[newmy51]

Toshiba Satellite A105-S4084
XP Media Center 2002 SP2
Dual Core Pentium M T2050 @ 1.60GHz
Toshiba 100GB Internal HDD
1024MB (2x512MB) PC4300 DDR2 SDRAM @ 266MHz
Fantom Titanium II TFD1000U16 7200RPM 1TB External HD

I've owned external HD's for many years, having, until now, been content to backup data by erasing old backups on the external and copying new ones in their place. This has always been time consuming and slow, but never more so than now, in the age of cheap TB drives and hundreds of gigabytes to store and maintain.

That said, I'm looking into incorporating two features into the next external drive I purchase:

One Touch Backup & eSATA.

From what I understand, backup software simply detects any changes made to any pre-designated folders on the internal drive, and modifies the external drive's backup copy to match, thus saving the hassle and inevitable redundancy of copying over backed up files or erasing and re-copying them.

eSATA is totally new to me, but I've spent the past hour or so reading up on it. Since my notebook has no onboard eSATA ports, I would be buying a PCMCIA eSATA adapter for use with the drive. I have some reservations about this given some of the now expired posts elsewhere in the hardware forum which seem to indicate that the transfer speeds for eSATA don't necessarily go leaps and bounds beyond USB 2.0.

Essentially, I have two questions:

1. Are there TB external drives for under $150 which come equipped with eSATA and backup software?

2. Given my configuration, what combination of hardware would provide the greatest speed increase over my current USB setup? Or is eSATA even worth it given the potential bottlenecking and throttling that could take place between the drive, the PCMCIA card and my CPU?

Any and all help is appreciated,

-Danny

[dannyn]

So I will try to address all of your concerns.
I do not know of any TB drives for under $150 with good back up software. If you have a few more dollars to spend this is what I would do.
I would buy this drive...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136172
I have 4 of the Western Digital MyBook line. I love them to death. Excellent externals.
I would also buy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832200007
Acronis is another one of my favorites.
Sorry I can not get you into your budget, I am sure there will be others with suggestion, but those components are very quality.
I do not think that you buying a card to get eSATA is worth it. I would use fire wire of usb before I would do that, but again that's just me.
Danny

[newmy51]

Scratch the backup software. If I want it I can buy something other than the drive's proprietary program. I, personally, have never seen an uglier external than the MyBook series. They're all very bulky and not very conducive to travel. I do like all things WD, however, but you don't necessarily need to purchase WD brand name products to get a WD drive. Fantom and Cavalry are just two manufacturers who tend to exclusively use WD drives.

My eSATA/PCMCIA questions still seem to be unanswered... any advice?

[dannyn]

I do not think that yoiu should eSATA. the reason beaing is the extra cost and not all that much extra performance. If you are using backup software, it should not delte everything that you have, but just update what is on the external. So that would mean that the first backup would be very time consuming, but after that it would not be bad.

Sorry for the recomendation on the MyBook product line. Usually when I am looking at components, I look for quality and reliability, not prettiness.
You never said that you wanted to be able to travel with it.
IMO the Wester Digital MyBook series are the best externals on the market. I have never had a single problem with them.
If it is not a drive that you like, go for something else.
I relally like Acronis though.

[newmy51]

I do not think that yoiu should eSATA. the reason beaing is the extra cost and not all that much extra performance.

dannyn,

I'm looking for a more comprehensive overview of what the specific advantages or disadvantages of eSATA are given my specific system configuration and components, particularly when eSATA is used in conjunction with a two-port PCMCIA adapter. If used correctly with sufficiently compatible equipment, eSATA does make for a significant increase in data transfer rates and general performance. I'm looking for more of something along the lines of tech support rather than a consumer report, hence posting in a forum which, as suggested by its title, advertises exactly that.

[dannyn]

Well, you said:

eSATA is totally new to me, but I've spent the past hour or so reading up on it.

