Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.

A friend of mine gave me two 2.5 HDD enclosures with one-touch backup buttons. See the following link:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3762929

It doesn't have the software discs that came with it so I can't set it up for OTB.
Is anyone familiar with this unit AND do you have the software I need to enable it?

Thanks.

Nelson.I Loc: Monument, Colorado, USA

I don't know cameras that well. I is, however, a computer expert, more or less. (Remember kids, an expert is an old drop of water under pressure.)

First a couple of questions:

1. Have you tested the enclosures with disks in them?
I.e. - the next few questions.

2. Did they mount?
You should see them appear in Window File Explorer.

3. Did your system ask to install software?
Believe it or not, this is entirely possible.

4. Did you see the drive capacity you expected?
If the drive is terabytes large it is possible that the enclosure
hardware won't see it all.

5. Were you able to write to the drives?
If you cannot write and read to the disk, the enclosures are
useless. BTW it can't be read then write. That's just
silly!


And now, I have only spent a few minutes (albeit expert minutes) using Google. I found a product, which might be the software sold with the devices, at this address:

[url]http://www.backup4all.com/[url]

It is, alas, a commercial product, the cheapest version of it $19.


However, I suspect a couple of things are true which you should consider:

A. You probably can find USB 2.0 and, better, USB 3.0 external
drives of similar or larger capacity for a lot less money than you
might think.

B. Assuming that the current drive size is not large enough, you will
have trouble finding an inexpensive IDE (the hardware connector
in your enclosure) 2.5" drive. IDE drives are no longer made. In
their place is the hardware specification (connection) called SATA.

C. To add salt to the wound of having to use an old-specification
drive, I believe that the IDE spec does not support any disk
drive larger than 500MB.

D. On Amazon you can get an external 1TB (1000GB), USB 3.0, "one
button backup" drive for ~$57. The one I'm looking at is
supposedly Military Drop Tested.

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Military-Tested-External-TS1TSJ25M3/dp/B005MNGQ6C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462382597&sr=8-1&keywords=one+button+USB+backup

E. If you search Amazon, or likely any other retailer of computer
parts, you will also find cheap enclosures which will support
one-button backup; however, "Caveat emptor!"

HTH (Hope This Helps)

Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.

[quote=Nelson.I]I don't know cameras that well. I is, however, a computer expert, more or less. (Remember kids, an expert is an old drop of water under pressure.)

First a couple of questions:

1. Have you tested the enclosures with disks in them?
I.e. - the next few questions.

2. Did they mount?
You should see them appear in Window File Explorer.

3. Did your system ask to install software?
Believe it or not, this is entirely possible.

4. Did you see the drive capacity you expected?
If the drive is terabytes large it is possible that the enclosure
hardware won't see it all.

5. Were you able to write to the drives?
If you cannot write and read to the disk, the enclosures are
useless. BTW it can't be read then write. That's just
silly!


And now, I have only spent a few minutes (albeit expert minutes) using Google. I found a product, which might be the software sold with the devices, at this address:

[url]http://www.backup4all.com/[url]

It is, alas, a commercial product, the cheapest version of it $19.


However, I suspect a couple of things are true which you should consider:

A. You probably can find USB 2.0 and, better, USB 3.0 external
drives of similar or larger capacity for a lot less money than you
might think.

B. Assuming that the current drive size is not large enough, you will
have trouble finding an inexpensive IDE (the hardware connector
in your enclosure) 2.5" drive. IDE drives are no longer made. In
their place is the hardware specification (connection) called SATA.

C. To add salt to the wound of having to use an old-specification
drive, I believe that the IDE spec does not support any disk
drive larger than 500MB.

D. On Amazon you can get an external 1TB (1000GB), USB 3.0, "one
button backup" drive for ~$57. The one I'm looking at is
supposedly Military Drop Tested.

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Military-Tested-External-TS1TSJ25M3/dp/B005MNGQ6C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462382597&sr=8-1&keywords=one+button+USB+backup

E. If you search Amazon, or likely any other retailer of computer
parts, you will also find cheap enclosures which will support
one-button backup; however, "Caveat emptor!"

HTH (Hope This Helps)[/quote]


Responses in numerical order:
1. Have you tested the enclosures with disks in them?
Ans. Yes. Only one of the 2 has a HDD. It's only 20GB.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Did they mount?
You should see them appear in Window File Explorer.
Ans. Yes. I saw all the data & files on the disk. (I don't think I was supposed to as it was actually a corporate hardware.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. Did your system ask to install software?
Believe it or not, this is entirely possible.
Ans. No. I looked thoroughly through all the files on the disk to see if there was some software that was for the Backup Drive. Nada.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. Did you see the drive capacity you expected?
If the drive is terabytes large it is possible that the enclosure
Ans. Yes. There were 18 GBs out of 20 used. The box says there's a limit of 120 GBs.

hardware won't see it all.
Ans. I know. There are usually hidden partitions or space used by the hardware.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. Were you able to write to the drives?
Ans. No. It mounted pretty easily and I was able to read the data so I really don't think that will be a problem.
I just checked...I CAN write to the disk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A. You probably can find USB 2.0 and, better, USB 3.0 external drives of similar or larger capacity for a lot less money than you might think.

Response. The Box says it IS USB 2.0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

B. Assuming that the current drive size is not large enough, you will have trouble finding an inexpensive IDE (the hardware connector in your enclosure) 2.5" drive. IDE drives are no longer made. In their place is the hardware specification (connection) called SATA.

Response. It IS an IDE drive. I will probably have difficulty finding another drive but I'll check eBay or Amazon. There's ALWAYS what you need on either of those 2 venues.
Just did. 80-120GB IDE drives on both sites are going for $25-$30

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C. To add salt to the wound of having to use an old-specification
drive, I believe that the IDE spec does not support any disk
drive larger than 500MB.

Response. Well, the existing drive is already 20GB and it's IDE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
D. On Amazon you can get an external 1TB (1000GB), USB 3.0, "one
button backup" drive for ~$57. The one I'm looking at is
supposedly Military Drop Tested.

http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Military-Tested-External-TS1TSJ25M3/dp/B005MNGQ6C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462382597&sr=8-1&keywords=one+button+USB+backup

Response. I actually have 4 external SATA drives (2-1TBs, 1-2.5TB, and 1-3.0 drive,) plus 2 others (2-TBs) I use to clone my C drive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
E. If you search Amazon, or likely any other retailer of computer parts, you will also find cheap enclosures which will support one-button backup; however, "Caveat emptor!"

Response. I use the attached drives to store all my images as well as data. Once upon a time I use to never back up my personal finances Excel spreadsheet. After a few HD crashes I finally learned to backup my stuff.
Back in the days of Win XP & older I created a batch file that would automatically back up incrementally specific files which I needed to keep. It was a really neat little program (PIF.) All I had to do was click the PIF icon on the desktop and it was backed up immediately.
Anyhow, I thought I would put these externals to use for backing up only data files like my Excel SS, letters, PDFs, etc. 20 GBs isn't much but I thought I could set it up to press the OTB button and immediately back up those (non-image) files.

This is more of an exercise than a necessity. My Acronis S/W can be set up to incrementally back stuff up, too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HTH (Hope This Helps)

Response. Yes it does! And I am very grateful for your responses. :-) I just thought some of the computer GURUs, like yourself, might be familiar with this specific OTB and have the S/W.

Thank you.

You might like to know that I taught computers in middle school, built several computers from scratch, and also taught MS Office at two colleges.
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