Hi,
I would like everyone’s opinion on how reliable this MBL is ?
I am planning to move all my backup of photos, business documents, family videos, bought digital contents, worth 10 years++ to my newly purchased MBL and store it for a long time there. Besides storing these, I will still use this MBL daily for my movie streaming needs.
A bit worried though for it’s long term reliability, had previous bad experience with an 500gb external usb wd passport drive that suddenly went death after a few reformats. And this MBL drive particularly has different system with most external hard drive that most of us usually buy (which the data is actually recoverable should things happen).
Opinion?
USB hard drives are just that, an external hard drive, no OS whatsoever. A NAS (Network Access Storage) has an OS which will allow it to connect to the network as well as to define shares, users, misc settings.
Reliability, well, it is just like any other hard drive. But this is just hardware, do not forget. There are two parts to a NAS: hardware and software
Personally, have data worth around 15 years on it. With sensitive data encrypted on a file created by Truecrypt. I have no issues with IOS, android and Windows systems.
And last, just want to make sure you understand what a backup is, as many people confuse the term:
backups are a secondary copy of data, kept on hand to replace the original item
backup is software base, and it implies you will have 2 or more copies of the same files at different hardware.
Just like Shabuboy said. Don’t store your only copy on it, use it for backup.
I have had one for over 2 years without a problem, but nothing says that it won’t die tomorrow.
If you must store all your data in one place, then get something like the My Book Live Duo and set it to Maximum Protection. At least then if one of the drives dies the other one will still have your data.
as Chaos311 said, that is another option, a NAS with more than one hard drive. However, that would be hardware redundancy, still is not a backup. Just want to make sure you understand the differences.
Here is a good article:
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-33088_39-57556308/digital-storage-basics-part-3-backup-vs-redundancy/
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The thing is, I hated redundancy so much. Of thousands of my multiple types of files, I have a hard time remember which is which, where to store new data, data edit, and so on…
So from the beginning time of computer in my life, I have always strived to keep one data, at one place, whereever it is.
This means I am trying to imply the MBL as my only data storage, in case it fails easily, maybe I would cry for days… lol
Are there such things as “data recovery” in MBL system ?
It’s good if you run a Windows OS, but painfully slow if you use a Mac.
It really sounds like you should consider the Duo, or a similar product.
The Duo can be set to automatically create a copy for you, and you never see it. It contains two hard drives, and one will be made the mirror image of the other. So if one drive ever crashes the other one still has your data.
You will still only see 1 copy of your files though. The other copy is being maintained by the drive its self.
Yes, there is data recovery availabe, but it is expensive. Also, you are not guarenteed that all your data will be recovered. If it is a physical failure the drive platters might be damaged and the data on them will be gone forever.
SultanBrunei,
I think you are confuse on the terminology, I strongly recommend some reading to understand it better before you make a final decision. Please check the link I provided earlier.
But will attempt a quick explanation:
redundancy: There is hardware and software. The MBL DUO would be hardware, while having copies of the same files at different devices/drives is software. This can also be referred as sync/mirror sometimes.
Backup: This is software, now a true backup app, you will NOT see the list of files containined on the backup file. Unless you restore, which then you will open the backup file and select the files to restore.
my .02 cents, keep the files on whatever PC you want, then run a backup which will place the backup file on the MBL.
You would avoid confusion with the actual files.
All of the options to backup and/or sync your data are not dificult at all, once you get the hand of it.
BTW, data recovery as mentioned earlier, it is expensive and NOT guarantee 100%.
