My documents back up

[dingocooke]

I always back up 'my documents' onto CD's to ensure I dont lose anything, especially all the photos; but now the file is 4.5GB its getting a bit silly, has anyone got any ideas for a nice portable back up drive thats not silly money?
Im thinking something around £50-£60, and there is lots on ebay for that sort of money, but thought it better to ask in case anyone has done something similar?

Cheers in advance

Steve

[kayjayd]

I use one of these - http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=95541

I'm sure there'll be cheaper versions kicking around though.

[dingocooke]

Cheers kayjayd; thats the sort of thing I was thinking of.

Steve

[wilf]

Personally, I have a second hard drive on my PC to which I copy all docs, pics etc.

If the machine dies, the hard drive can be taken out and installed in another one. Plus it is quicker (I think) than an external USB drive, and 40 - 60 Gbytes are dirt cheap.

[westborne]

How about a memory stick ?
Too small perhaps ?

But excellent and coming down in price

[dingocooke]

Can't find one big enough, 4 gig is as big as they seem to get, unless you spend silly money.
Wilfs suggestion makes sense, but I want to keep the backup portable, so I can take the docs elswhere with me for work etc too.
I think Im going to end up buying one of those tiny portable external HDD, unless there are any other solutions?
Cheers for the advice so far chaps.

[kevchard]

You could look for a 2.5" IDE laptop h/drive and case. The cases are 7.50 and you could buy whatever size drives meets your budget eg near £50.
Try http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=95615

and

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=74822

Steer clear of Maxtor drives tho, had a lot of trouble with them in past.
Cheers

[kayjayd]

Originally Posted by wilf leek

Personally, I have a second hard drive on my PC to which I copy all docs, pics etc.

If the machine dies, the hard drive can be taken out and installed in another one. Plus it is quicker (I think) than an external USB drive, and 40 - 60 Gbytes are dirt cheap.

I had a second internal drive until two years ago when lightning hit the local power supply and killed my home pc. You would expect the power supply in the pc to let go before the spike got to the peripherals, but sadly not. Everything got fried in the box including both hard disks.

Since then I've used an external USB2 drive which gets unplugged when I'm finished with it. I also use it for work when storing big presentations etc. I also use a USB memory stick to take simple presentations to customer site.

[madjohnny]

As has already been stated i'd go for an 80Gb hard drive in an external caddy. If you buy the hard drive new, say £35-£40, then find a secong hand USB 2 caddy on e-bay. Cheap as chips but not very fast, but then you don't need it to be really!

[Wilburn]

I have six, lacie P3 250gb external hard disks (see link below) I do rolling backups and keep them offsite to also guard against fire/theft.

http://www.cancomuk.com/products/search.htm?name=lacie&code=53936&Lacie%20250GB%20' FA%20Porsche%20Design'%20(7200rpm)%20Hard%20Drive% 20%2BCable%20Mac%20OS%20X/Win%20USB2%20Ext