Will this hard drive work to back up several computers? I have a desktop and two laptops and am looking for one product that will backup all three. If not this, what do you recommend. I don't want to spend more than $100 to $150, if possible. Also, can I copy movies from my DVR (DISH NETWORK) to this hard drive and then play them back later? Will this hard drive work to back up several computers? I have a desktop and two laptops and am looking for one product that will backup all three. If not this, what do you recommend. I don't... » Read More Will this hard drive work to back up several computers? I have a desktop and two laptops and am looking for one product that will backup all three. If not this, what do you recommend. I don't want to spend more than $100 to $150, if possible. Also, can I copy movies from my DVR (DISH NETWORK) to this hard drive and then play them back later? « Show Less
243982
I don't believe you can connect it to serve several computers unless you are willing to connect/disconnect cables regularly. I use it solely to store HD videos and it works great for that.
243983
I actually returned the unit as I wanted to clone more than one PC hard drive to it, but learned that it was not possible to do this. I have two big LaCie drives where I do exactly what you'd like to do. It works well. I can only assume (note assume) that that backup process can work with his drive. Richard Chay
243984
Yes that is what it is made for. It should also come with 5 licesences of nova backup for windows computers, and timemachine for apple. so everything on it has the extra protection of being backed up to a server at a professional backup service in case something happens to the drive.
243985
Hello Howard. I have the same setup as you, 2 laptops, 1 desktop...all networked. The thing is, your network will and does recognize the Buffalo, but you can only read and write to the Buffalo on the 'puter that it is connected to. The Buffalo says that it will only back-up from an internal drive, which is true. I wanted to back-up my other machines over my network, but I have not been successful with that. What I do is physically move the unit to the machine that I want to back-up. With that said, this is a really GREAT value and pretty good software is included. Not sure about your DVR. My ATT-Uverse does not recognize the Buffalo on my network. Hope this helps! Hello Howard. I have the same setup as you, 2 laptops, 1 desktop...all networked. The thing is, your network will and does recognize the Buffalo, but you can only read and write to the Buffalo on the 'puter that it is connected to. The Buffalo says that it will only back-up from an internal drive, which is true. I wanted to back-up my other machines over my network, but I have not been successful with that. What I do is physically move the unit to the machine that I want to back-up. With that said, this is a really GREAT value and pretty good software is included. Not sure about your DVR.... » Read More Hello Howard. I have the same setup as you, 2 laptops, 1 desktop...all networked. The thing is, your network will and does recognize the Buffalo, but you can only read and write to the Buffalo on the 'puter that it is connected to. The Buffalo says that it will only back-up from an internal drive, which is true. I wanted to back-up my other machines over my network, but I have not been successful with that. What I do is physically move the unit to the machine that I want to back-up. With that said, this is a really GREAT value and pretty good software is included. Not sure about your DVR. My ATT-Uverse does not recognize the Buffalo on my network. Hope this helps! « Show Less
243986
It will work on anything, but remember USB 3 is where the speed is. Why not get a Western Digital My PassportUltra. It's also USB 3 but it's usb powered so you could move easily between computers.
94916
This drive burnt out on me, so I'm not able to speak from personal experience about it's ability to store multiple backups. I assume that it can house multiple back-ups as long as there is enough space however I CANNOT recommend it's reliability as a harddrive.
836174
Can take up to 2 hard drives, 4 Tb each. When drive 1 is full it will start recording on drive 2. When drive 2 is full it will go back to drive 1 and start overwriting it.
183924
I have three of these...one as a backup for my PC and another that I use as a main drive and a backup drive for my Mac. But if you mean backing up files on your Mac and PC, I have done it before as a network drive but when it comes to moving the drive and plugging it in via USB, somehow the PC didn't read the Mac Files, while Mac was able to read the PC files...but by switching things back in forth, I actually corrupted a drive that way and it had to be formatted. But network drive, I have backed up files from both PC and Mac just fine. I feel it's best to have external backup drives specifically for that computer...one formatted via Mac for the Mac and the other for PC. I have three of these...one as a backup for my PC and another that I use as a main drive and a backup drive for my Mac. But if you mean backing up files on your Mac and PC, I have done it before as a network drive but when it comes to moving the drive and plugging it in via USB, somehow the PC didn't read the Mac Files, while Mac was able to read the PC files...but by switching things back in forth, I actually corrupted a drive that way and it had to be formatted. But network drive, I have backed up files from both PC and Mac just fine. I feel it's best to have external backup drives... » Read More I have three of these...one as a backup for my PC and another that I use as a main drive and a backup drive for my Mac. But if you mean backing up files on your Mac and PC, I have done it before as a network drive but when it comes to moving the drive and plugging it in via USB, somehow the PC didn't read the Mac Files, while Mac was able to read the PC files...but by switching things back in forth, I actually corrupted a drive that way and it had to be formatted. But network drive, I have backed up files from both PC and Mac just fine. I feel it's best to have external backup drives specifically for that computer...one formatted via Mac for the Mac and the other for PC. « Show Less
845987
Several...Depends on your storage needs. If u max out storage on 1 PC, there won't b room for 2nd PC. However...it worked first few times & now it only works after I plug & unplug it several times. VERY ANNOYING. I had an older version of this product & it worked perfect. This, newer, device is going back ASAP. Also, this does not backup "everything" as someone else mentioned. If you hav files it does not recognize (I.e. files with an extension it does not recognize - like I have - you have to know to TELL it to back up files with this extension).
