5punk

Now that I've got the ability to download a lot more than I used to, I'm looking at buying an external HDD to store all my films and music on so that I can keep my precious HDD space for games, and have the ability to take my media with me.

What I'm looking for is at least 500 GB, but more will probably be too expensive and a bit unnecessary. My budget allows for something between 50-60 quid, 80 at an absolute max.

Any ideas?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital ... ce_title_0

Friend has one. It works, job done.

The one i'm using I can't remember what it's name was, i think it's a lacie, and was a little more expensive but it has a switch which is verr useful.

From my experience, avoid seagate, i had to send one back as it was making angry clicking noises like a crab in heat from the get-go.

You know something's wrong when in your own country they offer 1TB drives for double the amount they sell it on amazon.

Thanks for the advice Sol!

I have a couple of those WD drives, they're good.

Well, I've been satisfied with their stuff in the past and for that price I can't really complain, so I bought it.

COCK. Yay for randomly deleting everything.

So. I'm in the market for one.

WD would be my first choice, but I'm thinking of USB3 and they only do the one. Overclockers have more Verbatim than anything else but I've never heard of them, they are cheap though.

I don't need any features, just reliability (well that's a given), USB3 (not a big deal, it's only for archiving photos/videos etc + frequently played mp3s), 500GB is fine, and nearer £50 than £100.

I'd not pay the premium for USB3 unless you really need the speed.

Unless you want it as an active drive you run things from, USB2 is fine for archiving and backup you run in the background or even watching movies - this from someone who backs up 3TB of stuff regularly*.

*pretty much daily

Well, a Verbatim 1TB USB3 is only £65, not much of a premium over WD's basic 1TB USB2 at £55, it just depends if they're any good. But yeah I'd probably still swing towards the WD.

IIRC verbatim use hitachi drives and they suck. They also use WD drives, so you may pay a tenner extra for the same drive or one that might break.

In terms of usb 3 - both the drive and the pc need to support it, a lot of mobo's a few years old can't/won't maintain the throughput even if they have a port nominally labelled as usb3, it's not because it fails to meet the standard.

Speaking of porta HDs, whats the dohickey called that is basically a usb adaptor and PSU for making internal drives external?

During the 3 yearly hardware upgrade i do, i tend to just get a new BIGGAR hd, and not bother with ghosting stuffs. this has left me with a pile of IDE drives and nfc whats on any of them. Any Ideas?

If I'm right in what you're after they're called enclosures. You slot the internal hdd in and it provides connectivity through the usb. You can also get docking stations that you slot the drive in and again get connectivity through the usb.

Icybox is one.

Disclaimer: it's the only make I'm aware of as I've never looked into these in much depth, dunno how good they are.

http://www.saverstore.com/product/20042 ... IDE-Drives

that sorta thing?

I've used Icybox server solutions at work. They were pretty solid aluminium cases to slot into racks. Considering the battering some of our kit took they did pretty well, although the blue power light on the front used to get bust a lot by people using them to press the drives home.

I bought this enclosure* from Ebuyer, although I can't see it on there any more. It holds the two SATA harddrives I had lying about and is handy for backups. Its LED shines brighter than the sun.

*site not a recommendation, it's just where I found the picture.