External hard drive for backup.

[Capt. Eduardo del Mango]

'Ello!

My backup procedures are really poor. The only place anything's backed up is on a USB drive that's permanently connected to the PC, so both sets of data are vulnerable to the same stuff. I'm going to grab an external USB drive to back stuff up on and then store. So...

1) Is that a good idea - having a backup hard drive sat not spinning? Will it be more prone to problems stored than if it was plugged in?

2) If it's OK, does anyone have any suggestions for a particular one to go for?

Danke,

-Capt. Eduardo del Mango

[Rii]

2.5" drives generally have better shock tolerances if that's a factor. Plus the whole convenience thing.

[zookeeper]

I've been using one of these (http://ncix.com/products/?sku=29859&vpn=ST0005U&manufacture=Thermaltake) for the past few years with no problems. Just buy as many drives as you want and swap them in/out.

[Capt. Eduardo del Mango]

Thanks guys. That's pretty sweet, Zookeeper - think I'll go for that.

[Odeon]

Yep, a nice SATA dock is a life-saver for a number of reasons, including data backups and making backup system images.