External Hard Drives

[Method of Rhythm]

What is a good one for around $150?
Some of you might recall me asking for some computer help, well my computer is now fixed but EVERYTHING is gone. All my software, music, videos, pictures...everything. So since I lost more than the cost of an external hard drive in music alone I figured it would be a good investment!

I was looking at this one.

Any other suggestions?

EDIT:

Another question.
How do I make a back-up disk for my computer (XP) without using a floppy?

 

[King Wiired]

Yeah I'm planning on getting one too, but off eBay. Earlier, a Packard Bell one with 200gb sold for about £50! So I'm gonna stick with eBay, and if you like saving a couple of quid, I recommend you doing it too. And damn, sorry about you losing all your files. Computers can really suck.

 

[Gaz]

thats a good ehdd.
and i would suggest using firewire rather than usb

 

[COLDshiver]

I would recommend actually splitting your drive into partitions. If you're getting an external harddrive for this reason, I wouldn't recommend it. Partitions are the way to go, it's basically free too but ask someone who REALLY knows how to do it. If you don't know what it is, it basically splits your drive into two or more parts, hence the name 'partition'. They will look like separate drives in your windows explorer and will act as separate drives too, only using the same hard drive. The trick is to leave all your system stuff in one and everything else (programs, music, etc. non essential items needed to run your system) on the other partition. This way, if your computer gets hit by a virus or some sort and needs a clean install, you just clear that partition with the system files and do a clean windows install. You'll have all the files still on the other partition. The only way to lose those files is either you break the hard drive or you delete them yourself. But remember, you have to have some who knows how to do it or else you'll screw up your system real bad if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[Wii17]

ive has to reformat a million times and now just use 2 hard drives internally, suits me fine

 

[Haz]

I bought the 250GB version of this: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/115027 18 months ago. It's not let me down once. I've been very happy with it as not only is it fast, it is dead quiet too.

Format to NTFS as default on most HDDs is FAT32.

I have about 40 GB of music and around 200GB of movies on it - so it's quite full, but still runs very nice.

 

[ImageFX]

www.newegg.com. Find yourself a harddrive from there. Better shipping and better prices. Also, that external hdd is good. I purchased one for a customer of mine not to long ago. But like i said, go to Newegg and save yourself some money.

 

[Gaz]

I would recommend actually splitting your drive into part...

And then your hdd dies, and you lost everything all over again..

 

[tank]

Re formating your hard drive may not be a good call. Most hard drive partition utilities are destructive, meaning it has to erase your whole drive and reformat it to create the partition. An external drive is good to back up and to store music on. I got 200 gig hardrive and partitioned it 2 ways. 20 gigs to backup sytems and the rest for music, movies, and photo. This saves me space on my laptop's harddrive (40 gigs of music and an ass load of videos worth) and keeps my media safe.

If you're looking for a good drive I would suggest a Seagate or Samsung. BEFORE YOU BUY ANYTHING!!!!!!!!! You should look into what type of drive your computer can handle, ATA, S-ATA,U-ATA, and shoot for 7200rpm for best preformace. Also before you make your purchase consider if it would save you money to buy an internal drive, and an external mounting case. saved me upwards of 150 bucks by looking for deals. I found my drive on sale at best buy, and bought this casehttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146602
Installation takes little to no actual computer knowledge. As long as you can read and can use a screw driver, you're good. Also consider firewire/USB, and what type of drive your case can support. a little patience and reading item details and you shouldn't have a problem.

Good Luck

 

[Method of Rhythm]

My hdd was split into partitions and I still lost everything. The IT department is not willing take the time to extract all my stuff (they are lazy) but I already had my music backed-up on my iPod (using iGadget). So I saw the External HDD for 50 bones less on newegg.com, good find guys!

Thanks for the help.

Coldshiver
How would I split my external hdd like you did into partitions so I can do exactly what you did (back-up and media)?

 

[ImageFX]

If you want to dive into your computer, then you could just go with an internal harddrive.

My current config is 2x 80GB SATA RAID 0 with an IDE 80GB as my backup. The IDE drive was only like $55 at newegg. These are all internal drives.

 

[ImageFX]

So I saw the External HDD for 50 bones less on newegg.com, good find guys!

FYI: Newegg has been a very well known computer website for years. Along with sites like ZipZoomFly. So it wasn't really a "find", hehe. Glad you found it for less.

EDIT: Shyt!! Sorry for the double post. Trying to work to fast here.

 

[Method of Rhythm]

External is my only option, I use a laptop.
Or atleast that is my assumption.

 

[Redan499]

Ah, for me i use 2 hard drives, 40 gig each, one for gaming and apps and the other for music, pictures, etc. If youre using a lap top i would suggest a Seagate, those seem to be pretty reliable. I myself prefer Maxtor

 

[banned]

I had a USB2 ehdd, but the pc would only send data in small bursts and then stop after about 15 minutes of being on.

In the end, the problem was solved by getting a FireWire ehdd, 7200rpm, Maxtor (I think, might be Seagate - can't remember), 80gb. It's being used to attract dust, cobwebs and spiders.