Backup Drives – How Reliable are They?

You have gone and purchased a  Backup drive such as a Western Digital My Book Essential and backed up all your important data or you have had to transfer data from your computer’s hard drive  because it has become too full. You now feel the warm glow of securing your data however unfortunately there is still quite some risk.

This  risk falls in 2 categories;

1 How good is the warranty on the hard drive of your backup hard drive.

2 How secure is the power to the backup drive.

The larger 3.5 Hard Drives require there own AC to DC adapter and these often can be the weak link. These power adapters convert your outlet power from 240 Volts AC to 12V DC. These devices rarely have anti-surge or over voltage protection which nearly all modern motherboards and desktop power supplies do provide thus making inernal hard drives secure from these problems.  The picture below is of a typical external hard drive

The 2 pictures below are of the electronics af a normal hard drive after power damage most likely from over voltage or a power surge. It always makes sense to protect your valuable data with a power suge protector.

It;s very clear that your important should be protected from such outcomes and a good power surge device should be used in conjunction with your external hard drive.

 

The second risk is how good are the actual drives in the backup enclosure. As blogged previously both Western Digital and Seagate have decreased their warranties on hard drives as the PC market shrinks. This means in all likelihood the backup  had drive you are using is not the best to secure your important personal and business data.

You can fix this by building your own backup hard drive and using enterprise standard hard drives that are built to higher specifications and come with a 5 year warranty. Seagate , Western Digital & Hitachi all build these drives but do no tend to use them in backup drives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we look at the 2 drives above the green Western Digital comes with a 2 year warranty and is the sort of drive found in most commonly found Western Digital MY Book & My essentials external hard drives.. The drive on the right is an enterprise drive with a 5 year warranty.