Wide World of Women

I'm in need of your expertise on what type or brand of external backup drive to purchase. All I need is the 250G-or-less size. About 3 or 4 weeks ago, QVC was pushing their "No Click" device, which seemed to me to be almost too simple and weak. I mean, if Mary Beth Roe wants to back-up pictures of her puppies to show us later, that would be wonderful! And the No Click would probably do the job.

But I'm looking for something that will backup stock charts, email, many different file extensions. And, being totally ignorant of all things technical, I have some questions:

1) Do backup systems backup the software itself, or just the files created by the software? Or Both?

2) If I backup a computer running on Windows XP, will I be able to put the material on a computer running on a different OS? If my XP computer blows up, and my new computer has Windows 7 on it, will I be able to put my backup-ed material on the new computer?

3) Are there any brands or types of external backup devices to stay away from? Any you might recommend?


Thanks, guys.

1) Depends on the program. Some make a complete image of your computer some just backup the files. Most will only backup the files because it's assumed that you have the software disks to reinstall the programs.

2) Good thing with windows now is if it ran on XP and Vista it'll work with Windows 7, so that shouldn't be a concern.

Honestly what I would suggest is if you're wanting to only backup emails and files, and not the programs themselves (assuming you have the discs for the software you're using), I would get a jump/flash drive and then you can plug it into your USB port. All you would need to do then is drag and drop your files in.

Thanks, Yoda. That's what I needed to know.

Yodaking is correct with the advice, however I would caution about relying too much on USB thumb/flash drives as a backup device.

They're great for temporary storage or using to transfer files between computers on different networks, however they aren't the most reliable, at least in my experience.

I've had a 1 year old Sandisk Cruzer die and recently a Sony brand flash drive bite the dust. I do carry them around with me, often in my pocket, so the culprit was likely static electricity (only the Cruzer had U3 installed).




I personally use an external USB 1tb Seagate for my PC backup and now use Windows 7 built-in backup for the backup app. It does both data and a system image now - yay.

I also use a USB WD 500gb MyBook to store another backup of my data files (documents, pictures, videos and music, plus anything else I think I might need in an emergency such as basic drivers).

I use USB externals since I'm not concerned with speed when using them for back up. eSATA and firewire externals are built for using as a drive that you might use with applications and the speed helps when used for those types of things (which I use a 500gb BlackMax for). I run my backups once a week.

Thanks for your suggestions, Slash. In fact, I did get a small flash, and it's excellent or what it does. But, as you and Yoda pointed out, it's limited.

The time will come when I look into those you use, so I can backup programs (and drivers... I didn't even think of them!)

I appreciate your input. Very helpful.