External hard drives

[medichi]

Looking to get one as a "safety net" before upgrading my increasingly unreliable PC. Amazon have a load of different ones that vary wildly in price - basically looking for something pretty big (250G?) and RELIABLE. Small price please. Anyone have any recommendations?

[Bodast]

I got a 120gb one for around £50 (or maybe it was £40..) on ebay - it's just a Vaio rip-off but it hasn't caused me any problems so far. Still, if you want definite reliability, maybe you should get a brand name one.

dabs.com - PC Hardware, Components, Software, Digital Cameras, MP3 Players - this place can be good. Umm... and yeah, get one with high rpm (though I think everything over 5400 is fine, and most of them are).

[medichi]

Thinking of the mybook2 (500gb)

[spellchecker]

first thing you probably want to decide is if you want portable (powered from USB) or desktop (with separate PSU).

if you have a laptop or are on the move, portable is probably better, though is available in typically smaller sizes (probably up to around 250gb).

if it is just another hard drive attached to a desktop, then a desktop solution is probably the way forward - you can get 500gb and even 1TB now for reasonable prices. technically desktop ones will be faster as they can be up to 7,2k or even 10k rpm, though the shared nature of USB may negate that advantage.

if looking for portable hard drives, fujitsu handydrives are a good model, as are WD passports.

for desktops, shop around. i wouldn't worry too much about performance, go for price/size and noise levels - some of them can be really noisy, e.g. some of the older WD myBooks. Freecom ones are not bad, though I once bought a dud from PC world.

essentially most drives are the same - a cheap IDE/SATA to USB converter and a laptop size 2.5" hard drive (portables) or desktop 3.5" hard drive (desktops).

[Neil]

Can't recommend this external drive enough. USB powered, small in size but big in capacity and has been solid as a rock with travelling over probably 20,000 miles or so with me now:

WD Passport Portable (Black) 320 GB USB 2.0 Hard Drives ( WDXMS3200 )

Works perfect with both PC's and Mac's as well.

[spellchecker]

second that. i have a smaller 160gb model but just as reliable... so far! also well travelled

[Pierre Von Mondragon]

I have a LaCie 500Gb, needs an adaptor, but is fast and stable enough to record audio into it directly in a DAW environment. All good.

[Chris#2]

Originally Posted by medichi

Thinking of the mybook2 (500gb)

Got one of those for the new Mac OSX "Time Machine" backup feature. Works so well I got a second just for storing films/photos/music.