MyBook 6TB vs 3x portable 2TB for backups...

[orlando1974]

Hi, I was just about to purchase a WD MyBook 6TB drive as my offsite backup solution to my desktop PC, which contains a 2TB drive and a 4TB drive.

However, I realized that for the same price I can purchase three units of a 2TB portable drive (like the Seagate Backup Slim), which is currently on sale fo 89$CDN.

Although a 6TB sounds convenient (set it to backup and let it do its thing), I'm not really a fan of physically large backup drives, especially when they require an AC outlet for power. Buying three portable drives would mean its easier to carry back and forth when I do my offsite backup update (these are tiny and dont require a power outlet). And if the day ever comes that I use them for every day use instead of just once a month backup update, then they will be more convenient than the larger WD My Book.

I am however curious in terms of 2 things..

1). Would the speeds be comparable? (i dont know what drives are in either of these units)
2). Will it be complicated to backup a 4TB to two 2TB drives? Has anyone ever done it? I'm guessing you have to find an easy cutoff point...

Thoughts from the community please...

 

[CountMike]

First you have to make your mind up if portability or reliability are primary concerns. Easily portable USB drives (those without extra power), 2.5" drives are more susceptible to damage and not as reliable as 3.5" used in NAS or some other mass storage device. On the speed question, USB3 portables are generally pretty fast, comparable to drives with SATA connections but not all computers have it. I prefer more drives as opposed to large ones because of security, you loose less in case of trouble but is more expensive way.
As for ease of backup, that depends of SW you use for it and what you're backing up.

 

[orlando1974]

Thanks Count Mike! So far Im still leaning towards 3x 2TB. All options proposed were USB 3. I just wondered if the inner drive (WD My Book 6TB, Seagate Backup Slim) were both 5400RPMs...

As for SW used, I like FreeFileSync. I'm guessing my strategy would be to pick half the folders of my 4TB drive to send to one Seagate Slim, and the other half to the other Seagate Slim. You know, pick a cutoff point and always do it that way.

Is this how you would do it, or at least think this is a smart approach?

 

[pparks1]

One thing nice about multiple drives is that you can keep some of them offsite. But in your case, you will need the multiple backup drives to backup your actual data, so only a portion of your data would be kept off site.

 

[CountMike]

Thanks Count Mike! So far Im still leaning towards 3x 2TB. All options proposed were USB 3. I just wondered if the inner drive (WD My Book 6TB, Seagate Backup Slim) were both 5400RPMs...

As for SW used, I like FreeFileSync. I'm guessing my strategy would be to pick half the folders of my 4TB drive to send to one Seagate Slim, and the other half to the other Seagate Slim. You know, pick a cutoff point and always do it that way.

Is this how you would do it, or at least think this is a smart approach?

I do everything manually. I have my data divided in folders, music, movies, documents, pictures etc. For backup also divided by groups, Multimedia, Documents, graphics, programs etc. when I want to backup some of the latest works I plug corresponding HDD to computer using one USB - SATA adapter and just copy relevant folders to it allowing files to be overwritten so there's always newest version of them. OS drive I just make backup of using Macrium Reflect and keep only first version as windows was installed and the last version as it is now. I make sure that everything is clean and trouble free just before making that backup. In the worst case scenario I'm no more than 15 minutes to half an hour away from working system. It may be some more work initially but saves time in the long run.
Of course this is for home system but most important (irreplaceable) stuff is backed up twice. Some things were backed up on DVDs and I keep them in dark, dry place but don't do it any more since I collected about 10 HDDs of various sizes also kept in a safe place.