[ltp] USB 2.0 external hard drives
Bill Hudacek
linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Wed, 2 May 2007 12:53:51 -0400
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Jeffrey, you've gotten a bunch of replies, with several different
perspectives, but I have not seen one similar to my own
situation/solution, so I thought I'd offer this up.
I have a cheap ($25) adapter that hooks up any hard drive (2.5", 3.5") to
a USB 2.0 port. It works great. There's a power adapter for 3.5" drives,
but 2.5" drives are USB-powered, so you don't need the adapter.
I got mine at NewEgg, as I recall -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156017 - but it's
relatively easy to find.
It comes with a power adapter adapter - from the four-plug Molex power
plug (for 3.5" drives) to an SATA drive power plug. The data interface
supports PATA and SATA.
Disk: Feast-or-famine applies here, I have had no spare hard drives at
times, right now I have 5 sitting beside me on the desk. A 34GB hard
drive is connected to my laptop right now.
For backup purposes, I have backuppc (http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/) -
and I'm using the 320GB drives for offsite backups. Backuppc does all
that 'rdiff-backup' or other solutions do...and I swear by it. If you
don't have multiple computers, then it likely won't make sense to you, but
there are some very large organizations that have bet their information on
backuppc - check out the mailing list archives if you're curious, at
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=backuppc-users
Right now, for example, I have the following backups of one of my
computers - this should look readable in a fixed format:
Backup-# Type Level Start-Date Duration/mins Age/days
140 full 0 12/1 05:00 497.4 152.2
159 full 0 2/2 21:22 699.8 88.6
183 full 0 4/3 03:00 292.4 29.4
190 incr 1 4/18 02:00 79.3 14.4
191 incr 2 4/20 02:00 113.8 12.4
192 incr 3 4/22 02:00 99.8 10.4
193 incr 1 4/25 05:37 121.2 7.3
194 incr 2 4/28 03:55 169.3 4.3
195 full 0 5/2 00:00 447.8 0.5
So I can recover "almost" any version of a file - level 0 is a full, 1/2/3
are levels of incrementals (though backuppc mistakenly calls them
'differentials'). Though the year is not shown above, from the 'age in
days' column you can see that I choose to have my oldest backups be about
5 months old. And, just to give you an idea of how (amazingly) backuppc
uses pools to save space, an archived gzip file of the above system (with
*ALL* backups included) consumes 45GB. Uncompressed it's probably 60%
bigger or 75GB (gzip has problems reporting compression statistics with
files this big :-) To give perspective on this, if I run "df" on this
box, and add up the consumed space in mounted partitions, it's using 58.59
GB. Yep, that means that with compression & pooling, the backups for 6
months are smaller than the present consumed disk space. I'd call that a
win by most measures.
However, there's one caveat: if you want to be able to restore to a new
empty hard drive, you want image backup software like trueimage or ghost.
Images have their own disadvantages, though, and I prefer backuppc.
Hope this helps -
Regards,
Bill Hudacek
linux-thinkpad-admin@linux-thinkpad.org wrote on 05/01/2007 02:44:54 PM:
> I looking to buy an external hard drive to backup (not archive) my
laptop. It
> has USB 2.0. I am looking for a desktop solution, i.e., don't need nor
want
> to pay for portable powered USB drives. Capacity 80GB to 160GB range.
Any
> recommendations and/or condemnations?
>
> TIA,
> Jeffrey
> --
> The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
> http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad
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<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">Jeffrey, you've gotten a bunch of replies,
with several different perspectives, but I have not seen one similar to
my own situation/solution, so I thought I'd offer this up. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">I have a cheap ($25) adapter that hooks
up any hard drive (2.5", 3.5") to a USB 2.0 port. It works
great. There's a power adapter for 3.5" drives, but 2.5"
drives are USB-powered, so you don't need the adapter.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">I got mine at NewEgg, as I recall -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156017 - but it's
relatively easy to find. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">It comes with a power adapter adapter
- from the four-plug Molex power plug (for 3.5" drives) to an SATA
drive power plug. The data interface supports PATA and SATA.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">Disk: Feast-or-famine applies here,
I have had no spare hard drives at times, right now I have 5 sitting beside
me on the desk. A 34GB hard drive is connected to my laptop
right now. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">For backup purposes, I have backuppc
(http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/) - and I'm using the 320GB drives for
offsite backups. Backuppc does all that 'rdiff-backup' or other solutions
do...and I swear by it. If you don't have multiple computers, then
it likely won't make sense to you, but there are some very large organizations
that have bet their information on backuppc - check out the mailing list
archives if you're curious, at http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=backuppc-users</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">Right now, for example, I have the
following backups of one of my computers - this should look readable in
a fixed format:</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">Backup-# Type Level Start-Date Duration/mins
Age/days</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"> 140 full
0 12/1 05:00 497.4 152.2</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"> 159 full
0 2/2 21:22 699.8
88.6</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"> 183 full
0 4/3 03:00 292.4
29.4</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"> 190 incr
1 4/18 02:00 79.3
14.4</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"> 191 incr
2 4/20 02:00 113.8 12.4</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"> 192 incr
3 4/22 02:00 99.8
10.4</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"> 193 incr
1 4/25 05:37 121.2 7.3</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"> 194 incr
2 4/28 03:55 169.3 4.3</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"> 195 full
0 5/2 00:00 447.8
0.5</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">So I can recover "almost"
any version of a file - level 0 is a full, 1/2/3 are levels of incrementals
(though backuppc mistakenly calls them 'differentials'). Though the
year is not shown above, from the 'age in days' column you can see that
I choose to have my oldest backups be about 5 months old. And, just
to give you an idea of how (amazingly) backuppc uses pools to save space,
an archived gzip file of the above system (with *ALL* backups included)
consumes 45GB. Uncompressed it's probably 60% bigger or 75GB (gzip
has problems reporting compression statistics with files this big :-) To
give perspective on this, if I run "df" on this box, and add
up the consumed space in mounted partitions, it's using 58.59 GB. Yep,
that means that with compression & pooling, the backups for 6 months
are smaller than the present consumed disk space. I'd call that a
win by most measures.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">However, there's one caveat: if you
want to be able to restore to a new empty hard drive, you want image backup
software like trueimage or ghost. Images have their own disadvantages,
though, and I prefer backuppc. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">Hope this helps -</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New"><br>
Regards,</font>
<br>
<hr><font size=2 face="Courier New">Bill Hudacek</font><font size=3 face="Courier New">
</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Courier New">linux-thinkpad-admin@linux-thinkpad.org
wrote on 05/01/2007 02:44:54 PM:<br>
<br>
> I looking to buy an external hard drive to backup (not archive) my
laptop. It<br>
> has USB 2.0. I am looking for a desktop solution, i.e., don't
need nor want<br>
> to pay for portable powered USB drives. Capacity 80GB to 160GB
range. Any<br>
> recommendations and/or condemnations?<br>
> <br>
> TIA,<br>
> Jeffrey<br>
> -- <br>
> The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:<br>
> http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad<br>
</font>
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