External Hard Drive Questions

[CarolynM]

Hi! I am running Windows XP OS on both a desktop & a laptop. The laptop has a Western Digital external hard drive (250 GB capacity I think) and I use it to store mostly my photos and important stuff from my laptop. (My laptop is 2GB capacity I think, so I cannot keep ALL the photos on my laptop. (12 mp photos eats up more hard drive space than I realized---esp. if I keep some of my precious Photoshop files with layers--so I can return to the file to remember how I did something; I'm still learning how to do what with the PS CS2 software. Bottom line, I would like to get at least a 1TB external hard drive so that I can backup everything; laptop & WD external drive. I've read about various brands of 1TB & higher external hard drives having issues with lost data and other problems. Is there any brand that does NOT have such problems with a 1TB external hard drive? Would I be better off (or safer) using 2 HD, 500GB capacity each or 4 of 250GB or 320GB size drives instead of 1TB drive?

Also, I have a Seagate Free Agent external hard drive (320GB capacity) connected to the desktop. I DO use the free agent software and sync what is on the desktop on to the Free Agent drive as a backup. So far, no storage space issues are present since the only photos stored on the desktop are web sized. Word docs, cross stitch patterns, card making stuff and some important files for my father's consultanting work is on the desktop and backed up on the Seagate Free Agent drive. (Dad is retired, but still does a little consulting work now & then and he uses the little floppy disks to back up his work.) When I do the Free Agent sync, his work is backed up as well as mine. Since I do use the Free Agent software for this one Seagate external drive, if I plug in another, different Seagate external drive, say a ITB or a 500GB size one, will the existing Free Agent software on the desktop start backing up everything again or will I be allowed to select certain files on the desktop and use the Edit--Copy to command in the WindowsXP OS to copy the selected files to the larger Seagate external hard drive when that need arises?

BTW, the desktop & laptop are NOT networked together, so that is not an option.
Please do advise. Thank you!
Sincerely, CarolynM

[Rson]

Do you have a router?

[gtakacs]

If you want a reliable external storage system I recommend drobo (http://www.drobo.com/). It's a pretty nice setup that will keep your data safe with redundancy and full automation makes it completely foolproof. It's not cheap but it seems to work.

If you would like to utilize the network instead of USB/firewire I can only say great things about the QNAP TS-409. There is a newer version out, the TS-439 which is supposedly even faster. (http://www.qnap.com/)

Both the drobo and the QNAP network attached storage will allow you to grow as your needs gow by replacing hard drives on the fly to expand the capability yet still retain your data.

gtakacs added 9 Minutes and 23 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

I just checked newegg and they have some open box QNAP TS-409 PRO units for $369 (hard drives not included) This is an awesome deal! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16822107012R

[CarolynM]

Thank you for your replies Rson & Greg.

Originally Posted by Rson

Do you have a router?

Probably not is my guess. What is a router and what does it do?

The desktop is Dad's computer and the laptop is mine. Both serve totally different purpopses and contain totally different information. My training is NOT Information Technology; I just know enough basic IT stuff; what to use & when & how in order to keep both of our computers out of trouble.

Dad will be 89 on his birthday next week and he is beginning to forget how to do something simple in his word documents that he had no trouble remembering how to do it 8-10 years ago once he learned the system and took notes on what to do. (Monday he asked me how to get part of his wording to NOT be in bold print.) So his good mind is showing me a few aging "signs". I suspect if we had computers in our homes 20-30 years ago he would still be remembering how to do everything on it.

So I really don't want to do anything that could confuse him in how to and where to find his work and other files on his computer.

Thanks for your info & links Greg. I haven't followed those links just yet, but I definitely will do so!

Sincerely,
CarolynM