know a good external hard drive???

[jonbearsmt 919]

so i have a few lap tops and a few desk tops that use, one in my rig 2 at my house and 4 at my office, im looking for a reliabe cheap external hard drive,

i have never used one, and never owned one, so i have little clue on what im looking for when buying, i have been shopping on ebay, if anyone can shed some light on a brand or anything it would be most helpful. thanks!

[Accordman 0]

its cheaper just to buy a case from radio shack and add your own internal.

I did that with my 750gb sata for my notebook

[johnecon2001 82]

I'm at the ridiculous point now that when I swap drives out of my server I'm left with smaller ones to do something with.

For example, I replaced a 400GB IDE with a 750GB IDE. Threw the 400GB into a cheap case that has USB2.0 and FireWire and booyah. Bombdiggity external drive.

It's a little more expensive to buy a drive and a case separately, but worth it in my opinion. You know what pieces you're getting this way.

[Supa_c 1]

Western Digital passport is a nice external HD.

Perfect for laptop use since all it needs is USB power.

Its also tiny, so it fits in your pocket/laptop case without issues.

It also looks pretty cool...which helps.

Its not the cheapest option, nor the most capacity.

[jonbearsmt 919]

wow ok, yeah i thought about building one, but i figure its prolly worth 80 bucks for a small pocket type unit that is a usb because my main PC is a laptop. thanks for all your help

[Jmac 24]

Western Digital passport is a nice external HD.

Perfect for laptop use since all it needs is USB power.

Its also tiny, so it fits in your pocket/laptop case without issues.

It also looks pretty cool...which helps.

Its not the cheapest option, nor the most capacity.

That's what I have ... Picked it up from Costco for cheap ...

Just make sure you also back your important data up to a second source (i.e. DVDs) because, like any other hard drive, it can fail.

[Supa_c 1]

Exactly where my bro got his

[Goddyd4me 0]

Western Digital passport is a nice external HD.

Perfect for laptop use since all it needs is USB power.

Its also tiny, so it fits in your pocket/laptop case without issues.

It also looks pretty cool...which helps.

Its not the cheapest option, nor the most capacity.

That's what I have ... Picked it up from Costco for cheap ...

Just make sure you also back your important data up to a second source (i.e. DVDs) because, like any other hard drive, it can fail.

i use flash drives myself.

[jonbearsmt 919]

Western Digital passport is a nice external HD.

Perfect for laptop use since all it needs is USB power.

Its also tiny, so it fits in your pocket/laptop case without issues.

It also looks pretty cool...which helps.

Its not the cheapest option, nor the most capacity.

That's what I have ... Picked it up from Costco for cheap ...

Just make sure you also back your important data up to a second source (i.e. DVDs) because, like any other hard drive, it can fail.

i use flash drives myself.

what is the biggest flash you use?

[Jmac 24]

Western Digital passport is a nice external HD.

Perfect for laptop use since all it needs is USB power.

Its also tiny, so it fits in your pocket/laptop case without issues.

It also looks pretty cool...which helps.

Its not the cheapest option, nor the most capacity.

That's what I have ... Picked it up from Costco for cheap ...

Just make sure you also back your important data up to a second source (i.e. DVDs) because, like any other hard drive, it can fail.

i use flash drives myself.

Flash drives get pretty expensive for large backup tasks ... At best, you're looking at $5/GB ... My WD drive costed $0.44/GB ($110 for 250 GB 2.5" HDD) ... and if you get a 3.5" based HDD, you can get them down under $0.20/GB ...

Optical discs are still the cheapest means of backup at about $0.05/GB when you buy in bulk ... Not nearly as convenient, though ...

[shizzzon 461]

when i need to backup information that can be stored until i die, Verbatim's Gold Archival grade is considered the best. The best is used in terms of gold archival, not just Verbatim.

There was a government document i read a while back when researching storage backup choices and when i was reading about this technology, it states that gold archival discs minimum life is 75yrs and can go up to 250yrs depending on how they are stored.

They are only sold in 50 packs and can be had for under $80 a pack. These are single layer DVD discs.

As for external drives, it depends on how much data you backup at a given time and how long is it stored on there before removal?

If it's less than 16gb, get a flash drive, lot more convenient. There is now a 32gb MC card out now so maybe that will come to flash soon.

For convenience, 2.5" externals are the fastest ways of plugging them up, however they are a little slow and a lot more expensive but are more durable as well.

3.5" externals must be plugged into surge bar every time it needs to be used. It cannot take lots of abuse because these drives were meant to be stored in a desktop only. So lots of vibrations can kill it. These drives are a lot cheaper by the GB and can be serviced by yourself easily as well.

IF it were me, i'd go with 3.5". It's the same drive as probably whats in your pcs now, just dont throw it around or drop it and it should last a long time.

[JimJ 11]

3.5" externals must be plugged into surge bar every time it needs to be used. It cannot take lots of abuse because these drives were meant to be stored in a desktop only. So lots of vibrations can kill it. These drives are a lot cheaper by the GB and can be serviced by yourself easily as well.

Aren't most drives rated to something like 65G's in operation and 350G's when idle?

[shizzzon 461]

i don't know what the "specs" say but i do know this from experience -

Dropping a 3.5" drive on concrete will kill it. Guessing 2.5 would too though...

Shaking(not violently) a 3.5" drive can cause damage.

This can be caused by driving over lots of bumps on the road from transporting drives.

This is also the reason why carputer guys like to use 2.5" drives because they are more durable on the road than 3.5" drives. All it takes is a few bumps and the reader in that thing is gonna mess up.

For what he needs it for though, 3.5 should be fine.

[Alaxan 0]

External HD's are pretty cheap these days. Pick one up from newegg. Western Digital makes some nice ones, Maxtor and Seagate also have some very nice ones. It's worth it to go ahead and get one pre-fab. Not much of a cost difference and often can be cheaper.

[Goddyd4me 0]

Western Digital passport is a nice external HD.

Perfect for laptop use since all it needs is USB power.

Its also tiny, so it fits in your pocket/laptop case without issues.

It also looks pretty cool...which helps.

Its not the cheapest option, nor the most capacity.

That's what I have ... Picked it up from Costco for cheap ...

Just make sure you also back your important data up to a second source (i.e. DVDs) because, like any other hard drive, it can fail.

i use flash drives myself.

Flash drives get pretty expensive for large backup tasks ... At best, you're looking at $5/GB ... My WD drive costed $0.44/GB ($110 for 250 GB 2.5" HDD) ... and if you get a 3.5" based HDD, you can get them down under $0.20/GB ...

Optical discs are still the cheapest means of backup at about $0.05/GB when you buy in bulk ... Not nearly as convenient, though ...

I usually keep a couple 2-3gig thumb drives around. i was looking at a 64 gig internal flash drive not too long ago for shits and giggles.