External hard drives -good deals / good makes

mobfant

fudgem wrote: »

Can anyone tell me whether these usb hard drives work the same way as a memory stick thingie? just plug them in, drag and drop to them and then unplug?

Yep, although the MyBook and many others also need a separate power supply.

Supernova

I'm looking at these too.

Was veering towards the Seagate 500Gb because I have always had Barracudas in my PCs for the last 10 years and know they are quiet and robust.

However, they are about £40-50 more than Maxtor or WD.

Are they all hot swappable with a power switch and equally quiet in operation?

Ta

Aiadi

BUFFALO it is.......................... simple.

timread

The Western Digital 250GB My Book Essential is about the cheapest and best deal around at the moment - £58.95 on Amazon. It's virtually the same price as an internal 250GB drive!

Jeannine

I'll second that timread. Just bought it from Amazon and it's a great deal...and much smaller than I thought it would be!

Supernova

Are these things strictly USB 2.0 or could they be used to back up a W98 USB 1.1 machine too, only a bit slower?

Thanks

Supernova

I'm tempted to go for the Pro version as it has the fast Firewire 800 in case I need it for the future and is the same price as the premium which only has Firewire 400.

But Essential and Premium say they work with W98SE (to back up partner's machine) but the Pro doesn't. Is it for sure that the Pro won't work with W98?

crox

Supernova wrote: »

Are these things strictly USB 2.0 or could they be used to back up a W98 USB 1.1 machine too, only a bit slower?

Thanks

USB 2.0 is backward compatible so you could use it on your 1.1 machine, not just a bit slower though...

superscaper

crox wrote: »

USB 2.0 is backward compatible so you could use it on your 1.1 machine, not just a bit slower though...

Just from the theoretical speeds it could be forty times slower which is fine for the odd small file but for a sustained transfer of 100s of MiBs of information it will be frustratingly slow.

Supernova

The 98 machine is well past it's due but until then as long as I can get the data out somehow.

How do they stop the MyBook Pro being compatible with W98? No drivers, presumably?