Quote from jumper: RAID 1 has saved me many times. And, its very easy and you don't lose a step. I thought it should have been this way. But, as I said, one drive got physically damaged and the other one logically. I arrived at my office in the morning and the screen was all blue. I have to say that every forum or review of Maxtor, regardless of where you go, has the WORST ratings! They are so cheap and you get what you are paying for. Don't fall for the $49 hard drive deals. You'll regret it. Some of my computer techs won't even carry Maxtor anymore. I also don't use Maxtor anymore. Just by reading the specs on the case you can see that many of them draw LOTS of current. So it comes at no surprise that they burn faster than others. The drives I was referring to were Seagate ST380817AS. I also tried other makers, but in general my perception is that hard drive reliability is getting worster. GS
*Backup* needs to be physically outside the system.... like a separate HD, sitting on a closet shelf.
Most of these "cheap" disk offers are in fact lots rejected by manufacturers because they did not meet stringent acceptance testing by major industrial customers. Such lots consist of perfectly working drives adhering to the paper specifications but not standing up under sample testing designed to bring out operational weaknesses. MTBF figures are so huge as to be meaningless at the time of purchase. The typical user will find out the hard way after some time. Warranty applies but the damage is done to your data in the meantime.
I have not backtested ext HDDs so no review - but I have been using Maxtor 250 GB external for a year now w/o problem - however, I did the research at the beginning and opted for the Acronis True Image instead of the packaged backup software - I set the software for auto backups and do no not use the one touch feature - Acronis is the way to go regardless of the hardware.