Difference between backing up and imaging

I'd like to buy an external hard drive for extra storage plus for backup. Probably in th 80-160mb range.

Can you recommend a couple of the more reliable brands?

I want one that is simple, plug-and-play and extremely reliable so I don't need to worry about it.

Also, can you explain the difference between just backing up data files vs. image of the computer? It confuses me.

This question was answered on April 8, 2005. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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I recommend Maxtor One Touch family hard drives These are the most intuitive hard drives I have ever laid eyes on You simply press the button on the front housing of the case and Walla your important files are back up automatically These drives comes in different flavors of sizes (80, 120, 160, 200 and 250 Giga bytes) Another manufacturer I trust with my data is Seagate, but if you care about convenient I recommend you getting the One Touch by Maxtor.

The difference between backing-up data files vs image of the computer is that the back up of data file only pertains to safe guarding individual files to a medium (CD-R, DVD-R, ZIP, etc.) while ignoring others Now when making an image of a computer you’re replicating all the files plus OS of the system To accomplish this task you need to use a boot image disk to start the process in DOS A boot disk allows this process to take place in DOS mode, where in Windows mode process are being changed on a continue basis, therefore not allowing for a successful image back up to take place

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Posted by juan carlos of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on April 8, 2005

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