Travel Technology - External hard drive

Okay, I'm tired on backing up on CDs and want to invest in an external hard drive. Any recommendations of brands to buy or avoid?

Thanks!! TF

I'm pretty happy with my Maxtor USB2 HDD.

For your purposes, it actually comes with a copy of Retrospect backup, and has a button on the front that will initiate a backup without doing anything in software to kick it off.

They come in sizes from 80-250GB.

Got $1000? (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10129)

Otherwise, a good deal for an external drive is about 75-cents/GB.

If you are technically inclined, and patient, you can make your own external USB 2.0 drive for about or less than 50-cents/GB (after rebates). The only downside is that you don't get any backup software.

Buying a USB enclosure and a HDD is usually much cheaper than buying an external drive (which is just an enclosure + HDD)

Both WD and Maxtor USB 2.0 were on sale Sun from Best Buy or office depot or circuit city. They were in the 120-150gig range, and both were about $150. Regarding choice. I believe they are 6 of one, half a dozen of the other

Do not use MaxBlast to format.

Do a CD backup every now and then as your permanent record.

FYI, Best Buy had a 250gb Maxtor (7200rpm, 8mb buffer ATA133) on sale last week for $149. Add an external enclosure for $40 or $50 and you've got more bang for your buck.

Oi, who you callin' permanent :)? http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-5

If you have USB 2.0 or Firewire (IEEE-1394) installed on your computer, be sure you take advantage of it.

I agree that you will save money by buying a regular internal hard drive and an external case. I've used a Maxstor 6 Y120L0 in a USB 2.0 enclosure case without any complaints for a while now. The only potential problem is that once you put it in a case, it's easy to forget it's not actually designed for portability/travel like laptop components are. They're not fragile, but after a few years and a few million spins there's no need to tempt physics I figure, especially with a cheaper model. Since you'll be using the drive for backups, you don't even have to worry about this.

Buy a 15Gb ipod and use that :)

I had bought a maxtor 40 gig external hd few months back from staples for $55. It was on clearance. Works fine for me.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not a big techie so buyinig off the shelf is probably the best route for me. I've been reading some reviews of the Maxtor One Touch and people have been posting that the drives died after a year or so. That would not be good. I think I'm leaning towards the Western Digital drives (not the one with the glowing lights though). However, the LaClie Firewire 800 drives look interesting, but expensive.

Thanks again!! TF :cool:

is currently 60$ AR at outpost

Buy a 15Gb ipod and use that :)

I suggest it too. Take 40 Gb or 20 Gb for 336 euro and enjoy music and files ! ^

Buying a USB enclosure and a HDD is usually much cheaper than buying an external drive (which is just an enclosure + HDD)

These are very common is Asia. No external power required. I purchased a 40G for around $100. It's a laptop HD in a metal case. Very compact. I use it for MP3 and photo backup.

http://www.bensbargains.net/ktalk/1094499289,5153,.shtml