External Hard drive backup - how long should it take?

[Linda Paulson]

I think it's official....My hard drive may be in the process of dying and so I'm trying to get all my files backed up to an external hard drive. I have most everything backed up to CD and DVDs but I want to be sure I have a complete backup before replacing the hard drive.

This hard drive came without any software. It's a Fantom Drive....don't ask me why...Christopher ordered it online for me.
Anyway...
What I've been doing is dragging the files over to it so that they can copy. But it's going soooooooo slow. It only seems to be copying about 3GB or less per hour. Since I have over 120GB of files, this is taking FOREVER! It just doesn't seem right!!!

Am I going about this wrong? Or is it the computer or external?

And while I'm asking...what software should I get to handle backups on a regular basis. I would like one that looks at the files and only backs up what's been changed.
And I'd like the files to be accessible so that I could move any one of them onto my laptop if I ever decide to scrap on it.

Thanks so much....I'm about going NUTS here waiting for the backup to finish. To put this into perspective..the file containing just my new kits and layouts since mid-May has been backing up for over EIGHT hours and says it still has almost 2 hours to go. And that's just one file!!!

I've never heard anyone say that a backup takes this long!?!? HELP!

[Jen]

Omg that would take FOREVER and I would have no hair lol. I'm sorry haven't even started backup my hard drive and from the sounds of it I dont want to either.

Hopefully someone will come along that might be able to help you.

[Sandersmr]

Linda - I don't remember for sure when I backed up to a hard drive, but I dont' think it was that slow - now, when I backed up online - it took me the better part of a month to back up.

[Lisa Dozier]

Might be the speed of your external hard dirve- I think mine is 7200 rpm and it is very fast. Some are faster with a firewire. It has taken me a month to back up via Carbonite - and the reason I chose it is because it gives you an unlimited amount of storage. I have tons of things~ I just increased my hard drive on my pc.