Travel Technology - Reliable and Sturdy Portable External Hard drive?

I am a Mac user and am looking at getting an external hard drive to cary my music and movies etc on whilst I am traveling. So I need one that is relatively robust and reliable.

I know I shouldn't use it as my only store and make cd back up's.

The one I am looking at is: Western Digital 250GB Passport External USB 2.0 2.5" Hard Drive

What do people think?

I have been using the Lacie bus powered models (http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=10928)for years. I have about 5 of them in various sizes. A couple of them had probably 300,000 air miles on them. Never a problem.

Just bought a WD 320GB bus powered 'cause I needed a bigger drive in a hurry before a trip. Just decided to get off the dime on editing video. No problems, but then it is new. Got what seemed to be a very good price for a guy in a hurry at Best Buy - under $200.00.

FWIW, I wrap them in a turn or two of bubble wrap, and put them in my carry-on in a fairly protected place.

AND, I make sure everything is backed up on another drive at home. That paid off last year when my computer and two Lacies (the long service ones mentioned above) were stolen. I learned another lesson the hard way: get as much separation/separation between the computer and back-up drive as possible! As it was, I lost a months worth of work "only". :rolleyes:

I am a Mac user and am looking at getting an external hard drive to cary my music and movies etc on whilst I am traveling. So I need one that is relatively robust and reliable.

I know I shouldn't use it as my only store and make cd back up's.

The one I am looking at is: Western Digital 250GB Passport External USB 2.0 2.5" Hard Drive

What do people think?

I have the one you are looking at and love it. I use it for my movies and backup of some of the items I wouldn't want to lose while traveling.

I had the smaller, 80GB, smaller in capacity but larger in physical size and had absolutely no problems.

You can order the travel case from the Western Digital site. I think it is $20 + shipping.

I can tell you what NOT to get. I have a 30GB drive about the size of an ipod. The USB cable tucks into the top and there is a leather strap that snaps over the top to secure it when not in use. When I started carrying it in my briefcase I was suddenly getting a bag check almost every time. Once I finally got one of the TSA guys to tell me what they saw they told me that the drive looked like a Leatherman on the x-ray.

Now the fact that most TSA guys won't tell you why they are checking your bag is another story entirely. You'd think they would let you know so you can remove the item and save them work in the future. Took about 4 tries before I got one of them to tell me the problem. The drive has never been in my briefcase since.

I have used the passports a couple years, smaller capacity of course. Had no problem shuttling them around 100ks of miles a year.

I even use some very small thinner external HD enclosures, basically the size of the tiny notebook drives, and they TOO have had no problems.

If you want something a bit more robust, the units from simpletech have a little more meat on them.

OT or not? One of my sons left his 2GB USB flash drive in his jeans that went through the wash. We found it only after it been washed at least one more time after that.

Dried out, worked fine.

HD are different, I know ... but a sun shine story for you!
BTW, this thread got me looking around th Lacie site. There are some very nice 320BG drives much smaller that the FA Porsche Design ones I have for under $200.00.

I just got the 320GB version of the WD Passport drive this past Friday. Works fine so far and even comes with an interesting backup/sync program for Windows.

Do all the bus powered drives work with all laptops? Previous to this drive, I had a bus-powered 2.5" drive enclosure that sometimes required *two* USB connections - one for extra power.

BTW, the other solution I've been toying with is the 160GB Ipod Classic. It's a bit pricey at $350, but does have some functionality beyond what most external HDDs have.

Here's the skinny on USB power (not for the fainthearted): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Power

BTW, these 160gb and 250GB drives are on sale at staples this weekend for 80$ and 120$ (there is also another 10$ coupon out there that bundles)

I am a Mac user and am looking at getting an external hard drive to cary my music and movies etc on whilst I am traveling. So I need one that is relatively robust and reliable.

I know I shouldn't use it as my only store and make cd back up's.

The one I am looking at is: Western Digital 250GB Passport External USB 2.0 2.5" Hard Drive

What do people think?

Mac user with a macbook pro. The WD 250GB Scorpion was what was in my Lacie USB porsche drive. That is now in my macbook pro and the 120GB that was in the MBP is now in the lacie casing.

