 3.0 drive now and get much faster transfers if you upgrade your computer with a USB 3.0 add on board or when you buy a newer computer. You might also want to consider a Blu-Ray burner as a backup choice. 25 Gig per disc offers pretty cheap multiple backups! I’ve seen some of your works! I wouldn’t want to loose them!
Thank you so much for the input and advice, Dennis, and also for the kind compliment!!! I do appreciate it!!! :)))
– Laurie Search