Please help me to buy the right external hard drive.....

[Baz]

I am worried that my hard drive might pack in and I have 1000's of photographs on it that I want to keep. I want to buy an external hard drive but have no idea which ones would be best.... all I want to do is store my system on it including all my photo's then if my computer goes kaput then I can do a system restore etc. My HD is 80gb I think.

I have been looking at this page on Amazon and like the look of this one but wonder if 160gb is enough....

I am not a computer whizzkid so any help gratefully received. PLUS a bazpunfast of one month awarded of course.

[gazza]

You're right to wonder. 160G isn't a lot these days. Why not take a look at this list here where for only a tenner more you could have 500G.

[Cod]

I am worried that my hard drive might pack in and I have 1000's of photographs on it that I want to keep. I want to buy an external hard drive but have no idea which ones would be best.... all I want to do is store my system on it including all my photo's then if my computer goes kaput then I can do a system restore etc. My HD is 80gb I think.

I have been looking at this page on Amazon and like the look of this one but wonder if 160gb is enough....

I am not a computer whizzkid so any help gratefully received. PLUS a bazpunfast of one month awarded of course.

160gb is nothing now to be honest.  Out of that list, I'd go for the 1tb Buffalo if I wanted a usb drive.  That'd probably be best for your needs, a quick backup on a regular basis.

[Anchee]

I've just bought Maxtor Basics, external deastop drive which was on offer at Sainsbury's.
Its capaciy = 500GB. Havn't taken it out of the box yet.
What do you think? Any good?

[Cod]

I've just bought Maxtor Basics, external deastop drive which was on offer at Sainsbury's.
Its capaciy = 500GB. Havn't taken it out of the box yet.
What do you think? Any good?

All I can see for it are good reviews.  Maxtor products are loads better since the company was taken over by Seagate in (I think) 2006.

[gazza]

Yes, should be good. What is the resolution (Mega pixels) on your digital camera and do you like to take a lot of photos? Also do you store movies on your PC?

[Baz]

Thanks gazza and Cod for the useful info.. I really appreciate your help. gaz my digi cam is just a basic run of the mill Hewlett Packard 3 point something megapixels but it produces good pics. I don't store many movies on the PC - just a few holiday digi cam vids.

[Anchee]

I've just bought Maxtor Basics, external deastop drive which was on offer at Sainsbury's.
Its capaciy = 500GB. Havn't taken it out of the box yet.
What do you think? Any good?

All I can see for it are good reviews.  Maxtor products are loads better since the company was taken over by Seagate in (I think) 2006.

Thanks COD.

[Anchee]

Yes, should be good. What is the resolution (Mega pixels) on your digital camera and do you like to take a lot of photos? Also do you store movies on your PC?

My camera is 7.2 megapizels

[gazza]

It should take you a while before you fill up 500G then (about 70 thousand photos!)

[Anchee]

There'll be room when I'm gone then.

[gazza]

  But that's still equivalent to around 100 - possibly 500 movies (unless you're going HD, where it will be even less) so it's possible to fill it up quicker. That said filling it up completely is a bad idea anyway and you wouldn't want it more than about 75% full.

[Anchee]

I have just completed a back up of files using the Norton360 automatic method but with problems - It took 11 cds. I was up till 3 in the morning waiting and exchanging discs when each became full. Have got a Mxtor basics external  hard drive which I want to use for images.
Surely there must be a better soluton.

[Wils]

You could use DVDs, or just use a big external drive to do it all (I wouldn't recommend doing loads of discs).

Have you set it so it does an incremental back-up? i.e after the first one, it'll only backup stuff that's changed?

[Anchee]

They were DVDs Wills!

[Wils]

Sorry dol, when you said CDs I thought you meant CDs.

Go and get a big external drive and do your backups on that - even a 1TB jobby should be under £100 nowadays (I think).

[Anchee]

Thanks Wills.

[Baz]

Hi pawb, long time no see !.

I've just bought a 500gb external hardrive and it's great except that it will not accept some of my video clips... could there be some kind of format problem ?. Any advice on what to do next greatly appreciated.

 

[Wils]

What's it saying, or doing?  Could you give more info, oh most excellent Baz?

[Baz]

What's it saying, or doing?  Could you give more info, oh most excellent Baz?

Wils you are a star. Are you being nice because I have given up punning ? ... 

This is the external hard drive I ended up ordering. The one I wanted was from a company who would not deliver to the Isle of Man.

When I try and transfer video clips that Mrs Baz recorded on her Fuji Finepix S7000 from My Pictures to the external HD I get this error message;

..this file has properties that cannot be copied to the new location

Any advice gratefully received.

[Cod]

I think it depends on how the different file systems are formatted, eg one is probably FAT32 and the other NTFS.

Or something.  I can't remember how to find the drive format info on windows, sorry.

[Reenie]

try copying one and saving it with another media extension and see if that works?

Maybe it's saved under a quicktime extension like .mov and you need another type like .avi...??

[Wils]

I dunno Baz.   I wouldn't have thought the FAT32/NTFS thing would be an issue but I can't say for sure.     If I were you I'd google the EXACT message you get, there will be someone somewhere online who has had the same issue - probably quite common if it affects everybody trying to transfer video clips onto that type of external drive.

In fact, here's one I made earlier:

http://www.winvistatips.com/file-has-properties-cannot-copies-t123847.html

This might help - looks like its a Vista issue which might or might not actually be an issue at all.  Let us know if that link helps.

[Baz]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the advice although most of it is gobbledegook to me !. Reenie dol, I understood your advice as much as you understand bazpuns  ... I'm fick me aye .... but I will try my best to learn what it all means.

Wils, do you think I should download that clone software ?. Do you think it is a reliable source ? ... will it mess up my computer ?.

Thanks again !