The storm last week fried another P.C
I need to keep all my invoices & business stuff safe so thought a removable disk would be the best bet. Any good ones about, or bad ones to avoid for that matter?

Stick an APC UPS on the new PC so no more power spikes, etc and get a water/shock resistant USB stick drive... way easier to manage than a removable drive; might not have the capacity but if you just want to keep a copy of your accounting program and work documents you should be fine...

I use a UPS for this PC & have another for the fax/copier etc. Usually we remember to unplug the work one after use, not this time though:curse:
I thought about sticking all the digital images, mp3 etc. on the portable drive as well hence the need for larger capacity.
Not thought about a stick drive, cheers

USB pen/thumb drives are getting bigger and bigger. I would keep files on them as a back up. Most hard drives now are ok and not as many manufacturers as there used to be. I have 2 Maxtor personal storage drives (320 & 500GB) and work great with no probs. Very basic, as in no extra software and the like but they work. Took my 500 to Oz and back. But solid state drives are well worth the look if you have plenty of money. USB memory sticks are a great option. You can get 32 GB sticks now.

This little puppy is top on my wish list, 2 of my mates have got em and both reckon they`re mickey mouse!
http://www.officeworks.com.au/owbd/c...ct1_sywdhiu1tb

That link says it's expired

Sorry mate try this one
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=353
Not only is it a TB it`s a looker too!

Based on my experiences over many years, retrieving data from ****ed up hard drives, I have a clear opinion on which drives are best. For solid, reliable, but unexciting performance get one with a Western Digital drive in it (such as the MyBook or Passport ranges). For reliablity and better performance get one with a Seagate drive in it (FreeAgent range). For excellent reliability and good performance and great price, make one yourself with a Samsung drive and an over-the-counter drive enclosure. Avoid Maxtor and LaCie like the plague.

Seagate own Maxtor now by the way. There are many horror stories about which drive is better than the other. I have heard many bad stories about most of them. The last big drive i had delivered was a Hitachi and it was DOA. Shame as the reviews said it was excellent. Solid state drive will most likely take over when the price become sensible.

http://www.storagereview.com/

Good source of info here.

I have a 500Gb Freecom Classic. Definitely recommended.

I use a 1TB WD Home which I am going to hook up to the new Linksys WRT610N Dual Band N Series Router when it comes out here (it has NAS exposure built into the router via USB2.0).

I also have about six USB2.0 WD Passport drives of various sizes and colours (160GB to 320GB). Two or three are permanently plugged in (rotating every few days) and I use FileSync to backup my working files and Outlook onto them (and another PC) in the office every day. I also use them with my DivX playing DVDPlayer, XBox360 and PS3 all of which power the Passports through their ports and it expands the storage on them massively.

I don't have a UPS here yet, but I did have one back in Cornwall and it saved my backside through countless Brown/Black outs. It just weighed so much when it eventually went (after 5 years) we couldn't get rid of it! I would say if your area is anything like Melbourne then a UPS is essential if you run a small business

Al

In the event of a power surge the PCB on a Seagate has a diode that blows protecting the rest of the board and disk. Plus a matching board from a disk with the same firmware is compatible.

But Western Digital will burn out the motor chip, there is no board level protection. Plus Western Digital PCBs are not interchangeable without moving some of the original chips.

Seagate are preferable in my book, we perform data recovery for a business.

If buying an external enclosure I recommend one with a fan included. Sealed units slowly roast the disk. We receive many disks from such units with central bearing seizures due to oil burn-off.

Just the ticket, thanks for all the replies
Now where's the visa card...............

What's been your experience with Samsung drives?

We have a few Samsung at the moment - all electrical problems. Not had many mechanical failures on Samsung.

Deskstars & Travelstars are the worst for mechanical failure.