External Hard Drives Can Fill Storage Needs

There was a time when Iomega Corp.’s Zip Disk was the de facto standard for backing up and moving data from one PC to another. Those little disks, which typically cost about $7.50, were perfect back in the days when 100 megabytes seemed like a lot of data.

But with large multimedia files, 100 MB doesn’t go as far as it used to. Iomega has since introduced a 250-MB Zip drive that resulted in gaping yawns from PC users now that most PCs come with CD-RW drives that enable you to back up your data on cheap 700-MB CDs that can be read by any CD-ROM drive.

But CDs are inadequate for very large files. Eventually, we’ll all have high-capacity DVD burners in our PCs, but not until the cost of the drives and the media come down to earth.

In the meantime, there are some reasonably priced ways to add external storage to PCs. Several companies--including QPS Inc., Maxtor Corp. and LaCie--make external hard drives that can connect to a PC via either a Universal Serial Bus or FireWire port. USB and FireWire make it easy to add a drive, but FireWire is much faster.

I have a 20-gigabyte QPS Que! M2 hard drive plugged into the FireWire port of my desktop machine. Installation took only a couple of minutes. I didn’t even need to install software drivers. The device, which is about two-thirds the size of a videocassette and weighs only 1 1/2 pounds, can easily be moved from one machine to another as long as both machines have FireWire ports.

I use it to keep a backup copy of my important data and recently drafted it for extra duty to transfer about 15 GB from my old PC to a new one. QPS offers the device with several capacities and prices: 6 GB for $249, 10 GB for $279 and 20 GB for $379. If your PC doesn’t have a FireWire port, you can usually add one for about $60 for a desktop machine or about $120 for a notebook PC.

LaCie makes similar drives that connect via the USB port. Although USB is slower than FireWire, the next generation of the protocol will be almost as fast.

Last week, Iomega began shipping a new-style external hard drive that uses removable cartridges to store data. The Iomega Peerless comes in three parts. One connects the device to your PC. A base station holds the cartridge, which contains either a 10- or 20-GB removable hard drive.

Iomega makes a USB interface and separate interface for FireWire, but if you buy a USB device and later want to upgrade to FireWire, you won’t have to buy an entire new system--just spend $80 for a new interface.

The unit is easy to install and fits nicely on the desktop. If you have a separate base station, it’s extremely easy to move the cartridge from one machine to another. Even if you don’t, you can easily unplug the unit from the USB or FireWire port and move it to another machine. The Peerless also works with Macs--virtually all of which have FireWire and USB, making it an ideal way to transfer large amounts of data between PCs and Macs.

A unit with a 20-GB drive costs $399. A 10-GB version costs $359. You also can buy the drive cartridges separately for $159 for 10 GB and $199 for 20 GB.

Although not quite as fast as most internal IDE drives, the Peerless is much faster than a CD, a Zip or a floppy and is suitable for storing data and software. It comes with Altiris PC Transplant software that you can use to copy programs and personal settings from one PC to another.

It also comes with MGI PhotoSuite, MGI Videowave software and MusicMatch Jukebox, which, in addition to providing some useful applications, also makes the marketing statement that the device is positioned as a multimedia storage system for people who are creating or playing large video, photography and audio files.

The only problem with using removable hard drives for backup is that they are too expensive to use just to archive data. For that purpose, you’re still better off storing your data on CD-R discs, Zip Disks, a tape backup system or an Internet backup system such as @backup.com.

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Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard between 2 and 3 p.m. weekdays on the KNX-AM (1070) Technology Hour.