USB Backup devices
Almost every USB storage device can be turned into a USB backup device, since the backup procedure is performed by backup software and the USB device will only be used to store the created backups. There are several things to keep in mind when selecting a USB device to store backups, which you should ask yourself before deciding to use one or another.
- How much storage space do you need?
- How ofter will you be updating your backups?
- Do you need it portable or static?
- Will it be used in places where there’s no power outlet?
The answers to these questions will give you the right USB device to use. These are the features and disadvantages of each one:
USB Drives (also known as pen drives): Low storage capacity, most drives will hold 1-16 Gb only. As they are solid state, data access can be slower and the number of writes and rewrites is limited. Cheap pen drives aren’t too reliable as they can suddenly fail messing up the entire filesystem. The good thing is that they’re small, they are cheap and they don’t need any external power supply so they work perfectly on laptop computers.
USB external hard drives: Storage capacity up to 1 Tb, most of them won’t require any external power supply and will take power from the USB port. The portability of these drives makes them prone to shocks which sooner or later lead to failure.
USB cases with regular IDE or SATA hard disk drives: These are cases that will fit an IDE or SATA hard drive in them, so you can chose the size of the hard drive. Most of them will need an external power supply so they’re not suitable to use on the go. If handled properly, these are the most reliable external storage devices.
Some USB external hard drives will include their own backup utility, sometimes with a “one touch” switch (by pressing a button in the hard drive case, the backup process starts automatically), however that’s not really needed as you can always start the backup from your operating system.
Most USB storage devices will be seen by the host computer as an additional drive, which you can use to create mirror backups directly. If you’re looking into using one of these devices with a backup program, you won’t have any problems, as most backup softwares allow you to select a destination path to save your backups in another drive. However USB devices aren’t sutied for network environments nor for multi-user backups, as there’s close to no security other than -in some cases- basic encryption of the backup files.