Internal HD Vs. External HD (pros & cons) (1 Viewer)

[Will_B]

Jean, glad you like the MyBook! I took advantage of that sale myself, so I finally have a drive dedicated exclusively to automatic backups (running Retrospect Express HD in "copy" mode twice a week). It is my second MyBook.

You know, the Essential edition MyBooks may have fewer kinds of connectors, but they have the lovely green illuminated circle on the front. You may get more connectors if you buy the Premium edition MyBooks, but the Premiums have an ugly blue illuminated circle on the front. Green is better. For me, anyway.

 

[Jean D]

Actually, I think I'd have preferred the blue illumination, but its all good. like I said, using the gift card mattered more to me.
I dont have auto backups setup. what does it do/how is it reliable/what does it actually restore to? are you using it for media/documents or applications/software?

 

[Will_B]

I only have experience with Retrospect Express HD, so my description is limited to that product (which I bought online from Retrospect's website). I looked at many other backup programs before choosing this one.

I first chose whether Retrospect Express HD should "back up" in a proprietary format (which has an advantage of being very compressed and of having multiple "restore points"), or whether it should simply "copy" files. I decided I'd like it to simply copy files, because that way if my computer ever got stolen but my MyBook was left behind, I could simply plug the MyBook into a new computer and everything would be available without needing to buy another copy of Retrospect to decode the proprietary format. And I don't feel a need for multiple restore points because my intention here is simply to be protected from hard drive failure, not from computer viruses.

The first time I ran it, I assigned which drives I wanted it to back up -- C, D, and an external F (my other MyBook, a 320GB) in my case. All of which could easily fit on the 500GB MyBook. You asked if I was backing up media/documents or applications, the answer is everything. I believe you could specify individual folders if you don't want to copy entire drives, but there was room enough that I did not have to be choosy. Besides there are always things you don't realize you need -- saved games, fonts, wallpapers, stuff like that tends to be forgotten if you don't choose it all.

It took a few hours to run the first time, as you can imagine it was copying everything. But then from that point forward, it only takes a few minutes since it only looks for what has been changed; it runs in the background and I honestly have not noticed it runnings its check on what files have been added/modified/deleted. I have it set to check twice a week.

If I look at my MyBook, it has folders named "Backup of C", "Backup of D", "Backup of F" on it. It is just a reproduction of what it on my computer and my other external hard drive. Simple enough.