[drewban]

Hi. I'm not new to Macs but not an expert either, so I could use some suggestions. We have a fairly large family and two computers (G4 and iMac). I'm now realizing that our current hard drives are getting pretty full. We have everything from mp3's, digital photos, recipe collections, and homework assignments to all our tax and financial stuff, geneology records, and video projects (just started a wedding video business, *really* need more space). I know I was kind of slow to realize this but I need backup as well. One thing goes seriously wrong and we've lost all that information. So I was
wondering how best to solve both problems. Would adding external drive solve this? I do not want to try adding an internal, thanks .

[spicyjeff]

Yep, an external drive would give you more space. Go for a firewire drive if your iMac has it (your G4 already does) and if not go with USB, that way you can use it on either machine.

well, there's plenty out there to choose from. my situation is similar but i went a somewhat different route and got an iomega Peerless portable drive. Because it handles 10 and 20 gig removable disks I have a lot more flexibility in how and where I handle my data on either of two machines with firewire. I can also backup an entire HD on one disk. The disks (cartridges) are completely sealed for protection and supposed to be hardy enough to handle a fall to the floor and still work. I killed a regular external drive once this way, which really are not made for throwing arond in backbacks or briefcases.

Steve

[-Q-]

I know you mentioned you didn't want to mess around with installing an internal drive, but the design of the G4 makes it very easy to do. It would be a very affordable and easy way to implement a backup process. Install an emergency system on that drive and you have a nice emergency back-up drive that can stand in for the main drive.

But the second best alternative would be to get an external drive or two to use as a back-up medium.

My only hesitation (and this is not based on a personal experience, just a gut feeling) with a peerless drive is the reliability of the disks. I've heard too many issues related to the 'click of death' with zip drives and zip disks being unreadable and information lost. They haven't been around long enough for me to feel confident in their quality to store my important info on.

Good luck with the new business!

[MikeM32]

The only issues with external drives I have are generally the price. Your'e basically getting an enclosed internal drive and paying extra for the casing.

Plus internally you'd likely get a much better Data Transfer Rate than on anything external short of SCSI, although Firewire is "popular" it's still not quite as fast yet. I wouldn't even touch USB for anything more than keyboards, mice, speakers, and possibly inexpensive printers.

Here's what I've done to my Beige G3/266 Desktop over the past year to ensure I'd never lose anything or require a re-install of all my stuff again. About a year ago I got a second internal ATA Hard Drive. My original drive is only a 4 GB, so I got a 20 GB Maxtor for like $100.00 from http://www.datamem.com . About 6 months ago I also got into the idea of getting a CD-RW. So I got an external LaCie 12 x 10 x 32 SCSI burner from http://www.smalldog.com for about $250.00.

The new internal drive is now my main drive, and it came just in time as I've since exceeded what my old drive could have stored. The external CD-RW also serves as a great backup source. CD-R's are so cheap it's almost a no-brainer means of backup. My CD-RW can burn a full CD-R in about 3-5 minutes, it's really incredible. The only other CD burner I've ever used is the one my place of work has had for like 3 years which burns at 2X speed Takes like 20 minutes to burn a CD-R!!!

Another thing you can do is archive to CD-R's when your'e drive space is getting short, and use a freebie catalog utility to keep track of which CD contains what file(s). This is similar to what my place of work has been doing for years. Now we do these for our DVD-RAM backups, but it's the same basic principal.

I also have Retrospect Backup 4.3. This is a great backup utility. It's not a necessity but it's very helpful as it allows a single backup to span several disks if necessary. Restoring files from these backups is a breeze also.

If your'e needing immediate access to every single file you've ever done since god created the heavens and the earth, I'd say increase your drive capacity, but still maintain a backup for emergencies.

If immediate access isn't required (I.E. you can spend a few minutes looking up an old reference) then archiving stuff to CD-R's or some other form of removable media may be the way to go.

There's really tons of options to increasing space and/or backing-up data. So it's really up to you to figure out what's best.

The real important thing in your case is achieving redundancy with your data. Your'e looking at increasing space at your primary storage location, and also having enough space to backup all that data. This will require two separate storage locations (or series thereof).

Consider that whatever you're backing up to needs to be large enough or larger to cover whatever you're backing up from. And that these means of storage must be completely independent from one another, but sharing the exact same data.



Mike

[ 09-07-2001: Message edited by: MikeM32 ]

[Apfhex]

I agree with what Mike said about CD-R. I burn CD's all the time, and it's extremely reliable, provided you store you'r CDs in a space place. If you want to have more space than what CDs provide, consider getting a DVD-R (that is, if you have the cash).

Zip drives are nice, however the discs hold very little information in comparison to some of the large files out there these days, plus there's the possiblity of your data getting corrupted (also the "click of death" wich it seems everyone but me has experienced).

[Nimisys]

Raid 5 or on my mobo RAID 0+1

added hdd performance because data is writtian to 2 disks at once, hella reliabilty beacuse it is having a backup copy writtan at the same time. look at a SCSI Raid Card and you can get more than 4 HDDS in an array at once.

[Ron Goodman]

Installling a second hard drive in my G4 took about 10 minutes and they're cheap these days. Take a look at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ for details.

Zip drives are nice, however the discs hold very little information in comparison to some of the large files out there these days, plus there's the possiblity of your data getting corrupted (also the "click of death" wich it seems everyone but me has experienced).[/QB][/QUOTE]

actually, the last I saw, the click of death occurred in less than 1% of all zips sold. and I believe they've solved the problem at this point. never happened to me either. by contrast I've had more problems with cd-r(rw) with buffer underruns, packet writing and UDF and compatability between cd-rw and cd players.

Ronald

[nana2]

Originally posted by Nimisys:
<STRONG>Raid 5 or on my mobo RAID 0+1

added hdd performance because data is writtian to 2 disks at once, hella reliabilty beacuse it is having a backup copy writtan at the same time. look at a SCSI Raid Card and you can get more than 4 HDDS in an array at once.</STRONG>

RAID 10 or 01 or any RAID for that matter will not save you from user error (accidental/deliberate deletion etc) or a variety of other problems, such as theft or fire. That's why off-site backup storage is a must if you value your data.

[Captain Obvious]

I am with mike on this one. A CD-R is the cheapest bet and flexible in its uses. You can first off clear a ton of disk space my asking your fam to clear the MP3s to CDR.They can just pop them in when they want them. Then a CD-RW would be ideal for your financial records.

But if you want to go the route of something else why not get an older Mac from eBay and use it as a server or even a third computer for just basic uses. That way a couple of ethernet cables later you have your own little network and something like Retrospect backing up your files.