Backup Strategy and External HDD Resilience

October 22, 2006 1:34 PM

Hello! I have a backup strategy, which I think is okay but I would like some advice on whether my use of the external hdd is sensible. A little

So I backup important data to iBackup (no affiliation - but I do recommend them) on a nightly basis using an automated job. Works a treat.

I also backup on a weekly automated basis to my external hard drive so I have a reasonably recent backup should my internet connection fail / iBackup disappears etc. For this, I power on the hdd enclosure sometime Sunday (whenever I remember to or am prompted by the scheduler) and once I see the job has completed, I use the tasktray 'Safely remove hardware' facility to remove the hdd from Windows before powering the enclosure down.

I'm happy with the routine and the software, so I guess the question is whether I am shortening the life of the hard drive by powering up and powering down once a week - should I just leave the hdd enclosure on permanently? Also, what would happen if I didn't use the 'Safely remove hardware' facility - what could I damage by just powering down?

For info, I am using a fully-patched WinXP SP2 with a Seagate Barracuda 200GB IDE drive inside a standard USB 2.0 enclosure.

Many thanks in advance for the words of wisdom, HiveMind!

posted by mooders to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I guess the question is whether I am shortening the life of the hard drive by powering up and powering down once a week

There are probably people doing this every day or more often. If you unplug the enclosure from the computer and wall, thereby reducing the risk from power surges, I bet you would actually decrease the risk of data loss compared to leaving it plugged in and turned on all the time. But I really wouldn't worry about it either way (you do have your stuff on a quality surge protector, right?)

Also, what would happen if I didn't use the 'Safely remove hardware' facility - what could I damage by just powering down?

You can use devcon to "safely remove" the hard drive when your job is done if you want.

You are unlikely to physically damage your drive by not doing so. The danger is that some data will still be cached and not written to disk, or that you will have left a file on the drive open. So data loss possible, yes. Physical damage, no.
posted by grouse at 1:52 PM on October 22, 2006

Disconnecting is definitely safer. What if you get a virus that deletes all your data and everything on your drives? You'd lose your backup and defeat the whole point.

In fact, the safest solution would be to take the drive offsite, to the office or your car. That way a house fire or theft wouldn't ruin your redundant backup.
posted by smackfu at 2:08 PM on October 22, 2006

Stop worrying. Get another enclosure and another hard drive. Alternate backups. Keep each in a different location. Your risk of catastrophic data loss has been reduced by an order of magnitude.
posted by meehawl at 2:24 PM on October 22, 2006

I also backup to an external HDD, and I'm in the habit of physically unplugging the drive from both the PC and from the power source when the backup is complete. The main reason for this is because I've known several people who've had their PCs or other equipment damaged when it was plugged in during a power surge, thunder storm, lightning strike, or similar. If my PC were fried, I'd prefer that my backup not be fried at the same time. It's never occured to me to worry if I'm shortening the lifespan of the drive. I also use an online backup service, so I assume that as long as my online backup and local backup don't both fail at the same time, I should be ok. I like meehawl's idea though. Another drive couldn't hurt, and they're pretty cheap nowadays.
posted by Vorteks at 3:48 PM on October 22, 2006

The backup policy I've settled on for the school server I'm responsible for uses three external drives. One is a 100GB 3.5" drive that gets rolling daily backups made on it, so I can recover anything that got corrupted or inadvertently or maliciously deleted over the last month or so. That one is shared read-only on the network, always connected and always on.

The other two are 55GB 2.5" drives that just get today's backup made on them; every afternoon before leaving, a staff member swaps those over and takes one home. That lets us recover from onsite disaster (fire, flood or hardware failure) should the need arise.

Power-cycling your external drive once a week should be no problem at all. I'd expect it to last well into obsolescence.
posted by flabdablet at 8:29 PM on October 22, 2006