External HD question

I've searched the forums and found lots of useful info. Mix that with the reviews on Best Buy and I've pretty much decided to go with a Western Digital HD. I got a Hitachi 500 GB USB drive today, but the reviews for it were terrible.

Anyway, my question is this: What is the chance that the HD fails and all info is lost forever? I'm a budding photographer and in the last 6-7 months I've taken over 40 gigs of photos (each photo uses about 20-25 MBs by the time I'm through with it). I want to dump my photos onto the external HD and delete them from my MBP. Is there a chane that I lose these photos forever? I suppose I could get double sided DVD-Rs to back them up as well, but I don't want to do that!

Thanks!

Back them up to DVD's....
I am a little confused about your post. Did you buy a WD enclosure and a 500GB Hitachi HD? Or a WD external? Or a Hitachi external?

No HD manufacturer makes perfect HD's. I've never had a HD crash on me.
If the photos are super important, back them to a second source like multiple DVD's or use the external HD for Time Machine if you're running Leopard. If you're using Tiger, just make a folder on it and keep a copy on the MBP as well.

If it's important enough not to lose those pictures, then always keep 2 copies on separate drives at all times. And most certainly one of those copies should be kept offline. If all copies are on the same computer, even if different drives, one catastrophe to that computer could kill both copies.

bryphotoguy said:

Back them up to DVD's....
I am a little confused about your post. Did you buy a WD enclosure and a 500GB Hitachi HD? Or a WD external? Or a Hitachi external?

Click to expand...

I got the Hitachi this morning for X-mas, but after reading the reviews I want to take it back and get a different one...and I decided on the WD (although seagate gets good reviews too).

I really don't know why I said I didn't want to back-up on DVDs. After thinking about it that'd definitely be smart, and it's not like they're that expensive. I just want to be able to free up the space on my computer. After another 6 months or so of taking pictures I won't have any space left. I'm currently using 95 of 120 gigs.