External hard drives -good deals / good makes 28 February 2007 at 6:35PM in Techie Stuff 44 replies 1.8K views

mercurius_2

Hi,

I am looking for an external hard drive to store my expanding collection of digital photos. Size 250gig +, preferably not bulky.

Any advice on good makes / makes to avoid. Ditto with deals out there.

Thanks,

mercurius

superscaper

I'd definitely go for a Western Digital Mybook, don't know of any specific deals at the moment but I think they're pretty good value for very high quality manufacturer.

mobfant

I've had a Western Digital 500gb Mybook for over a year and I'm incredibly happy with it - so simple to setup and use, quiet to run, and no problems with it at all.

£99.99 at Amazon - maybe cheaper elsewhere - but it's got almost all 5* reviews.

http://amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Essential-USB2-0-External/dp/B000EXZB0M

espresso

Maplin have a WD 250GB see here for more info.

Zahc

espresso wrote:

Maplin have a WD 250GB see here for more info.

Yep, just got one myself. Free delivery and quick set up. No problems to report.

Zahc

BillScarab

Seagate hard discs are highly regarded, so one of their external drives should also be good.

Do you deifnately need an external drive? Internal ones are cheaper and dead easy to fit.

Zahc

BillScarab wrote:

Seagate hard discs are highly regarded, so one of their external drives should also be good.

Do you deifnately need an external drive? Internal ones are cheaper and dead easy to fit.

Good point.

TheFlyingGerbil

Can you get external hard drives that are powered by USB, rather than needing a power adaptor?

Joe

Zahc

TheFlyingGerbil wrote:

Can you get external hard drives that are powered by USB, rather than needing a power adaptor?

Joe

Yep; Example

They can cause problems if you have a few bits 'n' pieces connected to other USB ports due to power drain issues depending on your set up.

Zahc

flashmat

BillScarab wrote:

Seagate hard discs are highly regarded, so one of their external drives should also be good.

Do you deifnately need an external drive? Internal ones are cheaper and dead easy to fit.

Usually, but not always - the best deal at the moment is the 500GB Western Digital MyBook Essential from amazon - it's cheaper than the cheapest 500GB internal SATA drive I've found.

I've even considered getting one, stripping the drive to use internally, and flogging on the casing on ebay.

BillScarab

I can't believe how cheap that is, it's the same price at Komplett as well but they charge postage. they do have WD Caviar SATAII 500Gb internal drives for £85 but if you can get the Amazon one for £100 and flog the enclosure for a decent price your laughing.