I want an external hard-drive! (laptop, hard drive, 2GB, 40gb)

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

I have been given some money to spend on what I would like for Christmas.

I use a laptop as my main computer and I have been thinking I would like to get an external hard drive. I download music and have been uploading picture files to the internet.

Does anyone have some recommendations?

I don't care about the external hard drive being portable, I am really only concerned about how much storage the drive has.

Are there other things I need to consider?

Is there one brand over another that I should consider?

Any recommendations you can give would be appreciated.

[alleycat]

I have an Iomega 500GB external and I think it's a good one for the money. I can't remember exactly, but I paid something like $129 for it at the time. One other consideration. If you have an external drive you make think of doing a full backup of your system from time to time. It's easier to do with one of the backup software packages such as Acronis. You might think of spending a bit of your money on that as well.

[Tek_Freek]

Just for reference:

http://tinyurl.com/2os6u3 (broken link)

This is sorted by price so there are a number of items on the first page that aren't drives.

and

http://tinyurl.com/3xcykp (broken link)

A page of specials. At top right there is a link to "See all Deals" and "See all external drives". At the left side you can search using different criteria.

Recommendations: Try to figure how large the drive needs to be. Take the folder you store the data in now and right click on it in Explorer. Click on properties. How many files are in it and how much space does it use? Considering how much is in the folder and how many more pictures, etc you might want to store, do a simple multiplication, add 10-20% to the result, and that tells you the minimum drive size you want.

Example: You have a folder that contains all your pictures/music: You click on Properties and the result says (I'll use one of mine) you have 1179 files that use 2.52gb of space. You think that in the future you will probably have 10 times this number of files. That gives 25.2GB. Add 20% for a total of 30GB (rounded). Now add in any other data you might want to back up on a regular basis. Documents, QuickBooks, databases, etc. Assuming there is an additional 30B of data you are now looking for a minimum of 60GB required.

If you are planning on backing up your entire drive add the size of the drive into the equation. Guessing 80GB. Your total is now 140GB. The reason I add the two together is that I assume you would keep the full backup and the data backup on separate partitions.

Find the best deal on a drive at least that size. Is it within your budget?

Read the reviews if there are any. Newegg has a Reviews tab when you click on a drive (top right corner) and it's a good source of information.

Here is an example page. See the Customer Reviews tab at top right?

http://tinyurl.com/2ammp4 (broken link)

[Tek_Freek]

-You got me to do some snooping.

Found this: http://tinyurl.com/3658ym (broken link)

Everyone seems to like it.

[foma]

i saw a terabyte one and was very tempted to get it!

[Arcticthaw]

Good brands: Seagate, Western Digital, have served me well.

Maxtor are ok but not first choice.

[GreenMachine]

I like my Seagate external hard drive.

[NHDave]

Seagate has one of the best warranties in the business, and very reliable, I have 4 of them and haven't had one fail on me, ones almost out of warranty. I will second the Acronis recommendation as well, great backup program and easy to use.

[scarletneon]

see, my Seagate one has failed on me twice? I think. now it seems like if i caress it just the right way and not leave it on for too long, it is limping along ok.

[NHDave]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

see, my Seagate one has failed on me twice? I think. now it seems like if i caress it just the right way and not leave it on for too long, it is limping along ok.

I'm not going to comment on that as this is a family oriented forum