1408560
This will work as well as any other drive. The advantage of this style unit is that it is self contained. There are many external enclosures or NAS boxes available that will do the same thing. This is a reasonably priced plug'n'play method. Just make sure you know how much data there is to backup , then make sure you get something equal to or bigger in capacity. If you love your data then multiple backup drives are a smart option. I am not a fan of Apple in general but the backup software they include with OS X (Time Machine) is quite nice.
27160
OMG, NO! We had one fail without notice and it was a major problem. We thought the dual drive on ours would be a safe backup system, but the entire drive failed. A service company worked on it and we were fortunate to retrieve most of the data, but it was a very close call and expensive. Now we have TWO separate backup drives on all systems.
1870901
Yes it does work with 3Tb drives, but as Mr. Hastings hint at the duel drive does not work very well. I have 4 single drives and they work great but the one duel drive I have only works with one drive, if I put the second drive in windows 7 starts dropping both drives. Stick with the single and you will be better off.
153414
I'm not 100% sure but it mentions on the flyer that came you can back up media games, movies and music from PCI laptop and mobile devices. Doesn't specify game consoles per say. I have to designate my file to be sent to the J drive. Can you tell your console where to save the data to? Uses a usb connection
545233
Thanks Vito, I have one more question mayby you can answer...The specs on this one say..."Store your music, videos, photos and documents with plenty of space to spare SuperMulti 8X DVD+ with Double Layer Support Play and create CDs and DVDs with this DVD/CD burner drive"...I would like to know if this computer is capable of RE- writing DVDs, or can it only burn them once??? or is this function merely dependant on the type of disk used for any computer??? I am so tecno-challenged!!! Can you tell???Thanksjz
987131
I have 2 units In 2 locations. One is used with a WD Mycloud 6tb drive. The other with a 4tb Seagate cloud drive. I copy to them and back them up us a NAS. I stream from them using the built in DLNA server. They work great for me.
68977
You have to add at least one drive in order for the unit to work. My unit is running on 4 drives of 2TB each for a total of 8TB. I run in raid 5 which allows all drives to be mirrors of each other. If one drive fails for any reason you can simply replace it with another drive and all of your data will automatically copy from one to the other. As a minimum you need three drives to run raid 5 but like I said, I'm running 4 drives. When you start up the unit it walks you through everything you want to do with it. It is very user friendly. Hope this helps.
314092
You can also plug a USB HDD in and do a content drag and drop from explorer, or use something like the free versions of EASUS, Paragon, Free sync etc., set up a back up and let it run overnight, but you have to be willing to become an active participant in your data backup routine, at least once. The plus is that you can back up what's important to you and not the fluff that might accumulate like TV shows you aren't going to watch again.
1938054
As long that your backup is not more than 9GB, this is a dual layer rewriter, remembr to use dual layer 9GB disks otherwise single layer 4GB disks are just fine, anything bigger backup to another hard drive if possible. Hope this helps.....
2253050
I have two of the 2TB drives and also 4 of the 1TB drives, and can only say that all 6 have worked fine for me. Performance wise, the 2TBs seem identical to the 1TBs, although my 1TBs are shock-proof, while the 2TBs are not. I store a lot of video on the Buffaloes and back up my other files, too. So far, I see no reason why I would not buy another one.
1120024
I have a "very old" External Hard drive...not this make/model...I turn it on once/quarter to backup recent files...it's probably over 3 years old. Recently, I bought one of these WD Elite 500GB models...my plan is to backup on two externals...in case one fails. I know this seems lame, but it is the only way to ensure everything sticks around. Seems like its worth the extra $100.
47711
I just put a 3TB Seagate drive in one of these and it worked. One of my laptops had a weird issue, but other machines did not. TDMSERVICE.EXE consumed massive amounts of RAM (3+GB) a few times before it acted normal. A different laptop of the same make/model did not have the same problem. That first laptop has issues adding hardware anyways, so I don't think it's a combination of the enclosure and drive.
784778
It may be time to replace your back-up, look into CyberPower. They offer many different sizes to fit your needs. I put these at each computer and TV's/DVR also, as they protect from brown-out or complete outage.