Need help finding an External Hard Drive

I own several Western Digitals and one Maxtor. 2 of the WD are the passport models with up to 500 gb and are great because they are portable and do not require external power. My other two are desktop models and require power. I love the portability of the passport models. Just toss em in my laptop bag and away I go.

You can probably get 500 gb for less than $75. I actually got lucky in Jan and got a 1.5 TB WD from Dell for $79.99. Just keep watching BUXR. External Deals happen quite often enough.

If you feel that the data/info you have is super important then would recommend buying 2 x 1 TB instead of a 2TB drive. That way you can back up twice.

Point is -- that backups crash too. So in case you have budget for a 2TB drive -- look for deals and try and see if you can get 2 1Tbs for the same $$

Size matters. Get the biggest you can. You can certainly get a 1TB for under $100. As I recall, most internal mechanisms are built by the same few companies, so brand is less important.

we have a 1TB WD. It stores a lot. I have all my mps'3 on it, files, movies and tons more.

I'd recommend the WD.

I suggest getting a drop in external external enclosure. That way you can have multiple drives and just drop them in when you want/need them. Also good for backing up in multiple locations.

Another good option is offsite backup. I just started doing this about a week ago after researching multiple companies I'm doing a 30 day free trail at Nomadesk.

http://www.nomadesk.com/

Very easy to do, it creates a virtual drive on your computer (PC/Mac) you drag/drop the files you want to backup. Then it syncs the drive automatically. They offer unlimited space and use on up to 3 computers. Also you can access your files from any computer with internet access without having to take a drive along with you. Its $50/yr currently plus you get the 30 day trial I'm trying.

Awesome thanks everyone, All the info will be very helpful... and I'll keep en eye on when someone posts a really good price on here

do you have an old computer sitting around. All you need is a case(buy the cheapest one you can. I got one for 10 bucks on ebay before) Remove old hard drive, insert it into case, format it...and you're good to go. I just replaced an old 6 gb one I made with a 60gb one. I also use a 160gb ioemga that has been going strong for about 6 years.

Also you could put everything you plan on transferring into a separate folder. Right click on it and select properties. See what the size reads. If it says 200 gb...make sure you get something at least twice that size. Chances are(unless you have a lot of movies), spending 100 bucks on a TB is going to be a waste.

Just checked a folder on my computer that has 3500 art files(AI, PDF, CDR, EPS) that is smaller than 2.5 gigs.

I have a lot of movies, music, pictures, and even a few backed up copies of games and all my stuff fits on a 500gb drive. I would almost always recommend going bigger than you need though as you will collect a lot more over time. Also as newer technology comes out files are probably going to be larger in size to enhance quality on them so that's another thing to keep in mind. I have a portable hard drive and to me that is way more convenient as it plugs in and is powered by the USB drive on my computer and doesn't require a wall plug in.