External Hard Drives

[Luci]

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! 

[Simon Pieman]

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.

[Luci]

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

[Simon Pieman]

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.

[Simon Pieman]

Maybe I should have phrased that as

How much porn does he need?

[Sippo]

You can get them for about £50 nowadays.

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

[Luci]

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?

[Rich Pullen]

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

[Luci]

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

[Simon Pieman]

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

[Luci]

Is this one good?

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

[jonny72]

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.

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.

[Simon Pieman]

Seagate has always been reliable for me

[flammableBen]

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.

[Chubbs]

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

you can own a porn shop on that