External Hard Disk Drive. WANTED!

jetskidia

I'm looking for an external hard disk drive, any decent deals around?

What should I look for

Should it be powered via usb or mains

Thanks

k1rkyc

Depends - do you want a portable one, a desktop one? How much storage space do you need?

Ebuyer do some good deals - check this one out:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118036/show_product_reviews

jetskidia

k1rkyc wrote: »

Depends - do you want a portable one, a desktop one? How much storage space do you need?

Ebuyer do some good deals - check this one out:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118036/show_product_reviews

I need a desktop one, not really sure what storage size but I dont want to be buying another one in a couple of months, I would think 500gb would suffice;)

Mine'sAPintPlease

I was looking for one recently, and did a little bit of research. My conclusion was that there isn't really one which is head and shoulders above the others.

The problem with places like Amazon is the review scores are to my mind a little distorted by the minority who are much more likely to moan about a problem than those who haven't. Every drive I looked at had some negative scores from people where the drive had broken or failed.

So from my experience I have 2 Seagate drives. I've read that apparently they may or may not be as well made as they once were (again there's conflicting stories on the internet - as with most things!), but the one I bought over a year ago is still working beautifully, and the one I bought recently is also working very well too.

One thing to look out for (as often mentioned in reviews) is the back-up software. It's usually rubbish and so I use Karen's Replicator which is free to download (just google it).

Currently you can get 500 gig drives for around the 50 to 60 quid mark. Hope that helps, and don't pay too much attention to the reviews!

free4440273

I just ordered this from Amazon last week: hasn't arrived yet, so I can't provide my personal opinion on the product It's currently approx. £67 from Amazon.

Zahc

I have one of these;

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=221814&source=1&DOY=7m7

and it's very good. It's not built for carting around, though I do, but sits solidly enough on the desk. Access times appear about average and it's very quiet. Looks good too IMHO.

Sev

timbim_2

Is there a particular reason that you need an external? You get much better value for money if you go for a second internal.

esbo

This looks a good deal

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1695722606.1215474573@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccgdadeeigdmjfkcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=638717&category_oid=-32889

£55 for 500 megabyte.

Worth looking at things such as reliability and quiteness before you buy.
So try and find some idependant reviews before you buy.

I might get one of those myself it it checks out OK in reviews.

esbo

esbo wrote: »

This looks a good deal

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1695722606.1215474573@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccgdadeeigdmjfkcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=638717&category_oid=-32889

£55 for 500 megabyte.

Worth looking at things such as reliability and quiteness before you buy.
So try and find some idependant reviews before you buy.

I might get one of those myself it it checks out OK in reviews.

It sounds ideal here.
http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.asp?pn=WDE1U5000U
"Brilliant, well made, very fast, quiet, bought a case with it to carry it around "

esbo

I ended up getting one of these:-
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1413422757.1215629907@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfadeeigdmjelcflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=651912&category_oid=-32889
However I got it from Comet not Currys, it says 79.99 on Currys website but I
got mine for 59.99.
The one I mentioned earlier was actually £65 if you bought it in store so I saved £5.
It is pretty much the same thing.

I am pretty pleased with it, it is very quiet, silent infact but I guess it was a completely
unfragmented disk so it had little head movement to do.

One thing worth mentining is that they are slower then internal drives as they are limited
by the USB speed. It seemed to take about 2.5 minutes to do a job which
was done in one minute internally. But then it is "fast enough", I can play
recorded TV from which is about the most resoucre hungry thinig I do.

Apart from that it will just be used for back-ups and storing recorded TV and video,
so it is ideal, effectively a 500GB harddrive recorder when combined with my USB
DVB stick. I will back up my 250 gig hard drive to it tonight so I can repartition it.
The alternative was to burn 55 DVD's. :rotfl:

Was amazingly easy to install, just plugged in the power then the USB cable and
it was ready to copy in a few seconds!

jetskidia

Bought this one in the end,

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/324729

Thanks all:T