Data Backup Plan: 1 External Hard Drive

There are many methods you can use to backup your data. In this post I will look at one of the most common methods: using an external hard drive. What makes this method so popular is that external hard drives provide you with a large amount of disk space for a reasonable price. Also, hard drives are durable when it comes to the amount of times you can read and write data to it, and they are fairly fast.

The question is, does a single external hard drive make a good backup plan?

The External Hard Drive

I have two external hard drives: a 250 GB and a 2 TB. I have had my 250 GB for many years, and it has served me well. There is nothing wrong with the drive, and it continues to work without problems. I bought the 2 TB drive when I outgrew the 250 GB. I currently backup over 160 GB of data, and I have other data on top of that that pushed the disk space limit of the smaller drive.

I find external drives to be cheap for the amount of storage space you get, and easy to setup and use - you simply plug it into your computer and a new drive is automatically created.

I recommend that if you are serious about backing and protecting your data, you should invest in an external hard drive. I also recommend that you also look at supplementing your backup plan with another media type as well. While an external hard drive is a great investment, using it alone in your plan has its drawbacks.

Let's look at aspects of this plan.

Backup Plan Results

Item	Rating
Cost	4 - This is a fairly cheap backup method, especially when you consider the price per storage space.
Setup	5 - The setup is very easy. You simply connect the external hard drive and power it up. The operating system should automatically detect the drive and configure a drive letter for it.
Disk Storage Space	5 - You aren't going to find a backup solution that can store as much data. We are talking terabytes here.
Redundancy	1 - Using a single external hard drive means there is no redundant data, since all the data is store in only one location. This is serious flaw with this plan.
Media Durability	3 - Hard drives are built to constantly read and write data. Being high-precision instruments, however, makes them vulnerable to static electricty and power outages.
Offsite Backup	2 - While you can disconnect and carry an external hard drive to another location, it isn't easy to do and they require more storage space than an optical disc or USB flash drive.

While an external hard drive is a great investment, it shouldn't be the only option in your backup plan. The lack of redundant data and offsite capability are seriously issues than need to be addressed.