Time to archive!

One of the most devastating things that happens to us in this digital age is the loss of our precious data. Whether it be the pictures from the birth of a child, pictures from a vacation, your checkbook files from Quicken or that spreadsheet that maintains your annual budget information, chances are you cannot risk losing that data.

An easy and relatively inexpensive solution is an external hard drive. With this, you typically are responsible for copying your sensitive files from your computer's hard disk to the external drive. The challenge is finding time to do this and actually REMEMBERING to do this.

The problem though: USB. Most external drives, especially those in the affordable realm, only connect via USB. Now this is not a complete deal-breaker. The advantage to USB is that you can take your external disk to your friends to share/copy files or back-up your family's other computers.

However, USB (even USB 2.0) is pretty slow when it comes to transferring many megabytes or especially gigabytes of data!

Better options? FireWire. The external disks that connect via FireWire are harder to find and typically more expensive for the same capacity as a USB disk. But, the payoff is MUCH faster data transfer rates. Newer computers, especially Mac-based computers, have native FireWire 800 ports built-in and usually a couple FireWire 400 ports as well. This is an ideal transfer mode as the transfer rate is much fast than USB.

Best option? eSata. This is the most reliable and fastest means of connection available today, with the exception of adding another internal hard disk!

Speed Chart:
Connection Speed (Mbit/s)
USB 12
USB 2.0 480 (but commonly runs at 400)
USB 3.0 4,000
FireWire 400 400
FireWire 800 800
eSata I 1,500
eSata II 3,000
eSata III 6,000

Excellent resource: USB 2.0, FireWire, Or eSATA: Which Interface Should You Use?

Best advice? For maximum versatility and convenience, look for an external drive that boasts MINIMALLY USB 2.0 and FireWire 400/800 connections. Ideally, buy a drive that ALSO supports eSata II/III conection.

What if I don't have an external FireWire 800 or eSata connection? Easy - buy an adapter card! These cards are typically under $50 and connect to your PC's PCIx or PCIe board slots. Check with your computer manual to see which board interface you have and which slots are empty before making your purchase. These often only take 5 minutes to install and may or may not require software installation. If you use a laptop, there are also PCMCIA adapters that expose FireWire 800 and eSata ports as well.

My solution? The biggest downside to an external hard disk is often the cost and the fact that as one external reaches it's capacity and you look to buy another and are re-purchasing a case and power supply. So, why not just buy the disk instead? Sounds too obvious but most people wouldn't consider this slightly more technical option.

Here's what I picked-up as my on-going archival solution:
1) external hard disk dock ($65): this allows you to connect the latest eSata II/III 2.5" and 3.5" internal hard disks. It connects to my G5 PowerMac via USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800 and eSata II/III.
2) 2-port eSata PCI card ($65)
3) 2x1TB Seagate barracuda 7200RPM drives ($65 each)
Grand total invested: $260.

Dock:


Main advantage: internal disks are faster and far cheaper than external drives. Mainly, there's no power supply or case to worry about. I like the portability. The dock is very small on my desk. The disks are incredibly quiet and vibration-free. When I'm not archiving/backing-up, the disks can stay safely secured in my safe or the safe-deposit box at the bank.

When I fill these disks, I will simply buy new drives to supplement them in my archive arsenal!