Need opinions on best portable external HD, 300G and up.

[Mckenzie]

Well I bought one from Staples and it is a Maxtor 320G that runs on USB for $230 and I come home and see EBAY has this one and more for around $120.


Some brands are toshiba, hitachie, my passport, maxtor, etc.

http://computers.listings.ebay.com/External_300-499-GB_W0QQdfspZ32QQfromZR4QQsacatZ158822QQsocmdZListingItemList

I know nothing about computer brands / quality except that I hate my HP laptop.

Any suggestions on a top quality backup drive thats easy to use would be appreciated.

Thanks. :)

[tha_bandit]

did u buy a 2.5 or 3.5 inch drive?....if its a 3.5 inch thats pretty expensive for 320, they are usually around the $100 range.....to me they all work the same, i personally like a enclosure that u can upgrade later on.....(i have a 3.5 inch 500gb hp media drive that i picked up for $110, its requires some work to upgrade up its doable....

a "portable" slim enclosure is like $20 on dealextreme.com and u can pick up a notebook hd from mem express for cheap which'll be the cheapest...

[Mckenzie]

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Maxtor-320gb-OneTouch-4-Mini-Portable-Drive_W0QQitemZ130237582812QQihZ003QQcategoryZ158822QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I got that one from Staples and it was $229. I noticed that the portable drives were more expensive than the big ones that need a power cord and I want a smaller one that runs off of USB.

[tha_bandit]

yea these ebay prices are not bad......
get this one if it stays around $100....and return the staples one (def expensive), even memory express is cheaper for the same item.
http://cgi.ebay.com/320GB-External-Hard-Drive-My-Passport-Essential_W0QQitemZ220255305463QQihZ012QQcategoryZ158822QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Mckenzie]

Thanks-- Yeah i'm gonna return the other one for sure.

I just want to make sure that I am getting a quality backup that does not poop the bed so I was wondering if any of those brands I should stay away from. 20 or $30 difference is not a big deal as long as its good.

[Mitsu3000gt]

You can buy 1 TB 7200 RPM USB2 or eSATA external drives from Costco or NCIX.com for $200-250. I paid $200 for mine. Most of the companies use a brand name hard drive in them anyways so they are all going to be just as reliable in my opinion.

[Mckenzie]

^ ok beauty thats what I figured. The guy at FS was saying he had one brand come back more than the others...cannot remember the name but I would hate that to happen to a backup drive.

[5fivespeed]

That would be the Lacie one - that has really, really bad vibration issues.

Go anything, Western Digital and you'll be fine.