I am starting to travel a lot again, and as there are certainly some battle hardened veterans on this forum, I thought this was the logical place to ask, rather than trawl through a whole lot of PC magazine reviews.

I have searched on the forum, but there doesn't appear to be a thread which quite addresses my question.

A portable external HD appears to be the way to go, and preferably one which powers up through a USB connection.

Reveiws on Amazon.com vary from very satisified users, to absolute disaster stories.

What would the recomendation be from battle hardened veterans for a portable external HD that backed up my company files existing on my laptop if the HD decided that it was going to die as a worse case scenario, and I would buy another laptop or use a substitute if need be. The maximum file size for my total personal files would appear to be 3 - 4 GB, which would be on the margin for a memory stick.

Advice appreciated. I am an oldie, so it shouldn't be too sophisticated.

And as an oldie, a complete devotee of the Internet and its power, and an avid FF in my hey day (and still), this is a marvellous site.