Backing up an external HD

I have a 300GB external HD that I use exclusively for music storage. I have every CD on it I've ever owned.
I run it to burn some custom Cd's & I add new Cd's to it all the time. It's getting so big now that I'm getting worried that if it ever crashes all my data will be lost. What's the best way to copy it onto another external HD ?

I have over 200GB in use now & it will probably take forever to plug in another empty USB HD & hit copy to..............

Ideas ? Suggestions ?

Thanks

May sound like a WTH, but burn it to DVD's and put them in a safe place. Secondly, buy a terrabyte drive, hook them both up and burn it off to the bigger drive, or to several smaller drives. You can buy very large drives fairly cheap now.

TOMLESCOEQUIP said:

I have a 300GB external HD that I use exclusively for music storage. I have every CD on it I've ever owned.
I run it to burn some custom Cd's & I add new Cd's to it all the time. It's getting so big now that I'm getting worried that if it ever crashes all my data will be lost. What's the best way to copy it onto another external HD ?

I have over 200GB in use now & it will probably take forever to plug in another empty USB HD & hit copy to..............

Ideas ? Suggestions ?

Thanks

Click to expand...

You are probably right in that a straight copy would take a good bit of time ... but I do not know of an easier way to do it. With USB2 speeds you might be able to get er done overnight. I know at work we've had to copy and restore 300+ gig databases and it will take 13 hours or more. And that is on a high speed SAN with fiber. But we had overhead because the files were tar'd and compressed which slows down the process.

I would guess you would be able to run the copy in the background and still use the computer for work or play while the copy is going on.
I saw a 500gb external on New Egg last week for 79 or 89 bucks. Sure looked like a good buy.

Your instincts are correct in that it is imperative that you get all that data backed up before you have issues with your primary external drive.

Good luck!!!!

I like this tool:

http://www.fileware.com/public/fsync.exe

Simple UI, fast copying and you get some feedback as to how "synced" everything is.

It's shareware too.

We use a product at work to keep a couple of file servers in Sync throughout the day. It is called ViceVersa. We are talking about 150 Gig/400,000 file directories. We have it scan every 20 minutes or so and it only copies the files that change. It works well and is much faster than a traditional windows copy. It is a shareware, but I think the license is something like $30. So get the new external drive and use something like this to keep them in sync. It can be set to completely mirror (including any deletes) or just straight copies so if you delete something, it would still be on the back-up drive. Pretty neat package for $30. OK, I see they are going up a little bit, they are up to about $60, but might still be able to find it cheaper through some other sites.

Here is a link: ViceVersa