So I thought that you knew what eSATA was and all about it.
So i thought that I would tell you what I would do.
You also said that you wanted to be into under $150.00 and that is unlikely with having to buy the card, the harddrive, and decent backup software.
If you are using good backup software, the first time is the only time that should take a while, after that it should just take a short while for the next backups.
Those are my reasons for you to not go eSATA. I am sorry I did not answer the question exactly the way you wanted.

[Triple6]

If the reason you want to go with a PCMCIA/CardBus card over USB is performance and you want to spend the extra money for that reason then you should look into a ExpressCard54 to SATA card as that'll give you a greater performance. However I do backups from USB drives to internal hard drives at work all the time and it really doesn't take that long, especially if you choose to do incremental backups of changed data. I too don't think the cost is fully justified by the small decrease in time I suspect you'd see.

[dannyn]

Triple6 just summed up very nicely what I was trying to say, but didnt.
That is the exact same way I feel about the issue.
And incremental back ups is the reason why it would not take very long after the first time, I just could not think of the word.
Thanks triple6!

[Noyb]

Maybe build your own ???
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817173040

The only reason I use eSATA is if I want to boot from it

[dannyn]

Noyb, I thought about telling him to do that, but that does not save much money, and Rosewill stuff is not the best.

[Noyb]

I find that the enclosures are much less reliable that the HDs .. so I usually get two.
The other advantage is that I can get to the HD and put it elsewhere.
They quit making my favorite enclosure .. this looks like the next best thing

[Noyb]

Originally Posted by dannyn

and Rosewill stuff is not the best.

I figure they all use the same chips and hardware, so the only difference will be in the case, it's design and the ease or difficulty of installing the HD.
Building your own, has many advantages so I would tolerate some installation difficulty.
I never could understand why it's so difficult to find an external HD, or enclosure, with a front panel power switch

The only backup software I'll ever use is Acronis True Image.
Backing up via USB doesn't seem that much slower to me .. not worth the eSATA trouble.

Just my $0.02 worth

[dannyn]

Noyb:
I agree with everything you have said.
I actually agree with the Rosewill statement also. Sometimes I find the generic brands better than the name brand beacuse they don't come bundled with all of the annoying software, but here, I do not think that there is much of a savings.

I think I would make the choice to skip the eSATA because in this case I just can not see you befitting all that much.

He is also looking for it to be pretty..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136186
If you do not think that drive is good looking, I do not know what to tell you. That is a quality drive that will last you a long time.

[Noyb]

I messed with one of Mybooks those for a friend.
The first thing we had to do was reformat it to NTFS because Acronis didn't like the factory FAT config.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...cts/trueimage/
No power switch anywhere was confusing, and It seemed to have a mind of it's own.
Personally, I'd rather have the external running .. Only when I want to run it.
I have 4 externals connected right now .. and none of them are powered up.
And Newmy said he's never seen an uglier external than the MyBook series.

My first personal exposure to an external HD was a "one toucher" and It messed up my computer.
So it went back to the store and I switched to a Build Your Own where I'm in control.

IMO .. eSATA is only a nice feature if you would ever want to boot from it.
There's a huge advantage of a BYO that has an internal SATA2 .. and you have a desktop Computer that also uses SATA2.

You can clone to the USB external ... then then you have an emergency bootable replacement for the desktop.
You can also move a corrupted HD to the external .. and extract the data from it.

But Newmy also wanted some automated backup software.
Can't help there .. I don't do automation.

I've read that a many TSGers like Cobian Backup ..
http://majorgeeks.com/Cobian_Backup_d4739.html

[newmy51]

Thanks for your input, everyone, but I guess I still haven't been all that specific. Forget any and every aspect of my initial post except for the issue of the feasibility of an eSATA drive used with a PCMCIA (not ExpressCard) two-port adapter on a laptop. What I'm interested in seeing is a side-by-side comparison between eSATA attached via PCMCIA, and eSATA via other connections. The potential speed difference in eSATA, however small, is worth the upgrade to me. If the PCMCIA/eSATA combination is virtually the same as USB or firewire, then the upgrade is of no use and a needless expense. What has still not made it into a single post in this thread is any DATA showing the difference between these combinations. If you have none of your own, perhaps links to comparison studies elsewhere would be useful.