The external HD would be my recommendation as well.  I think it should be
pointed out, however, that you can get the enclosures in a form that runs
off the parallel port as well.  They are a little slower because the
transfer rate is less.  I don't know about the cost differential, but I
thought it worth mentioning.

Also, I would consider purchasing an imaging program like Ghost or
Powerquest Disk Image, and image your system rather than do a straight
backup.  It will work faster, and should you need to do a full restore, it
will be simpler.  It will also take up less space on the external drive,
leaving more room for extra data.

Hope this helps

Kyle

From: "Bob Wright" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2000 6:17 AM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Laptop Backup Options


> At 08:42 AM 05/31/2000 , you wrote:
> >I have a Micron TransPort NX with a Micron docking station that is
equipped
> >for USB. What would be a good backup solution for this? It has the LS120
> >drive in it but that would take too many disks and time for the 5+ gig
hard
> >drive. Anyone have any suggestions?
>
>
> You can purchase an IDE/ATA hard drive and an external USB drive
> enclosure, using a 8gig drive.  The drives are currently around $100
> and the enclosure will cost about $85.  Basically, you will have an
> external hard drive for backup purposes that will cost you about $200.
> This external drive can be any size that is currently available on the
> market...  so you can not only use it for a backup of your notebook,
> but also for additional storage for files and data.
>
> You can go with a traditional solution like an Iomega Jazz drive.  They
> cost in the neighborhood of $350, hold up to 2gigs on a single disk.  You
> will need the USB adaptor for this drive, which will cost around $75
> extra.  The other issue is that cost of the 2gig disks, that cost nearly
> $120 each.  With buying two disks this solution would cost you around
> $665...  that is a bit expensive for most people.
>     http://www.iomega.com
>
> Yet another  option would be an USB external CD-RW drive.  This
> would require numerous disks, upwards of 10 CDs to backup your
> system.  The cost on this with 10 disks would run about $350 or so.
>
> Then there are the backup tape options, one of the better products I
> have seen for USB is the Onstream USB backup tape system:
>     http://www.onstream.com/desktop/usb30_e.html
> These drives are 15gig/30gig compressed and one tape should do the
> job.  They advertise the drives to run at about 3gigabyte an hour, so
> understand a backup can take from 2 to 4 hours to complete.
> This will cost you around $350 or so for the drive and the tapes cost
> about $50 a piece.
>
> There are other options, but I would recommend using an external hard
> drive in a USB enclosure.   It will be the fastest and cheapest solution.
>
>       Bob Wright

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