Can it hurt an EHD

[LenaGardner]

to erase all the stuff on it and resave everything, over and over? I have lost track of what I have backed up and what I don't....honestly at this point I should probably just clear the whole thing off and start over. Thing is I've done that a few times over the last 6 months and I want to be sure that won't hurt it. I treat that little machine like it's one of my children (don't let anyone touch it, always safely remove hdwre, etc...) I'm SO paranoid that it is going to fail because I've heard all the horror stories...so I don't want to do anything else to tick off the EHD gods.

[SeattleSheri]

Why don't you just merge stuff vs. erasing and starting over? It probably won't hurt it to erase it, but if you're concerned, that is an alternative. I had an EHD failure after only having it for 4-5 weeks, so I'm super paranoid. I only turn my on once a month to make transfers and I eject it by using the "remove hardware" function. I didn't realize you weren't supposed to just unplug those suckers until I was told by the manufacturer that it is really bad.

[rachaelsscraps]

I personally won't ever get an EHD- I always back up my photos onto 2 different DVD discs and the kits I've purchased onto a DVD disc-
but I really feel like I don't want to waste any money on an EHD because I've heard about them crashing A LOT! As a store owner, I feel like I'm constantly resetting my customers orders who have had EHD crashes!! I get at least 10 order reset requests a week! That's way too high a number to see and makes me never want an EHD!

[Paula]

I have erased my EHD before and restored what I wanted to keep from my backup DVDs. I don't see anything wrong with it. Can you reformat your EHD before you save things over there again?

[Emmy]

It's not different than doing a reinstall on your computer or erasing and resaving stuff there. I don't think it's a big deal. You are using your EHD as a backup and not sole source of saving your stuff, right?

[mturnidge]

Did your EHD not come with software that will automatically backup new stuff?

[LenaGardner]

It's not different than doing a reinstall on your computer or erasing and resaving stuff there. I don't think it's a big deal. You are using your EHD as a backup and not sole source of saving your stuff, right?


I'm glad to know it is the same as me deleting and saving things on my computer. It is purely for backup, I have everything saved on my laptop as well :)

[LenaGardner]

Did your EHD not come with software that will automatically backup new stuff?

No, I'm not even sure I understand what you mean.

The method I have works if I don't get lazy. When I download a new kit or save a layout, I just duplicate them into a folder (my to be backed up folder) as well as where they go and about once a week I transfer just those things over. But I recently got really lazy and didn't backup in 2 months...and I stopped saving a copy of things in my "to be backed up" folder.

Tabatha's boyfriend is a computer tech and literally had like 6 Toshiba EHD's laying around, and he gave me one when Mozy crapped out on me last winter. So it didn't come with anything, just the EHD and a cord :) And a promise of a peanut butter pie that I never have made him. ;)

I'm sure he would know the answer to my question but he's unavailable at the moment so I figured I'd ask you girls :)

[mturnidge]

No, I'm not even sure I understand what you mean.



My EHD came with software. Everyday it does a backup and automatically detects and backs up new and modified files. I don't have to manually backup stuff myself. Love it. Does that make sense?

[newfiemountiewife]

My EHD came with that software, I have a Seagate, but I don't use it.

I have a folder called "To back up" where I copy my new kits into. I transfer them every Sunday to my EHD.

[melmos75]

Just wanted to add - I think that I read it from someone on here - do not transfer really large amounts of stuff at one time. Transferring too much at one time will cause it to crash.

[ColleenSwerb]

Personally, that would make me nervous, especially if you're cleared it all out multiple times in the last few months. I don't know if it's possible to defrag an EHD?

I would do it the old fashioned drag and drop and check for duplicates, long and hard way. But that's just me. And there may very well be no reason for my insecurity, lol.

[Joan]

Just wanted to add - I think that I read it from someone on here - do not transfer really large amounts of stuff at one time. Transferring too much at one time will cause it to crash.Yes, I think it was Sharon who said her tech guy told her not to transfer more than 5GB at once.

[Emmy]

Lena - how did mozy crap out on you? I just started using them and I'm all backed up, but I'm curious - did you have problems?

[LenaGardner]

Lena - how did mozy crap out on you? I just started using them and I'm all backed up, but I'm curious - did you have problems?


Well I paid for it for three months and I only got 11 gigs transferred. I went over and over with every troubleshooting they could recommend. Their tech support and I became *like this*. But they never could figure out why my backups stopped working. All of a sudden, the fastest progress I could get was 0.3% on anything. We tried changing my backup times, manual backups, playing with the throttle, everything...and nothing ever helped. Finally I got fed up and cancelled it. I was all on board with it taking a few weeks but it had been 3 months.

[LenaGardner]

My EHD came with software. Everyday it does a backup and automatically detects and backs up new and modified files. I don't have to manually backup stuff myself. Love it. Does that make sense?

It makes sense, but mine didn't come with that since it was secondhand.

[Sharon Kay]

Yes, I think it was Sharon who said her tech guy told her not to transfer more than 5GB at once.

Yep that was me. 2 ehd failed within days of each other. They believe it was because I transferred large amounts of data at a time. They told me not to transfer more than 5GB at once. They also told me to defrag it regularly.

Mozy is slower than YKW...I get a lot of "could not connect to server"...and I bought a year's worth of service...but am not impressed with it's slow upload speeds (if it will even upload at all).

[Shawna]

I currently have Mozy and never had any problems that their CS couldn't resolve but another backup service I've heard nothing but good things about (from a lot of photographers) is BackBlaze (https://www.backblaze.com/index8.html). It is unlimited backup of multiple computers & EHD's for just $5/mo, I'm considering trying it out and possibly switching since we'd be able to backup my desktop and the laptop.