It happens to the best of us. You wake up one sunny morning ready to check your e-mail, and your personal computer emits a cheerful bleep, accompanied by the delicate clicking sound of your hard disc drive handing in its notice.
It's easy to forget just how fragile the mechanisms that store all your personal digital data can be. A computer hard disc is merely a spinning magnetic platter that more or less resembles a vinyl record. At the incredible speeds they run at, and the absurdly high tolerances they demand for reliable operation it is no surprise that they often fail.
And if they do go kaput, there goes your music, movies, and perhaps most important of all, your memories. The laptop computer that this article is being written on might be a relatively extreme case, but nevertheless it stores over five thousand songs and almost twelve thousand digital photos, almost all irreplaceable.
Until now, backing up has been a laborious, inconvenient affair. It would take dozens of CDs to back up the average computer, so making it easier for the consumer has become the preoccupation of computer manufacturers. Microsoft includes more backup features in its Vista operating system, and Apple is attempting to make backing up "sexy" with the Time Machine software included in the Mac OSX Leopard update, due in October.
Professional backup tape drives are not a realistic option for most consumers, and CDs and DVDs lack capacity, so that leaves computer users with two options: external hard disc drives, or backing up over the network.
Icy Dock MB663
NT$1,110 excluding hard drive
www.icydock.com.tw/English/mb663_mb664.htm
You can safely assume that the floppy disk drive bay present in most desktop computers is redundant for anything more than the most basic word document. Much akin to the Iomega Zip drives that were all the rage five years ago, the charmingly named MB663 slots into the 3.5 inch gap where the floppy disk drive used to go, and instead gives you a hot-swappable 2.5 inch hard enclosure, into which you can pop the hard drive of your choice.
With the latest notebook hard drives now available at capacities up to 250GB, this solution is probably adequate for most people, barring the heaviest downloaders of music and movies. The trick in the design comes when you pop the button and out comes the enclosure. On the back side of the drive is a standard USB cable that can be connected to any other PC - very neat. Should disaster strike, and your house is flooded, you then have the possibility of conveniently storing data in more than one location - one of the Golden Rules of backup strategy.
The concept is a winner, but after ejecting a number of times, scratch marks were visible on the lid of the drive and the ejection action is none too smooth. However, if you have a desk top computer with a spare drive bay, this is a neat and convenient way to make your data safer.
Macpower Pleiades NDAS
NT$3,200 excluding hard drive
goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?11070417191620
The Macpower Pleiades sports a larger 5.25 inch enclosure than the Icy Dock, and packs an interesting addition alongside the USB port - an ethernet connector. NDAS technology, or "Network Direct Attached Storage," allows you to connect the device to a home network - even over a wireless connection. Once the driver software is loaded, it simply appears like a normal hard disc, and the user is free to drag and drop files between their computer and the device.
The major advantage becomes apparent when thinking about households with set ups that exclusively involve laptop computers - an increasing trend. By making it possible to hide the drive away but leave it accessible at all times it takes away one more excuse not to back up data. Leaving a computer on once a week in the day time, means you can schedule backup when you are out of the house.
The disadvantage of this set up comes with the relatively low speed of an ethernet network when compared to USB, or Apple's Firewire. If large volumes of data are being shifted, or if you expect to be able to watch a movie from it over a wireless network, you should certainly look for another solution. The device's LED lights are a touch garish, especially at night time.
Overall, this solution could suit a lot of users with its convenience, as long as network speed is not an issue. The 5.25 inch configuration means that capacities running up to many hundreds of megabytes are possible.
Apple iLife 08: iDisk
US$99 per year
www.apple.com/dotmac/idisk.html
The ultimate way to back up work is to send it over the internet and allow someone else to look after the security of your most precious data. Many companies offer such services, but Apple offers, perhaps, the most convenient solution.
Wrapped up as part of the new iLife '08 suite of products comes an updated .Mac and iDisk service. Only a click away, users have access to 10GB of online storage that is managed on Apple servers. The drive appears as if it were a hard drive, and it can be accessed from other locations, allowing you to share files with other people. Using the bundled software is pretty straightforward, and users can schedule their backups for a time that suits them.
The major disadvantage is that although additional storage is available, there is not enough to back up all the data a typical user is likely to have. Internet network speed also means transferring large amounts of data will be very time-intensive. The service is also, predictably, only available to Apple's converted followers. Overall, i-Disk is a great solution for protecting the most important files, but for computer users looking to back up photos and music, it doesn't cut the mustard.
A blend of approaches is going to be the best way to ensure that your data is safe and sound. To avoid the heartbreak that accompanies loss of important data, most important is finding the method that suits your needs and fits into your routine.
- Jonathan Biddle is Head of Industrial Design at DEM inc
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