Penny Pincher Journal

What is the Best Backup Storage Solution?

It was time to get a better storage system for backing up files on the computers at the Pincher household. The old backup plan for the 4 laptops in our house:

Seagate 2 TB Expansion Drive, under $120
Image source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Laptop 1: Burn DVD's using Windows Vista's built-in 'Back Up Files'. Takes forever, but I had blank DVDs available. Do this a couple times a year.
Laptop 2: Copy critical files to a 16 GB USB memory stick, usually around the 1st of each year
Laptop 3: Kid's laptop, no backup at all
Laptop 4: Other kid's laptop, no backup at all

Not good.

I wanted to do real backups on all of our computers. We have pictures, videos, school papers, and many other files that could not easily be replaced. Cloud backup may be an option, but I want something more tangible and without a monthly bill...

SATA USB Docking Station
I was inspired to check out the latest storage devices again when I saw a SATA USB docking station in action. It works like this- you take a standard computer hard drive (SATA), plug it into the USB docking station hooked up to a computer, and write files to it. You can remove the hard drive from the dock and plug another one into the dock. Essentially unlimited backup capacity- just get another SATA drive and keep going. The dock costs about $40 dollars, and a 1 TB drive costs about $75. There are also USB cable adapters that are a similar concept that cost even less, I have seen these for about $15.

"Bare" SATA Hard Drive.
Image courtesy of Sorapop at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

External Hard Drive
I was ready to buy a USB SATA dock and a 1 TB SATA hard disk. Maybe two of the 1 TB hard disks. But I decided to check out portable hard drives. The nice thing about a portable hard drive is that it has an enclosure around the hard disk. Using SATA drives, the bare hard drives would be unprotected and would need to be handled carefully to protect them from static electricity, impact, etc. Also, would I really need more than one hard drive? The main benefit of using a SATA USB dock is that you can remove the drive and switch to another one as you need more storage capacity. I might only need one drive to back everything up.

I checked out external hard drives with enclosures. They are not much more expensive than the bare SATA drives and include the built-in power supply and enclosure. I found 1 TB external hard drives for about $100, and 2 TB for $129.99.

I found a Seagate Expansion 2 TB drive with USB 3.0 at Target for $119.99 this morning. That should handle all of my backup needs for awhile, and I don't need to worry about handling and storing bare hard drives. Let the backups commence!

Update: The next day this exact model of 2 TB external drive was reduced in price to $107.99. I brought my receipt and a drive from the shelf to the customer service department at Target- they gave me a "price adjustment" for $12.72.

Mac and PC Backup on One Drive
I had backed up a couple PC laptops: one Windows Vista and one Windows 7. Up next was a Mac OS X laptop. I planned to use the built-in Time Machine to create the Mac backup. When I connected the external drive and launched Time Machine, it offered to erase and reformat the drive for me. It would not use the NTFS formatted drive that worked so well for the PCs. I wanted a simple and harmonious backup storage solution. This was turning out to be complex and disharmonious. Time for a cup of coffee...

OK. Here's the plan. We'll use some of the empty space on the external drive to make a new disk partition using built-in Windows 7 disk tools. There's plenty of empty space. We'll format it in the PC NTFS format, and then let Time Machine do what it wants with the new partition. I set aside 325 GB for the new Mac partition following these directions from CNET. Worked great.

Penny Pinching Tips:

Back up your computer files- you'll waste time and money trying to recover data if you loose files
Hard drives are getting cheaper all the time- about $100 gets you 1 TB (that's 1000 GB, or 1,000,000 MB)
External drives include power supply and drive enclosure built-in, and likely have enough capacity for all of your files. Check out External hard drive deals on eBay.
If you have extreme amounts of data, you'll save money using a SATA USB dock with replaceable SATA drives. Check out SATA USB docking station deals on eBay.

Penny Pincher Journal

Stop Wasting Money!
Image courtesy of scottchan
at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Waste is bad. It costs money, consumes resources, and results in pollution- yet does not improve your life, Eliminating waste is a painless way to save money. By definition, you do not need what you are wasting. Following is a list of 10 forms of waste and action you can take today to reduce waste, save money, and improve your life.

1. Wasting Gas
Unnecessary driving wastes gas. This costs you money, consumes natural resources, and generates pollution. Idling the engine to run the heater or air conditioner while parked not only wastes gas, but puts excessive wear and tear on your engine.

