Computer backup??

[Swirad]

I am running out of space rapidly on my hard drive. Can anyone reccomend buying any software that I can plug in to my PC to move some data off my PC and save elsewhere - something simple that only needs to be plugged in to the usb point (not too technical!!)

[aurora83]

An external USB hard drive is what you want. Simply plug it in, and use it like a normal hard drive.

You can get them the lots of places and lots of different makes, but I can highly recommend here and this drive as I have a few myself:

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/123400

They range from 80GB-�43 to 500GB-�106. So it depends

[aurora83]

sorry meant to say:

depends on how much you are willing to pay and how much extra space you want.

[CSG2306]

Hi Swirad,

As previously stated, an external hard drive will do the job.

There are various models available, but might I suggest that you purchase one with its own power supply rather than take its power from your PC through the USB port..

Regards

[wildwood]

A cheaper option is to add another HDD to yuor computer. Most computer come with space for an additional hard drive and you'll probably find that even the IDE cable has a vacant plug for a slave drive.

If you want to save data that you frequently use this is an better option as access to an internal HDD is a lot faster than though your USB port.

For straight out storage, an external drive is an very good ( and portable) option.

[Hugh Spencer]

What about a 1 GB flash drive? Very portable, just plug it into one of the USB sockets. I have recently bought one for less than �20.

[aich]

Depends how much more space you want.
If its to backup music, films or ne thing like that than u will need a whole new harddrive,
If its just for text files, word documents etc. i heard that hmv are selling a 2gb USB stick for �11, which is really cheap for its size

[vehelpfulguy]

Your subject was computer backup.

But putting files on another hard drive is NOT a backup.

Any hard drive can crash in a second and ALL the files on it wil be lost.

The only true backup is to a CD or DVD disc.

If you are running out of room on your hard drive then start backing up files to a CD or DVD.

If you have not got a CD or DVD writer then you should get one.

[Jinxeth]

vehelpfulguy - hard drives are less likely to explode than a CD or DVD is to get scratched. For a basic bit of home PC backing up, a reasonable Hard drive is the way to go (although DO avoid very cheap ones!)

For more serious back-ups, you'll want to back it up to 2 separate devices.

For crazy back-ups, you'll want to back it up to 2 devices and take one off-site and also have a RAID Mirror set up on your PC.

But this guy is just running out of space and so buying more space seems the most sensible answer imho. Slap it into the USB port, drag and drop, job done.