XYplorer Beta Club

Admin:

Seagate HD in an enclosure: how is it connected? USB? Is it possible to put in IDE hard disk into an enclosure (with adaptor?) and attach it to an USB port?

I bought the seagate external which is built like a tank -good solid metal enclosure with good ventilation.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/produc ... l_storage/

Some of the Ebay enclosures get hot which is not good but then again if it is used for a short while this is not a problem. The one in the link is not really designed for portability as it is quite 'robust' but does contain a standard HD and USB connection. I timed my last backup and it approximates to 1GB/minute. A fast processor will improve on this.
These are really very inexpensive and if you were really security concerned then it would make sense to buy two backup drives and alternate backups plus move one to another location.

graham wrote:Admin:

Seagate HD in an enclosure: how is it connected? USB? Is it possible to put in IDE hard disk into an enclosure (with adaptor?) and attach it to an USB port?

I bought the seagate external which is built like a tank -good solid metal enclosure with good ventilation.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/produc ... l_storage/

Looks fine. Needs separate power supply, right?

j_c_hallgren wrote:

admin wrote:Seagate HD in an enclosure: how is it connected? USB? Is it possible to put in IDE hard disk into an enclosure (with adaptor?) and attach it to an USB port?

I've seen IDE external drive enclosures available for adding your own drive into, and which connect via USB...personally, I've bought two mini generic USB drive enclosures via eBay cheaply, and then added in laptop drives that I bought separately...I just plug in and system finds it as new drives, run my backups, and eject drives, and disconnect...For more often/day to day backups, I just use a thumb drive, as I can easily keep that in separate locations, and with two of them, I just alternate typically...that way, data is never really out of your posession, and you could hide/store it in your car, as chances of both home & car getting destroyed at same time is fairly minimal, IMO.

Unless you drive your car into your home.

Thanks for the info. I have 2 pretty new 120GB IDE HDs left over from the old computer that would serve perfectly as backup mediums. So I just need a way to plug them into the new machine. If those IDE-to-USB cases exist -- perfect!

avsfan wrote:Probably more info than you wanted to know... I hope it helps!

Yep, thanks!

admin:

I bought the seagate external which is built like a tank -good solid metal enclosure with good ventilation.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/produc ... l_storage/
Looks fine. Needs separate power supply, right?

Yes comes complete 12v supply included. Ebay supplies cases which have all the USB connectors etc but I was a little concerned that they would get hot - some come with a fan. If you still have the old sytem why not consider a serial link - much faster than USB.

Have you considered an internal hot swap rack? So that way you don't have to use USB, and power is not an issue...they wouldn't be applicable for me using a laptop, but for a desktop, it has plenty of advantages...and these seem to quite cheap also...some poople put one of these racks in old and new systems and thus are able to almost instantly swap over in case of other problems...

Not sure what things are easily available to you non-USA folks...

graham wrote:admin:

I bought the seagate external which is built like a tank -good solid metal enclosure with good ventilation.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/produc ... l_storage/
Looks fine. Needs separate power supply, right?

Yes comes complete 12v supply included. Ebay supplies cases which have all the USB connectors etc but I was a little concerned that they would get hot - some come with a fan. If you still have the old sytem why not consider a serial link - much faster than USB.

Explain a bit more, please.

j_c_hallgren wrote:Have you considered an internal hot swap rack?

I have no space for it: I got a super-mini-tower. And I prefer a more portable solution.

Or you could try this nice gadget: http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/pc ... ect-2.html

Admin:

If you still have the old system why not consider a serial link - much faster than USB.
Explain a bit more, please.

I hate digging big holes for myself but serial transfer was a very common process in my ex company and used for fast copy of data from one machine to another. As to the details of how it was done I am not that technically proficient to answer but the following link may help -

http://www.wcscnet.com/WxferBro.htm

I have no experience or use of this product but offer it as an information source.

I think Grahams tip to use the old computer (as "a kind of file server") sounds quite good. But nowadays I would not think about a serial connection, but only a kind of IP-connection. (And give you the possibility to test some XY-problems regarding access to remote systems... )
Best config is a bit dependent on your current IP-connection.

PeterH wrote:I think Grahams tip to use the old computer (as "a kind of file server") sounds quite good. But nowadays I would not think about a serial connection, but only a kind of IP-connection. (And give you the possibility to test some XY-problems regarding access to remote systems... )
Best config is a bit dependent on your current IP-connection.

I had been doing my testing in the previous years using a crossover-cable between two computers/ethernet cards. Is this what you mean?

admin wrote:

PeterH wrote:I think Grahams tip to use the old computer (as "a kind of file server") sounds quite good. But nowadays I would not think about a serial connection, but only a kind of IP-connection. (And give you the possibility to test some XY-problems regarding access to remote systems... )
Best config is a bit dependent on your current IP-connection.

I had been doing my testing in the previous years using a crossover-cable between two computers/ethernet cards. Is this what you mean?

Just to avoid a waste of creative energy: I do not plan to use my old computer. I bought the new one because the old was smoking and bleeding. It's going to the garbage. (I'll keep the HDs.)

Also, I'm too paranoid for the mozy.com way.

My current Seagate FreeAgent does a very good job now. It's also fast. 1GB/min is fast enough for me. (It only was slow the other day because I had forced it into USB 1.1!)

Since I saw those metal seagate portable disks graham linked to, those that look like american toasters from the 40s (= it's hard to look better!), I don't know how anything could stop me from buying one of them!

That will make 2 fat portable drives + maybe a thumbdrive + maybe an enclosure for my old HD(s). I think the backup case is closed.

Sorry to hear your old compy is garbage - from my point of view it could have been a good thing to use it, especially for test and backup.
And you are right: crossover between ethernet-cards would have been one of the solutions I thought of...