I also have a 60GB f/w lacie porsche that has never failed me.

Good luck hunting.

I have had the 250Gb Passport for a few months. It's gone on many trips with me, no problems. I highly recommend it.

One solution you might want to consider is getting a laptop(2.5") hard drive and buying a seperate enclosure. This way, you get to choose the hard drive, the drive type(IDE vs SATA) and the connection(USB,Firewire,eSATA).

They're not that hard to assemble.

One solution you might want to consider is getting a laptop(2.5") hard drive and buying a seperate enclosure. This way, you get to choose the hard drive, the drive type(IDE vs SATA) and the connection(USB,Firewire,eSATA).

They're not that hard to assemble.
I did that with my leftover 2.5" laptop drive from an upgrade.

I did notice recently that, on sale, the portable drives are now cheaper than than the bare 2.5" drives. Yet another market segmentation curiosity, I guess.

One more bit of information I came across is that 500GB 2.5" drives are being announced right now by Hitachi and Samsung. The Hitachi drive is a bit of a fake because it is 3mm thicker than normal 2.5" drives, but the Samsung one is supposed to conform to the standard form factor. OTOH, Samsung does have a history of announcing drives well in advance of them appearing in the retail channel.

BTW, the sale is over now but buy.com (aka dontbuy.com) had the 320GB WD Passport on sale for $149 last week. That's the lowest I've seen it. (just for pricing info) I've seen the 250GB version for as little as $109 after rebate.

I did notice recently that, on sale, the portable drives are now cheaper than than the bare 2.5" drives. Yet another market segmentation curiosity, I guess.
Some have said the portable drives are cheaper because they can be lower quality or shorter warranty than bare drives.

I use a 160 GB Maxtor One Touch Mini IV (Staples, $99) and am very happy with it. PC and Mac support, very solid construction, quiet, quick, cheap. I love the Maxtor One Touch software - it backs up my computers in about 30 seconds so I can get on with life! ^

Another vote for the WD 2.5" external drives. I've been using a 120 for almost two years and no problems yet even with travel. Usually always in my carry-on as I have lots of movies and TV shows on it. Not sure if its bad or not, but I'll put my laptop on the tray table, and put the harddrive vertically into the seatpouch. Works great!

Went with the Western Digital 250GB Passport External USB 2.0 2.5" Hard Drive. It seems to be working just fine ;-)

an IT journo friend who writes reviews on apple kit has always said you should never ever buy lacie hard drives - their failure rate is just too high. I guess specific products may be an exception, but he's maintained that for years.

an IT journo friend who writes reviews on apple kit has always said you should never ever buy lacie hard drives - their failure rate is just too high. I guess specific products may be an exception, but he's maintained that for years.

Gosh, and here I am stuck with 5 of the benighted Lacie's for the last 5 years and nary a problem. I guess we all need to look down on something. I wonder what the failure rate really is? ;)

I got a passport for my son recently. It has survived being trucked around in his schoolbag which is probably a rougher environment than most.
For anyone looking to buy an external hard drive and not very familiar with these items, make sure to go with one which is powered from the USB drive as lots of external drives require an external power sourse and you are then into problems of adaptors etc.

i'm waiting for Maxtor's Black Armor external drives to come out. hardware based FDE (full disk encryption) means if it's over lost or stolen i don't have to worry about anything personal they could pull from the drive.

i'm waiting for Maxtor's Black Armor external drives to come out. hardware based FDE (full disk encryption) means if it's over lost or stolen i don't have to worry about anything personal they could pull from the drive.

Yeah, these look sweet. I'm very happy with the ruggedness of my Maxtor OneTouch IV Mini so far. It's always in my bag and just works. Has been on almost two dozen flights already this year...

BTW about the Lacie drives, add my vote to the negatives. I bought one - the case was very flimsy plastic and the drive stopped working within a week. I returned it for a Maxtor and have never been happier.

One more thing - check the ads and buy these things on sale. Staples and Best Buy have one or another discounted just about every week. You should be able to get 160 GB for $89 and 250 for $139 if you shop around and wait a week...