External hard drive questions

[Kaldaur]

Hey guys, I've got a question. I'm looking to back up files on my computer, and to do that I'm shooting for an external hard-drive. However, I know nothing about this field. Any suggestions on what model/brand to purchase? I don't need something huge: I'm looking to store music and word documents. 100 gig would be overkill, so anything that keeps the price down would be great. Thanks for your help!

[Winnow]

100GB is nothing anymore. If all you want to store is music and word documents, just buy the cheapest thing you can. Since you won't need fast transfers, buy a USB external drive so it's compatible with just about anything.

e-Sata is what you should buy if you want speed but that will require an e-Sata port on your PC (if a card doesn't come with the external drive)

If you want something that can operate by itself on your network so any PC can access the data even if one of your PCs is turned off, then you need a NAS external drive/station which would connect to your router (ethernet). I don't think you'll find one of those with a tiny 100GB HD it it though.

[Fairweather Pure]

My 500G usb external was 120$ about 6 months ago on sale at Best Buy just to give you a price point.

[Aslanna]

Hey guys, I've got a question. I'm looking to back up files on my computer, and to do that I'm shooting for an external hard-drive.

If that's your only need then you could do that with another internal drive just as well. I just think the odds of both drives failing at the same time would be rather small.

[Siji]

Don't buy the prepackaged external drives. Go to NewEgg and pick an enclosure (I got the Thermaltake Max4) and then pick an drive. When drives come down in price, just buy a new drive and put it in there. Can put the old drive in the PC or whatever you want to do. Drive dies or if you outgrow it, in one of the prepackaged ones, you can't replace it.

Nice thing about the Max4 is that it's usb and esata and comes with the esata cable and card if your motherboard doesn't have the connection already.

[noel]

Don't buy the prepackaged external drives. Go to NewEgg and pick an enclosure (I got the Thermaltake Max4) and then pick an drive. When drives come down in price, just buy a new drive and put it in there. Can put the old drive in the PC or whatever you want to do. Drive dies or if you outgrow it, in one of the prepackaged ones, you can't replace it.

Nice thing about the Max4 is that it's usb and esata and comes with the esata cable and card if your motherboard doesn't have the connection already.

Totally agree with Siji (a rare occurrence!) I'd add that you want an enclosure that supports both USB 2.0 and e-SATA.

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

How much stuff do you need to backup, in GB? Because if it's mainly documents and a bit of music, you can get a 16GB flash drive for what, $70 ?

[Canelek]

If you want to go the route of not putting stuff together (no matter how simple), look at Seagate's FreeAgent external drives. They come in a multitude of sizes and are versioned for USB, e-SATA, and both.

I have a 250GB USB FreeAgent. I opted for USB only since I switch it between my notebook and desktop.

[noel]

Cane is spot on. For the sake of an informed audience, not putting stuff together on an external harddrive typically amounts to:

1. Not unscrewing two phillips head screws on the rear of the enclosure.
2. Not screwing 4 (supplied) phillips head screws to secure the hard drive to the enclosure.
3. Not connecting the single power cable and single data cable from the enclosure to the harddrive, both of which can only be connected in one way.
4. Not screwing the two phillips head screws back down to the rear of the enclosure to close it back up.



It's actually very easy. There are computer jobs that are daunting, but this is not one of them. If you're at all intimidated by that, I totally understand as I have lots of friends and relatives that are as well, but this *is* something you can do yourself.

[Winnow]

Some timely info:

Why I'm Done with Portable Hard Drives

Maybe in the comments you can find some good brand suggestions.

Vendors do tend to use the crappiest hard drives as external drives as speed isn't necessary. That's all the more reason to buy your own internal HD and your own external HD case and make your own.