One Big External Drive or...

I have three computers at home. My desktop, my wife's desktop, and a laptop that is used primarily for work.

Question: Would it be better to buy one larger external drive..or buy a separate, smaller external drive for backing up each computer with ATI?

I have heard that backups from different computers on the same external drive and get corrupted. Does ATI's separate partition function defeat this problem and therefore make the larger external drive a more economical and satisfactory choice? Or would it be better and simpler to just buy a smaller external drive for each computer.

Note: I haven't used ATI yet, so I don't know what it can really do...

Thanks for your help...I plan on purchasing an external drive(s) and ATI soon...

 

The phrase "putting all your eggs in one basket" comes to mind. . Backups from different computers on the same drive is certainly not the reason a backup might become corrupted, unless the person who started that rumour doesn't know how to do a backup.

 

I see no logical reason or explanation for a backups to get corrupted by having a multitude of machine backups one one drive. The oh so common USB -> IDE controller issue that you see every 6 or so posts is the likely culprit.

As for storage, well one 'big' device you're best of going for a 3 drive NAS / RAID box that has RAID 5 capability, will set you back about $1000 to 1500$ or so with three decent sized drives in it.

Or, you could go for 3x smaller drives and rotate each of the PC's backups through them. That both gives you the redundancy, and skips the 'eggs in one basket' thingy. Though as mentioned earlier you may hit the aforementioned USB issue. Get a decent drive enclosure Lacie, Maxtor, Seagate and you'll be peachy.

 

It is possible and it works to store backup images from more than one computer on an external drive.
A separate folder for each computer is more than enough to keep the backups separate.
You could create a partition for each computer using the external drive but sooner or later you would have to do some resizing so why bother.
It could be beneficial to have more than one external drive in the family as they ,like us, are not immortal.

Use of the hidden Acronis Secure Zone on an external drive is not recommended as it can lead to boot problems in an emergency situation.

You should have a read of the EULA to make sure that you are toeing the line.

Xpilot