External hard drives?

I have misplaced my external hard drive and have been putting off getting a new one for several months. But I need to go ahead and purchase a new one.

I have a lot of gift card credit on amazon and so ... any suggestions? I don't have a lot to save but there is a lot of writing that I would hate to lose.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. The other one that I had seemed cumbersome. I would like to have a smaller one that is very portable.

Thanks,
Elisabeth

How much do you have to backup? If it is not that much, maybe a 32GB or 64GB pen drive would satisfy your needs.

I have a couple of 32GB pen drives that I use to back up my main files (important documents, etc.) but I also have a couple of external drives to back everything up. They are Western Digital Passports and I have been happy with them. You can get a 1TB for around $100 - probably a lot less when on sale.

netman

there are good portable external hard drives with 1 TB (terabytes) for sale on amazon that are good from seagate and western digital:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAg...sr=1-1-catcorr

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...sr=1-1-catcorr

I like Hitachi's.... kinda sexy looking and 250GB was about 39.00 last month.

I am the keeper of the key to all of my family and most of my friends archives, and I have never had a Hitachi fail on me... (probably just cursed myself) Have you or anyone here looked into "cloud"storage yet?

-PT-

As a heteralsexual male, I find the phrase, "external hard drive" an xymoron at best, technically. An emotional NIGHMARE, physically.

I'm sorry, Elisabeth,

For posting humor at your serious request. If you really just need copies of a few, small files on your PC and your PC has an open USB port, consider a "jump drive"

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....questid=124029

PM me if you need more info.

Try the free 50GB of storage via Box.net. Saved my butt a few times. If you are just doing documents, go get a Gmail account and put the docs in Google Docs. Super easy!

i vote for Seagates... very reliable in my server environment. CDW 50 bucks for 500gb... small drives very portable...

Not sure if this is out of your range but if you can put this together (its very easy). I would go with a solid state hard drive and put it in and enclosure. Basically you would be building your own external drive. Solid state will last longer and be more reliable. The only draw back is that solid states are still a bit expensive so you might not get as much space. The one Im listing here from Amazon is 65 gig. I've also listed an enclosure that you can use.

Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT064M4SSD2
$109.99

USB 2.0 2.5 HARD DRIVE SATA HDD EXTERNAL CASE ENCLOSURE
$5.87

Anyone familiar with the WD network backup drives? I fell into 2 of them the one is 500GB but I need to figure out the best way to blow out everything in the current backup and then start over.

I didn't get the original software but have downloaded it from their site.

Try the free 50GB of storage via Box.net. Saved my butt a few times. If you are just doing documents, go get a Gmail account and put the docs in Google Docs. Super easy! Originally Posted by flipsix

Thanks for this helpful hint!!! I have a gmail account but I didn't know that there was google docs. I'll have to check it out.

i vote for Seagates... very reliable in my server environment. CDW 50 bucks for 500gb... small drives very portable... Originally Posted by mrod

This sounds like my speed. And I want a small one. Still thinking. This subject gives me a headache!!!

Not sure if this is out of your range but if you can put this together (its very easy). I would go with a solid state hard drive and put it in and enclosure. Basically you would be building your own external drive. Solid state will last longer and be more reliable. The only draw back is that solid states are still a bit expensive so you might not get as much space. The one Im listing here from Amazon is 65 gig. I've also listed an enclosure that you can use.

Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT064M4SSD2
$109.99

USB 2.0 2.5 HARD DRIVE SATA HDD EXTERNAL CASE ENCLOSURE
$5.87 Originally Posted by MrMonger

This sounds so appealing to me. Make my own. But since Lazurus's statement below doesn't even make sense to me (I have limited tech knowledge) ... I feel that this, along with certain wet dreams, I could screw up.

Would there be a way to prevent messing this up?

Anyone familiar with the WD network backup drives? I fell into 2 of them the one is 500GB but I need to figure out the best way to blow out everything in the current backup and then start over.

I didn't get the original software but have downloaded it from their site. Originally Posted by LazurusLong

What does "blow out everything in the current backup" mean? Is it taking the information on one and putting it on another? I wouldn't mind knowing that either, since at some point ... I hope to find the hard drive that is missing that has all of the stuff from my old computer that died on it.

I SO appreciate the input!!! Now ... someone needs to answer Lazurus's question. There seems to be a dearth of computer folks on this board!!! (I promise to do better with my learning. I promise to do better with my learning. I need to write this about a hundred times!)

Thanks again!
Elisabeth

This subject gives me a headache!!! Originally Posted by ElisabethWhispers

Then lets keep it simple. The first question you need to answer is...

"How much data do I need to back up?"

If you only need to back up 4GB of data, there is no point in getting a 1TB backup drive.

If you need to backup 500GB of data, that is a completely different story.

netman

EW,

Since I don't know anything about the drive, it came filled with data and I can see the directory listing through my router but do not want to give it permission to send anything to my computer due to it potentially having a virus.

I want to be able to initialize the drive back to factory settings but because it is a network drive and has backup software in place and running when it is plugged in, I'm asking if anyone has any experience.

I may just remove the drive, slave it to my backup desktop then wipe it using something like Partition Magic.

I have an iomega that I got at Office Depot for around $70. It is the size of a deck of cards (a little thinner). I just wonder what is on there and who is reading the stuff you lost!