External Hard Drive Recommendations?

[Ginza]

I'm in the market for an external hard drive as i really dont do enough backing up and have lost everything on numerous occasions. Also ill be off to Uni aswell all being well so with an external hard drive i can bung everything on that.

Iv got Firewire and USB at home but what i may have at Uni is another thing so ideally i am looking for one with both USB and Firewire. Iv been looking on EBuyer and they have USB 2.0 Would that work when plugged in to a normal non 2.0 USB?

The Maxtor range appeal because of the ease of use of them. See the "One Touch" range but what other makes are incredibly easy to use?

Here are some iv been looking at

I dont need huge amounts of storage but im looking at getting one thats around 80-100GB. 80/100/120 suits me fine. The lowest size in the One Touch range with USB and Firewire is 160GB but thats more than ill need so im looking for some other external hard drives that people suggest. Oh and a reasonable ish price.

I just want something thats easy to use, does the job and is future proof.

[Crispin]

How about the Archos MiniHD from Dabs. I've seen them and they certainly are small. Either 40 Gb (?139) or 20 Gb (?103).
So they have a smaller amount of memory than the Maxtor. But these fit in your shirt pocket. Plus they don't weigh 1.4 kg, unlike the Maxtor.

And it's only the work that needs backing up. And there is no way in hell you need to back up more than 20 Gb of work at Uni. Unless you're saving each page of work as a bitmap screenshot.

[Ginza]

Well while im here at home its going to act as an emergency backup of Everything. Iv got 53GB in use on my HD so i want to back all that up and then use it at Uni aswell so im looking for about double that.

Also 40GB for ?140, thats a bit of a rip off personally when i can get a Maxtor One Touch 160GB Firewire and USB HD for that...

[Crispin]

Fair enough, they're small in file size. But I wouldn't exactly call them a rip-off. They're tiny, weeny things. And highly portable. Unlike something that weight nearly two kilos (compared to 180g) Even smaller than my wang. And that is saying something.

But yeah, if you want to back up your entire computer I can appreciate it wouldn't work. Well, go for the Maxtor one by all means.

As for backwards compatability with USB 1.1, it's not necessarily a given.
Ask what the computers are like at the university you are going to. If you're going to make use of it, you ideally want USB 2.0 as it's faster. If not firewire. Sometimes devices are only USB 2.0 compliant. Or just totally impractical to use on 1.1.

[Ginza]

I can appreciate the size is a major selling point for the Archos Mini HD but i really dont need it to fit in my pocket and 40GB really isnt enough for me. It does appeal though seeing how small it is and how it can fit in your pocket. If it was 80GB then i maybe would have considered it but for the capacity it holds it doesnt represent value for money to me.

Your looking at 40GB and tiny or 160GB and heavy for the same price. Id be more inclined to go for the latter.

This seems to be what im looking for

or i might just go the whole hog and get this

[Super Stu]

Would creating a partition image and burning it to a pack of cheap DVDRs not suit?

[Ginza]

Well in the short term yes, if i knew how though.

[VR46]

Ginza, 53gb is a hell of a lot, can't you just back up movies/music etc (I guess thats what you have ?) onto CD individually ? that's what I do as my laptop only has 30gb drive.

[Super Stu]

If you're wanting to backup the parition as a whole, you'll want Drive Image or Norton Ghost (?) or something.

better to backup key files though, as David suggests.

For either of the above, you'll be wanting a ?70 DVD writer and probably ?20 on a tub of 50 blank dvd-rs.

[Ginza]

TBH Stu Norton Ghost is ?40 + ?70 for a Dvd Writer and ?20 approx for DVD-RS = ?130 approx which is the same price for a pretty huge external hard drive. ?30 extra would get me a 160GB one touch external hard drive so i think im going to go down that route instead.

Cheers for all your comments though.

[Super Stu]

Yeah, but a DVD writer effectively offers infinite, cheap (that 20 quid tub of discs holds 225gig), robust storage. You wouldn't need norton ghost, or any other partition program, as you've yet to give a good reason why the whole hdd needs backing up en masse.

If you did want to back up the entire hdd to this external hdd, it would require a program like Ghost (or probably Powerquest Partition Magic actually) anyway. Simply copying "C" to this new drive wouldn't mean you could copy it back and have it instantly working if the **** hit the fan. Add ?40 to your tally.

No, get all your films, make a run of DVDs. Get all your mp3s, make a run of dvds. Zip up My Docs, whack in a DVD.

Unless you absolutely need instant fast access to all your files simultaneously, optical media is by far the better option.

[Ginza]

DVDs it is then. You could sell ice to eskimos

[edandersen]

Ginza, I seriously recommend you pick up one of these:



The METAL GEAR BOX SUBSTANCE.

Bar having possibly the most stupid name ever, it is a lovely bit of kit. Turns ANY internal IDE hard disc (IDE 133, even) into a lovely USB 2.0 external job.

I picked mine up for ?35 from http://www.directusbstore.co.uk. Stick a cheap internal IDE drive in and you are laughing - I got a 160GB one for ?70 from the Maplins sale. Bargain!