On a scale from 1to10, I’m a strong believer in redundancy.

It keeps you alive when you’re setting rock climbing anchors, and it’s extremely valuable when it comes to digitally stored data. I have 2 hard drives inside my PC. The two are mirrored (RAID 1 – see the Wikipedia link above).  Briefly, what this means is that every time I create a file or add a new program on my computer, that data is stored to both HDDs.  Both of the drives in my PC reflect the exact same data (hence the term “mirror.”)  This protects me against mechanical failure (i.e. one hard drive melting down.)  It does not protect against something like, say, a virus or worm.  This is because if it affects one drive, it will also affect the other.   The two are exact mirrors of one another, and reflect the exact same operating system, data, software, etc. So if I fubar one (by installing a corrupt file or a virus) both will be messed up.  But, if one of the disks stops turning, the other one can remain active and continue to run the computer.  This is a type of redundancy which I am very fond of.

Now, if the computer itself catches fire, or if I do somehow install a virus, the redundancy in the RAID is no protection at all.  It’s strictly a backup against mechanical failure of a single drive.   That’s why I also use an  external HDD to store independent backups of important data.  Again, redundancy.  Get it?

Spencer Boerup, a wedding photographer in Phoenix, AZ has a nice post with exhaustive detail on his beliefs in redundancy, and the steps he uses.  If you’ve got 10 minutes, it’s a good read.

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That might be a little confusing – let me back up.  I own an XBOX 360.  In my opinion, it’s one of (if not the) very best home media devices ever made.  I enjoy playing video games, but the XBOX Live has a lot of cool functions, including the very best implementation of Netflix I’ve ever see (blows the TIVO interface out of the water.)  And one of the other things it lets you do is plug in external media.

Basically, here’s the deal.  I rip all of my movies and TV series (from The Big Lebowski to Entourage) into digital files, generally MPEG 4 files (either .MP4 to .M4V) with AAC audio encoding.  To do this I use either DVD Fab Platinum (a paid software available only for PC) or Handbrake (a free software that works best on the Mac, though it does have a PC version.) I then store these files in multiple locations (a future post on redundancy will elaborate on this point.)  One of those locations is a Maxtor OneTouch HDD (pictured right) – I bought a 750 GB drive at Costco a while back.  I transfer ripped movies and shows, and plug it into my XBOX.  This gives me a backup of those files, and a medium to deliver them to my big screen.  The files, ripped into 720p quality, play beautifully on my plasma.  I have a large library of content, accessible through an awesome UI, and totally independent of things like an Internet connection or a solid WiFi signal.

Don’t get me wrong.  I still watch DVDs.  And I still stream shows through Netflix (30 Rock in HD is awesome.)  But I am a hoarder (OK not that bad), and I like having the files themselves, locally, and the XBOX is perfect delivery device for watching those local shows.  Now I can see each and every episode of Arrested Development as often as I like, on the big screen, right off my HDD.  That makes me happy.  10 happy.

I’m a big fan of using an external HDD as both a storage device and a delivery mechanism.  You’ll need to rip your DVD collection, but it’s satisfying to have it at your fingertips and not have to fuddle with disks.  Yeah, I said fuddle.  Sue me.

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I’m a strong believer in the KISS principal: keep it simple, stupid. There’s lots of complex and confusing ways to backup your data, including a Network-attached storage (NAS) box, a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID), and beyond.  The deeper you dig into these solutions, the more complex they become. Do you want a RAID 0, a RAID 1, a RAID 10…? Do you want to mirror your drives, or stripe them? Does any of this make sense?

If you’re like 95% of the world, the answer is no, it does not make sense.  It is most certainly not simple.  Well, you know what is simple?  An external hard drive.  That’s what.

An external hard drive is precisely what it sounds like.  It’s a hard disk drive (HDD) that sits outside your computer case.  Generally they have a plastic or metal enclosure, and connect to your computer via USB cable (or sometime Firewire.)  Larger capacity HDD’s will generally also have a power source.  Smaller capacity (under 250 GB) can frequently run off power drawn from the USB port.  Many different storage and CE (consumer electronics) companies make these drives, including Seagate, Western Digital, HItachi, Buffalo, and Simple Tech and many others.

The beauty of the external HDD is the guiding light behind the title of this post.  Its simplicity.  You plug the drive into your computer, and boom another hard drive appears on your desktop.  You can drag files onto it, or drag them off.  That’s it.  If you have a bunch of photos, music, movie files, or work documents you can make a quick, simple backup of all that data with just a click and a drag.  You can get a high quality drive for around (or under) $100 depending on the features you’re looking for and the capacity you need.

I have several of these devices that I use for a variety of purposes – I will touch on those here, and may expand upon them in future posts.  One drive that I use specifically for backup is the FreeAgent XTreme from Seagate. It has both USB and Firewire ports for connecting to your PC or Mac, and a separate power supply.  The Freeagents are (in my opinion) some of the best looking drives on the market, which makes some level of difference if you’re keeping it on your desk all the time.  It looks like a neat gizmo with artistic flair, rather than a janky box.  I have an Extreme in 1 TB capacity, and I use it to backup my data on a regular basis.  Most storage companies offer a software suite to do “automatic backups” which sync your data and update the external drive with only new files, or files that have changed.  This can be really handy, and Seagate’s works as advertised.  The other option is to manually drag over new files from time to time, or to overwrite old files by simply dragging the whole folder (with new additions) over to the external.  Salt to taste.

Personally, I do not backup every file, only those that are most important to me.  This includes some older documents, my photos, my music, and my movies.  And my books.  That’s right, I listen to audio books, ripped from CD into MP3 format.  Running sprints or swimming to the spoken word is good for you.

I also have a Maxtor 750 GB external HDD.  This one is connected to my XBOX 360.  I will elaborate on this in a separate post.  Lastly, I have a Seagate Freeagent Desk which I use with my Mac.  Again, watch for an upcoming post for more details.

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