Can an external hard drive be used for primary file storage as well as an archive for back-ups?

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Daniel C

I have read several product reviews for various manufacturers' products and they almost always dial in on the utility of the product being reviewed as a back-up target. I want to store photos and music on a portable external hard drive and I wonder if I am barking up the wrong tree. I don't want to buy something that has no practical applicability for me. I use an on-line back up service (Carbonite) and do not need more back-up capability. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Yes, an external hard drive can be used as primary file storage (partitioning is recommended), as well as for archive back-up. So it depends on your purpose. Carbonite takes care of back-ups and I use it too, but unless things have changed it only backs up your computer hard drive and not an external drive. External drives can fail, get stolen, you could have a fire, etc., so if you store primary files on it you should have a secondary backup. You could back up your photos to DVD if the originals are stored on the external drive.

What external hard drive is the most reliable?

Goushirou

I've been reading multiple reviews for various brands such as iomega western digital and seagate and for each brand people are complaining about them breaking or dieing and as a result I am super confused. So what IS the most reliable brand? More specifically whats the most reliable portable external hard drive that has at least 500gb of space?

Answer
Honestly Western Digital is one of the most reliable..

The people who complain online are the very few that get defective drives, so don't mind anything you read.. Unless it's from a trusted source.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002QEBMB4?ie=UTF8&tag=eawatolobefa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002QEBMB4

That's a 1TB Western digital for under $100..

Here's a 1TB Iomega that stands upright:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003GALRIA?ie=UTF8&tag=eawatolobefa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003GALRIA

$75 for that one.. Nice.

$80 for Seagate:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UI49XA?ie=UTF8&tag=eawatolobefa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001UI49XA


Also, I'd be sure to get a 3.5" vs the 2.5 laptop hard drive versions, which are quite a bit slower..

Hope that helps :)

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