flash drives

martinhersey

martinhersey

Member
I'd like some advice on buying flash drives. I intend to back up my computer. I've been using discs to back it up in the past. I'd like to know how much memory I should buy. I've used about 80 GB on my HD. I'm backing up documents, some photographs, some programs. What's the cost relative to the amount of memory I will spend? How much memory are flash drives capable of recording? What's the best product (brand name)? Is it a better idea to use flash drives instead of discs?
 
You are better off to keep using CD's to back up your data. The reason being is that usb flash drives have a tendency to stop working or very easy to lose.
 
I consider backing up to CD's or DVD's to be a PITA and never used optical drives for backup. I started out backing up on floppies (major PITA), then moved to using a tape backup system but once hdds came down in price, I took to backing up to an external hdd and never looked back.

I don't recommend using a flash drive for backups since they are more expensive per GB of storage, slower and less reliable than an external hdd.

You can buy a 1TB external backup drive complete with pre-installed backup software for less than $100. I know you say that you have only 80G of data to backup so you think 1TB is overkill. However, you'll have space to store multiple backups, not only file-by-file backups but system image backups as well. If you have multiple computers, you'll have space to back them up as well.

If your computer has USB 3.0 or eSATA and you get a compatible external drive, your backups will be lightning quick compared to backing up to a flash drive.
 
CDs are just as easy to lose and break as flash drives are. I personally wouldn't back everything up to CDs or DVDs but maybe that's just me.

Though I recommend an external hard drive over a flash drive for backing up data, mainly because you get a lot more for your money. You can get yourself a 500GB external hard drive for a little more than a 64GB flash drive costs.
 
I must say that I agree with what others have said here.
Hard disk drive is definetely the best way to back up the data and you get a lot of storage space for the money you will pay.

I for example made a small data device for myself on which I store absolutely everything I have:
9j5o.jpg




And I also made a simple program which I use to make automate backups on that data device and which also generates a simple LOG file which contains the entire data backup process:
00a9.png




Anyway I have made few changes to the device AND to the program,but they still look almost the same.

Anyway I am probably the only one who make backups this way...:D

For you on the other hand I recommend to just buy a 2.5 external hard disk drive which you can connect through the USB connection.That should be more than enough for you.





Cheers!
 
S.T.A.R.S. said:
For you on the other hand I recommend to just buy a 2.5 external hard disk drive which you can connect through the USB connection.That should be more than enough for you.
Click to expand...
Yeah definitely get a 2.5" one. Smaller in size and no need to carry around a power cable either. I've got a 2.5" 1TB external drive and it's nice and portable.
 
S.T.A.R.S. said:
I must say that I agree with what others have said here.
Hard disk drive is definetely the best way to back up the data and you get a lot of storage space for the money you will pay.

I for example made a small data device for myself on which I store absolutely everything I have:
9j5o.jpg




And I also made a simple program which I use to make automate backups on that data device and which also generates a simple LOG file which contains the entire data backup process:
00a9.png




Anyway I have made few changes to the device AND to the program,but they still look almost the same.

Anyway I am probably the only one who make backups this way...:D

For you on the other hand I recommend to just buy a 2.5 external hard disk drive which you can connect through the USB connection.That should be more than enough for you.





Cheers!
Click to expand...
You certainly have a lot of information there. Thanks for the picture.
Take out the red-eye!
 
Flash drives are mainly for easy data transfer between devices, you could use them to backup your data, but with the amount of data you have you would need either a really expensive large flash drive or multiple smaller drives, flash drives are cheap up to 32GB above that they soar in price.

I would go for a large external drive, you can get 1 or 2 tb drives very cheaply.

Also if you are serious about data backup make use of online storage services like

Dropbox - https://www.dropbox.com/

Bitcasa - http://www.bitcasa.com/

Skydrive - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/skydrive/overview

Google drive - http://www.google.com/drive/about.html
 
strollin said:
Yup, pretty easy to do that when you simply regurgitate what had already been said by others in the thread. :D
Click to expand...

Sorry Strollin, I must have missed where anyone else mentioned flash drives are not really designed for data backup or mentioned that with Martin`s 80GB storage need`s he would need a large single drive that is expensive or multiple smaller cheaper drives which would be impractical.

Also although cloud backup was mentioned, I listed and linked specific online storage services.

FYI, I didn`t read in detail the other replies until you mentioned it, I don`t need to read post`s from others to make my suggestions.
 
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jamesd1981 said:
Flash drives are mainly for easy data transfer between devices, you could use them to backup your data, but with the amount of data you have you would need either a really expensive large flash drive or multiple smaller drives, flash drives are cheap up to 32GB above that they soar in price.

I would go for a large external drive, you can get 1 or 2 tb drives very cheaply.

Also if you are serious about data backup make use of online storage services like

Dropbox - https://www.dropbox.com/

Bitcasa - http://www.bitcasa.com/

Skydrive - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/skydrive/overview

Google drive - http://www.google.com/drive/about.html
Click to expand...
Thanks James. My mind on this subject is changing fast. The jury is in. The evidence is overwhelming against flash drives, FDDs and DVDs and for External HDDs. The judge(Me)has now to pronounce the sentence. How much time and money will go into this I have to carefully consider and pass judgment.
 
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Well it depends how big a drive you want martin, try to think ahead you may only need x size drive just now, but get drive big enough that it will be enough in the future.

By far the most cost effective way is online storage which is free in small amounts or cheap for larger amounts and that backup of online storage is even by some unlikely situation like house fire or mechanical fault and you lose all your drives at once, the online storage will always be there.
 
There are some advantages to online storage as James1981 mentioned but being most cost effective isn't one of them. You said you had 80GB of data to backup, no free solution will accommodate that much data so forget free. An online storage solution for that much data will cost $50-60 per year. You could buy a 500GB external drive for the cost of only 1 year of online storage and could get a 1TB external drive for slightly more.

Online does get your backup offsite which is great but another thing to think about is how long it would take to restore your data from an online storage site. Recovering a file or 2 would be fairly quick but how long would it take to recover the whole 80GBs?

If your data is really important then you will want to have multiple backups stored in separate locations such as locally on an external drive as well as online storage.
 
Nah I would never put any of my data on online storage services.
I don't want someone to be able to see my data lol.Maybe I am just to careful...

Besides...it takes waaaaaaaay too long to UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD a lot of data to and from online storage services.

If I were you,I would be simple and buy a simple 500 GB or 1 TB (1024 GB) 2.5 external drive which can be connected by a simple USB connection.
Believe me that is the CHEAPEST,THE FASTEST AND THE SIMPLEST of all.

And if you are REALLY afraid that a drive might die and that you will lose all your data because of that then buy two same 2.5 external drives and make a backup on both of them.

AND if you want I can make you a small program for free which will make a backup on BOTH drives IN THE SAME TIME of all your data.

Trust me...it cannot get cheaper and simpler than this.




Cheers!
 
strollin said:
There are some advantages to online storage as James1981 mentioned but being most cost effective isn't one of them. You said you had 80GB of data to backup, no free solution will accommodate that much data so forget free. An online storage solution for that much data will cost $50-60 per year. You could buy a 500GB external drive for the cost of only 1 year of online storage and could get a 1TB external drive for slightly more.
Click to expand...

Not really it depends what the files are, if they are photos or video you can get 1TB of FREE storage from flickr.

Documents are very small you could easily store them for free using dropbox or bitcasa.

You can`t get much more cost effective than that. FREE
 
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