‘One Touch’ Means Back it Up and Take it with you

For many, to say that data back-up and portability has evolved means it has bridged the gap from burdensome chore to necessary evil.

While many options abound, back-up for many mean loading up floppies with select files, or burning less than 800 megabytes of content to a CD-ROM. Thumb drives can hold up to a gigabyte of data, and DVDs hold up to several gigs.

But with photographs, music and large documents for work, large format drives with capacities measured in hundreds of gigabytes allow users to take a snapshot of their hard drive, files and data. This simplifies security for disaster recovery, internal hard drive failure or computer theft.

With prices dropping below $200 for upward of 300 gigabytes, portable drives are ideal for large volume storage – at a price small businesses and consumers can afford.

One such model is the Maxtor OneTouch external Hard Drive. The Windows XP operating system immediately recognizes the drive and created a destination on his PC. After a simple installation, the unit lies in wait for its button to be pushed. With 250 gigs accessible through FireWire or USB 2.0, just as the name says, one touch sets an automatic back-up in action.

Simplicity is key with the Maxtor. After a small business owner or home officer completes a big project or is ready to call it a day, one touch and all the files are backed up. And with plug-and-play simplicity, it can be removed and connected to another computer (assuming you take the power adapter and a FireWire or USB cable with you). Compact size – the unit measures 8 x 2 x 5 inches – translates to true portability.

Portable hard drives work well for laptop users with no space to install a second drive, and for computer users unfamiliar or uncomfortable with opening their PC and installing an internal drive. With prices dropping, more people are considering harddrives as back-up alternatives.

Most hard drive’s portability helps entrepreneurs in numerous ways. Once backed up, the drive can be tossed into a briefcase. Running on Windows 2000, ME or XP, memory management is simplified so no driver is needed on a host computer. And the data is not compressed, so users can plug it into any PC and immediately access data. It even can run software applications as well as data files. And with some drives, like an Iomega HDD drive, software automatically backs up selected files each day. When plugged back into the primary computer, the software synchronizes data and updates any files to the most recent version.

Now that’s what any user can call evolution.

WHAT: Portable external hard drives
COST: From $100 after rebates to several hundred dollars, depending on manufacturer and hard drive capacity.
WHERE: Iomega (www.iomega.com), Maxtor (www.maxtor.com), and BUSlink USA (www.buslink.com), among others.

Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a speaker, writer and expert on alternative officing. He is the author of Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers and Their Managers (Made E-Z Products, 2002); Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish 2001) and Your Profitable Home Business (on CD-ROM from Made E-Z Products). Visit his Web site to subscribe to Home Office Success Stories, his free electronic magazine on home business and teleworking.