How do I connect PC to external hard drive 20 meters away?

Hi,

I have recently bought an external hard drive for backups. I've got my
PC in my office and I was hoping to keep the external hard drive in
another room approx. 20 meters away. The hard drive has got
connections for USB and Firewire but the longest USB and Firewire
cables are only 5m. I read that you could connect several cables
together or something, but does this reduce the quality? Does it
increase the chances of errors or faults with my backup? Is there any
other way of connecting the hard drive to my PC?

Thanks for your help.

You can use a USB hub every 5 meters to act as repeaters. An alternative is to use a network storage device with CAT5 cable.

k978645312@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I have recently bought an external hard drive for backups. I've got my
> PC in my office and I was hoping to keep the external hard drive in
> another room approx. 20 meters away. The hard drive has got
> connections for USB and Firewire but the longest USB and Firewire
> cables are only 5m. I read that you could connect several cables
> together or something, but does this reduce the quality? Does it
> increase the chances of errors or faults with my backup? Is there any
> other way of connecting the hard drive to my PC?
>
> Thanks for your help.

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:10:40 -0700, k978645312@yahoo.co.uk
wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I have recently bought an external hard drive for backups. I've got my
>PC in my office and I was hoping to keep the external hard drive in
>another room approx. 20 meters away. The hard drive has got
>connections for USB and Firewire but the longest USB and Firewire
>cables are only 5m. I read that you could connect several cables
>together or something, but does this reduce the quality? Does it
>increase the chances of errors or faults with my backup? Is there any
>other way of connecting the hard drive to my PC?
>
>Thanks for your help.


Get a NAS enclosure to put the drive in, or put a 2nd
computer in the location of the enclosure (either way, using
ethernet cable or a wireless network link which is slower).

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:10:40 -0700, k978645312 thoughfully wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have recently bought an external hard drive for backups. I've got my
> PC in my office and I was hoping to keep the external hard drive in
> another room approx. 20 meters away. The hard drive has got connections
> for USB and Firewire but the longest USB and Firewire cables are only
> 5m. I read that you could connect several cables together or something,
> but does this reduce the quality? Does it increase the chances of errors
> or faults with my backup? Is there any other way of connecting the hard
> drive to my PC?
>
> Thanks for your help.

I agree with the other poster, add a cheap pc to be a wireless NAS
server. Add an older PC fitted with a PCI USB card to your wireless
router/switch should do the trick. I think there's still some free
bootable floppy NAS server software available otherwise you could use
some LiveCDs or bootable memory sticks for a server OS.

Once setup you could add all your recycle any HDs you've replaced into
the NSA server increasing capacity and storage for your whole family.

>> I have recently bought an external hard drive for backups. I've got my
>> PC in my office and I was hoping to keep the external hard drive in
>> another room approx. 20 meters away. The hard drive has got connections
>> for USB and Firewire but the longest USB and Firewire cables are only
>> 5m. I read that you could connect several cables together or something,
>> but does this reduce the quality? Does it increase the chances of errors
>> or faults with my backup? Is there any other way of connecting the hard
>> drive to my PC?

Get a NAS enclosure. This will have an ethernet port that you run ethernet
cable to. You could also plug it into a wireless router and access from your
PC without the long wire.

Thanks for all your suggestions, everyone.