external hard drive for backup

Hi,

I have a Pagolin P7, which I have owned since 2010. Until today, when I wanted to backup my data I have used either online alternatives (Dropbox and Ubuntu One) or an external hard drive to backup things that would use all the free capacity that the online alternatives give (big data sets, or complete projects, etc).

However, my external hard drive is around four or five years old so I'm looking for a new one, "just in case...". Because of this, I would like to know if System 76 users have any suggestions. I don't plan to pay more than $100 so I don't want anything too fancy (such as automatic backup software). I just want an external hard drive that can be plugged into the PP7 and that can receive all the info I want to backup. Of course, durability is the main concern.

Thanks,

Fernando

I've used a lot of Western Digital external hard drives with absolutely no problem in Ubuntu. You should be able to get just about any hard drive that fits within your price range.

Usually when I had external hard drive issues, it all has to do with the file system that is on the hard drive, and usually converting it into something Linux can use like FAT32 (if you want to hook it up to Windows/Mac computer). If not any other file system will work for you on Linux to back up your information.

I use a variety of external drives:

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 3.00 TB Super Speed USB 3.0 [2]
Western Digital My Passport 2.00 TB Super Speed USB 3.0 Portable [1]
Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 128.00 GB Super Speed USB 3.0 thumb drive [1]
OCZ Vertex 3 SATA-III 120 GB MLC NAND FLASH Solid State Drive [1]

I use OpenSuSE 64 bit Tumbleweed and I have VM Ware Workstation 9.0.1 64 bit with Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit in a guest virtual machine.

I have no problems with my external drives. I would recommend Seagate because they are typically less expensive than Western Digital although it really does depend on the specific model that you are looking for.

Do you want a portable or a desktop external drive?

You can get a an external 2 TB desktop hard drive for $100 USD or a 1 TB portable hard drive for $90 USD on Black Friday.

I recommend you get an external portable hard disk drive because you can easily move it among PCs.

Thanks for your suggestions. I think I'll go for a 1T portable hard disk and I'll look at the alternatives you gave me. Once again, thanks for the suggestions.

Fernando