Action: Plan your trips to reduce driving, for example one trip to the grocery store per week instead of 5 or 6 to pick up items you forgot. Walk when possible, most people can walk 4 miles per hour or 6 blocks in 10 minutes. Get out of your car and go inside rather than idling your engine.

2. Eating More Than You Need
The average American is 23 pounds overweight! Most people consume far more calories than they need each day. This not only wastes money, but consumes resources required to produce unnecessary food.

Action: Eat the right amount to get the calories you need

3. Plastic Bottles
Sure it's convenient to get a new plastic bottle every time you get a drink. Americans consume millions of plastic beverage bottles every year. Recycling of these bottles is increasing. But it still takes a lot of energy and resources to produce and recycle the bottles. Eliminate waste from plastic bottles with a reusable bottle. Better yet, get a BPHA free reusable bottle or aluminum

Action: Switch to reusable containers instead of one-time-use bottles. Get a BPA-free plastic or aluminum refillable drinking bottle. Filling it at home instead of buying bottles at convenience stores will cost less as well as waste less.

4. Wasting Electricity
How often do you find lights on with no one in the room? Lighting consumes a lot of electricity and is an easy way to cut wasted electricity. Even if you have switched to compact fluorescent, a fixture with multiple bulbs can consume more than 60 Watts. Other examples of preventable electricity waste are fans or TVs left on when no one is using them. One of the most egregious examples is when people leave outdoor lights on during the day. You can SEE the money being wasted...

Action: Turn off lights when not in use. Encourage others to do the same. Establish a habit of turning off unused items. I even unplug my electric water heater is I am away from home longer than a couple days.

5. Disposable Products
Disposable products are literally made to be thrown away after one use. Examples include garbage bags, paper towels and plastic utensils.

Action: Find non-disposable alternatives to disposable products. You'll save money and help the environment. For example, re-use plastic shopping bags in small trash cans rather than purchasing small trash bags and use a cloth instead of a paper towel.

6. Oversized houses
Building large houses consumes extra resources. Owners then feel the need to fill the extra space with furnishings, consuming even more resources. Heating and cooling the unneeded space wastes money and fuel as well.

Action: Resist filling every available square foot with stuff- empty space is better than buying stuff you don't need. On your next move, choose the smallest home that meets your needs. It will cost less and requires less resources to heat, cool, and maintain.

7. Excessive Clothing
Most people have clothing in their closet they rarely (or never) wear. Yet they continue to buy more clothes at every opportunity. A common reason for buying more clothes... THEY WERE ON SALE!

Action: Stop buying new clothes until you really need more. Sort and organize your existing clothes so you are more likely to use your entire wardrobe instead of buying unneeded clothes. When you need to buy clothes, take a shopping list of items that you need to reduce impulse buys at the store.

8. Unnecessary Shoes
How many colors and styles of shoes do you need? Here are the basics: brown dress shoes, black dress shoes, and tennis shoes. If you live in a cold climate, add boots. If you do dirty work (gardening, etc.), add a pair of utility shoes. If you have more than 5 pairs of shoes, you may have enough!

Action: Stop buying shoes until you actually need more. When you do buy shoes, select strategically so you can survive with fewer shoes in your closet.

9. Unappreciated Gifts
They say it's the thought that counts, but custom dictates the giving of unwanted gifts. This is wasteful not just in terms of the gift, but also the packaging, mailing, and wrapping of the unwanted gift. What about the wasted time driving to the store to get the gift, not to mention the wasted gas.

Action: Send a note or email instead of buying "throw away" gifts. Note: this strategy doesn't work well for small children. Save some throw-away gifts your kids receive for re gifting at parties for other kids.

10. Leaving Food on the Table
It amazes me how much people pay to eat in restaurants. What's more amazing is how much food people leave on the table when they leave. Why? This is perfectly good- and expensive- food. Why waste it? It just gets thrown away when you leave.

Action: Take extra restaurant food home with you. What looks like a small amount on the scale of a restaurant meal is probably enough for an entire meal or at least half a meal later. Take food home rather than throwing it away to save money and reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill.

Penny Pincher Journal

Penny Pincher Journal

Saturday, January 19, 2013

SATA USB Docking Station vs External Hard Drive

What is the Best Backup Storage Solution?

Friday, January 18, 2013

Stop Waste and Improve Your Life: 10 Actions You Can Take Today

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