Try this site for assistance in booting to USB dvices: http://www.bootdisk.com/usb.htm I have used it and it worked fine.
mktman, I'm leaning towards the slimbox setups as canyonman00 suggested. I wasn't aware that I can also get power from a USB2.0 port (less clutter). Chinook
Hi All, I use an external Maxtor 250GB "Personal Storage" with usb-2. This works very well. I recommend Powerquest v2i which makes scheduled base and incremental backups. Compared to Norton Ghoast I found v2i much more userfriendly and much more efficient. v2i uses a quick proprietary technique for incrementals. The v2i also allows you to boot from CD in order to restore a backed up image on HD. I opted for this solution rather than raid because of security. I thought that the likelihood of catastrophic loss due to fire, theft, or powersupply mishap was not averted by raid systems. What I now would stand to lose with my simple HD setup is negligeable especially with the v2i backups. I remove my external drive physically and store it in a location well distinct from the computer room. (Don't drop it though!) One more point, I opted for a 5400rpm unit. Besides lower cost, these are fast enough under usb-2 for my purpose. My instinctive feeling would rate these as more reliable than higher rpm's. I learned from long ago not to pay too much attention to manufacturer's blurbs on mtbf. I did not look into the usb-2 boot question as raised by nitro. As I can reboot from the v2i CD, I quickly restore the image on HD first. (I could even do this over a network or by booting from a floppy.) nononsense
Best solution: Setup a secure wireless network. Buy a CHEAP used PC and put it in your neighbors home. Connect it to a wireless hub. Use timed backup software to shoot your data over the secure wireless network to an encrypted, mounted, harddrive on the PC at your friends house. If your PC is stolen or your house burns down...your golden. peace axeman
Good suggestion axeman. In my case however I keep about 50Gbytes worth of HD under backup. I have thought about your solution but I would have to still bring in my Powerquest v2i to handle this incrementally in going to my neighbor's home. v2i can do its job over network links equally well. However, having the extra 250Gbytes on line of the external drive comes in very handy whenever I have to do some major disk reorganization jobs. nononsense
"...but I would have to still bring in my Powerquest v2i to handle this incrementally in going to my neighbor's home." Yes. "However, having the extra 250Gbytes on line of the external drive comes in very handy whenever I have to do some major disk reorganization jobs." It would still be there. You would just have a network mounted drive. Go with the 802.11g stuff and your running at 54mb/s. Which is fast enough for most stuff. Only half as slow as fast ethernet. peace axeman
Canyonman00, Will this work with Win XP Pro and USB 2.0 external drive? Are you using win XP? Thanks, Chinook