David Arnstein wrote in
message ...

I'm planning to use external disk drives for backup.
I'm looking at the nicely packaged enclosures from
Maxtor, Western Digital, and Seagate.

I keep one set of backups "offsite," and this is giving me
a bit of a worry. Roughly once a month, I hand-carry backup
media from my PC to the "offsite" location. On the return trip,
I hand-carry some media from the "offsite" locaton back to my PC.

I don't know how wise it is to carry around 3.5 inch disk drives all
the time. These drives are designed for desktop use, after all.

Would it be wiser to use 2.5 inch drives?

Yes.

These are more expensive, but these are designed
for use in notebook computers. Perhaps they are
better able to handle the rigors of transportation?

Yes.

Thanks for any suggestions. Recommendations for
specific products would also be gratefully accepted.

You'd get a lot more protection against dropping
if you not only use 2.5" drives but also carry them
in those decent cases with stiff foam in them that
are used for cameras etc as well, still inside the
case supplied with the drive too.