Thetownend.com

Right, my computer knowledge being particularly crap prompts me to start another computer thread.

I've decided for my brothers 21st, Im going to buy him an external hard drive (because thats what he wants and it won't get stuck in the back of a cupboard).

Problem is, I don't know what they are, what it does, how much it costs, what is decent is and what isnt and also, whether they are compatible with laptops.

Any help is massively appreciated on this, I dont really have a budget because I dont really know what it should cost! 

:lamo:

They connect to the usb port. There are two types:

1) Requires no mains power, usually these are smaller capacity and more expensive.
2) Requires mains power.

Get the largest capacity (Gigabytes Gb) you can afford. Read online reviews to see reliability issues and how noisy it is.

Easy.

Cool, so how much am I looking at for a decent one? (ok whats a decent one :D)

Well how big does it need to be? It's like the hard drive of your laptop/computer but on the outside.

I'd say £50-75 is a reasonable amount and for the top of that budget you can get a 500GB decent brand.

Maybe I should have phrased that as

How much porn does he need?

You can get them for about £50 nowadays.

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=295645&CatId=3092

Cool dude!

Sounds silly but where do you think is best to get one and should I just type in external hard drive to search?  Also, last question, what is a decent brand for this type of thing?

I love my 500gb external hard drive... It's uber-handy.

Si Pie answered everything you needed to know - just wanted to be a part of this here External Hard Drive love-in

What have you got?  Linkage would be coolio :D

I have a seagate. Other well known brands are Western Digital, LaCie and Freecom. Avoid Maxtor.

Look on www.dabs.com, www.ebuyer.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.maplin.co.uk

Is this one good?

http://www.dabs.com/products/seagate-500gb-freeagent-desktop-7200rpm-usb2-3-5--silver-57Q4.html

Pretty certain the only external drives that don't require power have 2.5" drives inside them, unless there is a reason why this option makes sense give them a wide berth.

You can get external drives with FireWire connections as well, which might make more sense if he has a FireWire port on his laptop. Best check with him whether he wants USB or FireWire.

I have lots of external drives and always use Western Digital drives at present. But if you ask 3 other people they will all swear by another and different brand. You'll find bad reports of every drive out there, so I'd just pick which ever major brand you can get for the cheapest price. Maybe the one that looks the coolest as well, if that sort of thing is important to him.

Get the biggest capacity you can afford, or want to spend. There is no such thing as too much disk space.

Seagate has always been reliable for me

I got a 750gb Seagate FreeAgent for christmas and it's done me good so far. Survived numerous trips to bristol aswell as me knocking it over when I'm pissed.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150124

you can own a porn shop on that

Do you think the one I linked is aa good shout or better to spend a bit more with larger capacity?

(Thanks for all the help by the way, I'd be lost otherwise)

Bizarre as this may seem, provided you've got one nearby so you can pick it up I'd recommend buying it from PC World. They are very competitive on hard drive prices, though there is a smaller selection.

They've got a Seagate 500Gb at £50 and a Western Digital 500Gb at £60 (I've got one of these, they look good and are pretty quiet). Some of their stuff is cheaper if you reserve it online then go pick it up - the Western Digital is normally £75 in store but if you reserve it online first you get it for £60.

Or they've got a Western Digital 1Gb at £85 if you want a bigger capacity.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0591758991.1241635215@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccddadehehlllfgcflgceggdhhmdfho.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=220908&category_oid=

This one?

Ask if he's going to be taking it anywhere often or if he'll leave it on his desk because size may become an issue.

Maplin's is next to pcworld isn't it? So if you wanted to buy in store you could always compare prices/stock that way too.

Yup, that's the Seagate at £50. I don't know what its like though, I'd recommend the Western Digital at an extra £10 though as I've got one and haven't had any problems (and its nice and quiet). Or even better the WD 1Tb at £85 (same design as the 500Gb but double the capacity).

I would always stick to a major brand though such as Seagate or WD. There are only about four or so companies that actually manufacture hard drives, companies such as Lacie have to use other brands of drives as they don't make them themselves.

But check whether he wants USB or FireWire first.

If he's gong to use it mainly for downloaded media its worth thinking about one of these:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=227469

It's a bit dearer, but it's got a handy built in media player meaning you can plug it straight into most newer TV's and play back all those downloaded movies in DivX or whatever in the comfort of your living room without all that tedious mucking about burning CD's.

My lads had one for the last year or so and loves it.