Adding an external hard drive

As a backup destination, an external hard is no more or less secure than
an internal hard drive or a network drive.
---
How can you make such a ridiculous statement.
An external hard drive is far more secure than an internal.

Examples:
1. The power can be off the external while running the computer thereby
protecting it from power surges and outages.
2. If the internal is also used for backup and a head crash occurs both
systems are lost---primary and backup. Not so if external backup.
3. In event of fire or theft the external can be at some other location.

As a backup destination, an external hard is no more or less secure than
an internal hard drive or a network drive.
---
How can you make such a ridiculous statement.
An external hard drive is far more secure than an internal.

Examples:
1. The power can be off the external while running the computer thereby
protecting it from power surges and outages.
2. If the internal is also used for backup and a head crash occurs both
systems are lost---primary and backup. Not so if external backup.
3. In event of fire or theft the external can be at some other location.

"Leonard Grey" wrote in message
...
Did you determine the reason why the USB drive was not recognized in
each case? What leads you to believe that the reason for failure was
the fact that it was a USB drive that was being used?


That's an odd question. The failure was due to the drives being USB
drives. The drives worked when removed from the enclosure and installed
as an internal drive. These were not enclosures bought separately with
drives added...they were single units not meant to be opened, types like
the W-D MyBook.
Much USB troubleshooting was done in each case (removing UpperFilters,
LowerFilters, and so forth), but all other USB drives and peripherals
worked fine, so it seems the problem was with the USB bridge in the
enclosure in these instances.


A USB hard drive is little more than a regular internal hard drive
with a USB adapter. In fact, you can make your own external hard drive
from a regular internal hard drive and an enclosure.

Well aware of that.


As a backup destination, an external hard is no more or less secure
than an internal hard drive or a network drive.

Depends on what you mean by secure. External is more secure in that you
can take it off-site....but that also makes it LESS secure, if someone
unauthorised takes it off-site. ;-)
External drives are more prone to run hot than internal drives, harder
to monitor using S.M.A.R.T. tools, and easier to damage due to droppage
and rough handling, potentially making an external drive a much less
secure backup. I've spent enough time helping people try to recover
data from external drives that are no longer recognized, to be wary of
them as a sole backup plan. YMMV.


On 12/15/2009 11:42 PM, glee wrote:
Just an aside....I have assisted a number of people who used an
external
USB hard drive for backup and then suddenly could not get the USB
drive
recognized by any computer. In some cases, the drive had to be
removed
from the enclosure (not always easy to do) and installed as an
internal
drive to access the data again. In other cases, the data was just
gone.
As a result, I am leery of using USB hard drives for my only backup.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009
A+
http://dts-l.net/