I just bought a external hard drive to put designs on but have been told that you still need to back up files any one know more.

My 2 cents is the same as everyone elses. Back up both. I burn everything on CD's and keep them in notebooks.

I use my external HD specifically 4 backing up files minnie it's only hooked up when I back up. but I imagine if yours is hooked up to computer all the time yes you would still have to back up on something else. *4U

You definitely need to keep at least two copies of anything. One in your working computer (including external hard drive) and one in a separate place.
for anything important, anything that would cause real problems if you lost it, one copy should be kept in a different physical place. Depending on the seriousness of a possible loss, one home and one office, one in safe deposit box, one at a friends, or one with someone in another part of the country. ( Think of Katrina, midwest floods, etc)
Good luck, Lois (veteran of a gazillion years of computers - if it can go wrong, I've probably lived through it at least once. LOL)

You'd think both your computer and your external hard drive won't crash at the same time, but believe you me they can. So say on a regular basis on CD's, DVD's or whatever too.

minnie, anything that you have on your pc or external hard drive - should also be on a CD, DVD, or Internet backup - should always be backed up and often. There is no guarnatee that they will not crash and you just never know what will happen to them - you have invested way to much into saving them - to let a chance happenstance take them away - without that copy in a save and secure location. And don't say - that will never happen, because it can and will at some point.

yes yes yes back them up hubby has 4 external hard drives 2 crashed and he cannot access any info he had on them i believe they are seagate so yes back them up on cd or dvd

External drives also can crash! So if you store designs on an external drive you still have to back them up onto something. Usually CD's,or DVD's, or use an internet backup service. Just be sure you back them up somewhere.;)

Yes, you should back up your files. Anything can malfunction....including your external hard drive. Therefore, you need a spare copy of your files in case that happens.