suzique, check the Western Digital web site, they have anything you need....my word of caution/advice is to make sure, whatever brand you decide on that you choose one that has the program included that lets you choose when and how often to do automatic updates. Some of them do not so you might want to be aware of that feature.

If the pictures are important to you then I would strongly advise backing them up in 2 places, external drives can fail too. I would consider an on line back up to go along with the external back up as well. I don't use one so I'm unable to recommend one at this time.

after i reread my post I can see that I was not clear when I said to be sure that you chose an external drive that did auto updates. I should have said to choose one that had an auto-backup program, one where you can choose the settings for how often and when and what to backup. Sorry for the confusion.

I have two external hard drives and only do back ups when I have something important like new trip photos or a new playlist in ITunes. I don't want everything backed up. I also leave the originals on the PC, which really gives me an other back up. I have met people who back them up on an external and don't leave any on the PC????

Typically the slightly fancier (read expensive) external hard drives come with more comprehensive software. That's not to say, you couldn't back-up manually, use Window's back-up software, or find some freeware that will accomplish the same thing.

I would suggest sticking to drives made by Western Digital or Seagate. They seem to have the best track record for reliability.

A second, off-site, backup plan is a better plan. While an external drive will be helpful in case of a hardware it won't help in the of something like a fire. There are online options or you could, depending on the size of your back-up, burn DVDs and put them in a safety deposit box or send them to a trusted relative or friend.

I also use an external hard drive to backup photos....a Seagate. And I send all my photos to Flickr.com for storage. Some people store them on SD cards or thumb drives.

Thanks, all. Yes, it's really the pictures that I care about the most, although other records are important and I'll back them up, too. I'll check out the things you've advised, above. I like that I don't have to back up everything, just what I want.

The only thing I've thought about online sites such as Flickr.com is what happens if (when?) those companies go away. I agree about redundant backup.

Thanks!

The only thing I've thought about online sites such as Flickr.com is what happens if (when?) those companies go away. I agree about redundant backup.

I hadn't thought of that, but I would hope (!) that they would give some notice so that customers could download photos back to external hard drives.

You didn't say the total data footprint. Believe it or not, I back up my files to an 8GB thumb drive using SyncBack. Then again, I don't have much in the way of pics and videos, which can get quite large. SyncBack lets you back up incremental changes based on file extension on a schedule.

I have used Adrive online for years you get 50 GB free storage there and can purchase more. It has been very dependable. I have use a site in the past that did go under but they sent out emails in advance for you to move your data somewhere else.

http://www.adrive.com/

I have used both seagate and western digital drives both are quality products. Currently I have a seagate external drive and a western digital black caviar internal drive.

I also use thumb drives for some stuff.