Buying a backup hard drive (and using it)

Murago

I'm not good when it comes to hardware. I'm going to buy either

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822324005

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136324

Do you think these are good deals? I really don't want to spend the extra 20 or 30 for a terrabyte b/c i simply won't use it. I've had my e machine for over 3 years, and it just seems like the thing will crap out on me soon, so it feels like its a good time to back it up.

Here's the thing, I don't want to pull a gabe and just set it on top of my computer and think that that's all i have to do. I know i have to do something. WTF am i supposed to do? Do a plug a cable into a port? Do i execute an action using some command?

Help me H/A forum, you're my only hope!

matt has a problem

At the easiest, you'll plug the drive in using USB/Firewire/esata (you have a 3 year old emachine so I'd assume USB), it will be recognized and auto-launch its configuration software. At the hardest you'll plug it in, put a CD in your drive, and it will auto-launch its configuration software.

As for which to buy, figure out how much you're willing to spend and then read every review on it you can find. Failure rates vary greatly between different manufacturers and enclosures.

Also, how much stuff do you have to back up? You may be better off just buying a spindle of DVD-R's for $20 or $30.

Crashtard

First, if you've had an emachine that didn't die after turning it on, grats! Second, like matt said, if it's not more than a couple gig or stuff just buy cd's and burn it onto those. If you do need a backup drive, those look fine. They'll just hook up to your USB port and your computer will give them a drive letter like anything else. One thing you might consider is buying a USB jump drive on ebay. I got a 16GB one for like 20 bucks, and it's great.

Djeet

Are you using Windows XP? If so I'd leave the drive always plugged in and setup a recurring backup job. You could use the inbuilt Windows application (NTBackup) or buy some 3rd party solution, or the drive may come with some software that will do it. If you're doing this as insurance against a crash, make sure you've gone through the data recovery procedure at least once to see how it works.

Manual backups will work too, and are useful provided you actually do it on any regular basis.