What external hard drive to buy

lonestarfan · 11 October 2013 at 1:24PM

I need to buy an external hard drive to store photos from iPhone and cameras. We are constantly not able to import photos to our computers due to lack of disc space or memory. Can anyone recommend an external harddrive that would be good to invest in. Thanks.

WTFH · 11 October 2013 at 1:48PM

OK, well you're going to have to import them through your computer to get them onto an external drive, so you may want to free up some space on the computer to start with. After that, it just depends how careful you want to be with your data.
Seagate, Iomega, Maxtor and Western Digital are all respected brands of external drives. You can look on https://www.7dayshop.com or other websites for buying them (I'd not recommend Amazon or eBay even if they are 20p cheaper)

If your hard disk is full, then buy a larger drive (1TB or more), then you can move a lot of the junk off the computer onto it.
If you're good at managing data, then anything over 500GB will do.

closed · 11 October 2013 at 2:18PM

if you put them all on one external drive, and it fails, you'll lose them, better to either clear some space or find out what's using the space on the internal and if really full get a bigger internal, and use external for backup, along with another copy on dvd. Some internal drives come with a data partition, which is often empty

http://antibody-software.com/web/software/software/wiztree-finds-the-files-and-folders-using-the-most-disk-space-on-your-hard-drive/

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/slim

http://www.voidtools.com/

http://www.ebuyer.com/320102-hitachi-1tb-touro-mx3-portable-hard-drive-0s03457 etc

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

JohnStuart_2 · 11 October 2013 at 4:56PM

lonestarfan wrote: »

I need to buy an external hard drive to store photos from iPhone and cameras. We are constantly not able to import photos to our computers due to lack of disc space or memory. Can anyone recommend an external harddrive that would be good to invest in. Thanks.

check bestbuy, amazon and some discount coupons site if you are looking to save some money.:o

esuhl · 11 October 2013 at 5:21PM

As above, I'd go for an internal drive if you just want to increase storage capacity.

As for external drives, though, I'm very happy with my recently purchased Western Digital "My Passport" 1TB drive. It's small, quiet, stays cool in use, and is good value for money. There are faster drives out there, but I'm not too worried about getting the absolute fastest performance.

henm2 · 11 October 2013 at 7:26PM

A couple of good examples
Transcend 1TB 2.5 inch USB 3.0 Military-Grade Shock Resistance Portable External Hard Drive £58.99

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005MNGQ6C/ref=nosim

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-MiniStation-Slim-Portable-Drive/dp/B008A1C0CW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1381515652&sr=1-1&keywords=buffalo+ministation
I have used the buffalo one £64-00 for the last 2 years with no problems. I am always careful to eject it properly from PCs/Laptops once finished.

Nada666 · 11 October 2013 at 9:02PM

For photographs you ought to spend £3 or £5 every two or three months printing out a few dozen of them too.

sancho · 11 October 2013 at 9:32PM

WTFH wrote: »

OK, well you're going to have to import them through your computer to get them onto an external drive, so you may want to free up some space on the computer to start with. After that, it just depends how careful you want to be with your data.
Seagate, Iomega, Maxtor and Western Digital are all respected brands of external drives. You can look on https://www.7dayshop.com or other websites for buying them (I'd not recommend Amazon or eBay even if they are 20p cheaper)

If your hard disk is full, then buy a larger drive (1TB or more), then you can move a lot of the junk off the computer onto it.
If you're good at managing data, then anything over 500GB will do.

Why would you not recommended amazon? They're one of the best companies to deal with in the world. Excellent customer service and competitive pricing

lonestarfan · 11 October 2013 at 9:48PM

Thanks everyone. Can someone remind me how to find my used and free space totals. I have a vague recollection of it being in right click properties somewhere. I'm using vista home premium. Also can someone explain how to buy more internal hard drive then - it's a Dell Dimension E521. I didn't realise the fact I'd have to import them to my pc anyway. I just thought I'd connect my iPhone to an external hard drive but I don't have the knowledge to see that was a bit silly lol. Do I need more ram to add internal disc space or is ram disc space? I'm a bit out of my depth by the sound of my post! I added ram myself a year ago so I know I'm up to max ram slots/cards. TIA.

lonestarfan · 11 October 2013 at 10:04PM

On reflection it might not have been importing photos that caused the message "lack of disc space" . It might've been me plugging my iPhone into the pc to update it to IOS7. Either way I still need more disc space I think?

closed · 11 October 2013 at 10:21PM

right click on c in explorer/my computer, properties or use the utilities in post 3

ram is completely different, and unconnected to your problem

to buy more internal, you'd just buy another disk, and attach it internally, and then either keep 2 inside, or transfer the os to the new drive

What external hard drive to buy

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