Make own external backup?

[doitmyself]

For the past years I have been fortunate to not have any of my off the shelf Seagate or Western Digital (My Book) external desktop (3.5") backup drives fail (knock on wood). I keep 2, with one off site. My needs are VERY minimal, so no need for RAID, NAS, or even Cloud.

This time, for fun, I am thinking of building my own by buying an enclosure and putting in an HDD.

I have picked the enclosure below because its chipset has an excellent reputation and this unit has a 2 year warranty. It's expensive ($35 on Amazon) vs. many others in the $25 range, but I don't care ("fun" project). This project will cost about $30 more than an off the shelf unit, again, I don't care.

I'm doing a 2 TB one. Thinking of a WD Blue currently....the level of my needs.

http://www.startech.com/HDD/Enclosures/USB-3-0-Enclosure-for-3-5-SATA-Hard-Drives-with-UASP~S3510BMU33

Any and all comments, opinions, and suggestions welcome!

 

[DBMaster]

As long as you are backing up in some form or fashion you're ahead of the majority of computer owners. Once digital photography eclipsed film and paper backups became really important - if you cared about keeping your photographic history. External hard drives, flash drives, memory cards, or cloud storage; it's all good. The important thing to remember is, if you want to keep it, back it up!

 

[mattwithcats]

Just made two for myself.

Remember, use the fastest port you have available
USB 2.0
Firewire 400
USB 3.0
Firewire 800
Other World Computing Enclosures... https://eshop.macsales.com/Search/?Ntk=Primary&N2=6430&Ns=P_Price|0&Ne=5000&N=6430&Ntt=mercury

Also, use a powered enclosure.

Last, use a Western Digital Red or Black drive, not a Green.
Also adjust the drive idle time to 90-180 seconds

WD Green. Red, and Black drives will automatically park themselves after being idle for 8 seconds (the default).
Windows and Mac can slow down accessing the drive, resulting in pauses in excess of 8 seconds,
hence the drive goes to sleep, wakes up, sleeps, ad nauseam...

Use WDIDLE3.exe to adjust the time , up to 300 seconds.
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hacking-wd-greens-and-reds-with-wdidle3-exe.18171/

 

[simple_gifts]

I find USB self powered drives are sufficient for my needs; last thing i want in my computer area is another powerbrick and cable.

 

[EdwardC]

I've build a couple, but those were typically for use with old HDDs that I pulled out to upgrade. Like you said, the prices for a whole built external is less than piecing one together, so I've always went that route when I needed a new drive.

However, I've had no issues with the drives I've pulled and put into an enclosure (and I typically use the cheap enclosures).

 

[SrDriver]

Having an external backup is great unless the house or business is burned down or caught up in a Tornado, etc. Between the free off site storage that Google and Microsoft offers and the external local backup that covers all bases.

 

[mattwithcats]

Cheap drive enclosures at Newegg...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...Z5045-_-Product

Use the old 2.5 SATA laptop drives you have around the house...

 

[buck91]

Other that the OB's "fun" project and/or using up left over drives, does building your own external setup offer any benefits?

 

[Wheel]

I put a 2 TB hard drive and an old 8GB memory stick in my old PC and made one using FreeNAS. I just point my backup to that machine on the home network.

 

[dparm]

Why not just pay for a cloud backup service? Zero hassle, no hardware to buy. It's literally install-and-forget. Make it someone else's problem.

My needs are minimal too. I use CrashPlan for $5/month. Unlimited storage, been using it for years.

 

[Lyman]

I had my house burn to the ground back in 2005. Backup to the cloud. I have 40GB of cloud storage and it's plenty for me. Lucky for me back when my house burned down my Sister had all of my Family photos as she was putting them all on disc for me.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted By: buck91
Other that the OB's "fun" project and/or using up left over drives, does building your own external setup offer any benefits?


Hi buck91, I would like to hear more about that also.

As I have said, no problems yet with my off the shelf units. But in researching them this past week on Google, NewEgg, and other review sites, I get the impression (and that's all it is) that the store bought ones have lower reliability possibilities.

Here are just some of the complaints I have read about MyBook and Backup Plus units:

- The mfg. uses whatever HDD that they have available at the time, so you really don't know what you are getting inside. WD actually states this on their forum and site.

- The mini USB connection "can" break easier?

- Numerous complaints of things other than the HDD going bad: the USB connector breaks, the internal connections fail, etc.. Whenever I read these instances, most say that the data cannot be retrieved because of how it is mfg..?? Anyone know why this might be?

- Numerous complaints that retrieving the HDD if needed AND trying to get the data off seems harder and/or more impossible. Is this true? Is the HDD wired different or has proprietary firmware/software,etc.?

I guess the pro of self built is one can choose the components and have easier access to the HDD if something goes awry.

I would like to hear from others with experience.

The Cloud is not an option right now and I don't care to explain the circumstances.

 

[dparm]

Not sure what Western Digital and others do, but my old LaCie one was basically just an off-the-shelf Seagate hard drive with a pretty case on it. When the PSU for it went bad, I just opened it up, pulled out the drive, and stuck it inside my PC.

 

[badtlc]

True backup should be offsite. Keep that in mind.