Making Backing Up Convenient


I’ve been working from two offices recently, which can be a bit of a chore. I’ve talked previously about how I’m essentially duplicating my home setup at the new office, but one thing hasn’t been duplicated: my backup system. At home, I’m currently using a 1TB Western Digital My Book to run my hourly Time Machine backups, but I have nothing to use at the office. Ultimately, this means that in a worse-case scenario – my hard drive blows up as I’m packing up to leave after a very productive day – I lose just one day of work. But that’s not really acceptable to me, particularly with this new gig. It means that I have to find a new way of doing things.

I have multiple portable USB drives, but none of them over 400GB, which is about what my MacBook has stored on it today. As a result, I need to buy something that can go with me wherever I go, but is also convenient. My goal with the office setup is to make it as plug and play as possible. To leave for the day, I unplug one USB cable that’s connected to a hub, one monitor adapter, one power adapter and a cat5 cable. This makes it as simple as possible for me to go between the two places.

Since I have to get a new USB drive anyways, I figured getting one with a dock would be a good way to go. That way, I can buy one extra dock and have one at home and one at the office. This means I could just pick up the drive and go, without worrying about anything. It also placates my OCD tendencies.

After doing some research, I found two: The Seagate FreeAgent Go, and the Western Digital My Passport Elite. Both have a second dock available, and they also have capacities above 500GB. Unfortunately, the WD drive is only 640, and I feel like I’d run up to that wall faster than the 1TB available with the Seagate. I’m not a huge fan of Seagate, but it may be my best option.

Any other suggestions?


Kevin Whipps

Kevin Whipps is a copy editor, writer, photographer and custom car builder based in the Phoenix, Ariz. area. For the past 10 years he's been building his portfolio, mostly in the automotive publishing industry. When he's not wrenching on cars, most of his time is spent discovering new gadgets and toys, and of course, using everything Apple. Whipps is also married, and has a baby boy, Kevin Whipps Jr., coming on February 7, 2010.

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