What kind of external hard drive is right for me?

Question

I'm a college student, looking for a reliable, fairly big external hard drive. But the less expensive the better, because I am on a pretty tight budget.

It doesn't have to be brand new on the market, pretty or small. I think it would be less expensive to buy one that's come out a few years ago, what are your thoughts on this? And any reccommendations on a couple of the older goodies?

My current laptop has a capacity of 60gb, and It's almost full, and lately I've had to make some rough choices on what to keep and what to get rid of. I'll be using the hard drive to store Home Videos, TV shows, Thousands of Mp3's, Pictures, and a backup of this computer to use throughout college. Minimally I should get a 160gb, maybe more if I'm planning on storing lots of TV shows.. I'm just not sure of what size.

I'd be accessing it a lot though, to watch the TV shows, listen the music. So I guess that means it should have a good rpm speed too.?

Any specific model recs would be great, thanks!

Answer 1

IF YOU LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING ONLINE STORES:NEWEGG, ZIPZOOMFLY,TIGERDIRECT, OR EVEN EBAY. YOU CAN SCORE A GOOD 7200 RPM DRIVE 200 OR 300 GIG'S IN SIZE FOR ABOUT $150. OR MAYBE A LITTLE MORE. CHECK OUT THEIR SPECIALS. THEY ALWAYS HAVE GREAT DEALS THERE. I ONLY SUGGEST A SIZE THAT BIG OR BIGGER BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT OF VIDEO YOU SAVE. THAT STUFF WILL EAT UP HARD DISK SPACE FASTER THAN ANYTHING.AND AS ALWAYS, THE MORE , THE MERRIER. YOU MIGHT EVEN BE ABLE TO SCORE A 500 GIG DRIVE FOR A COUPLE OF HUNDRED BUCKS, WHICH IS A SCREAMING GOOD DEAL.WHATEVER YOU END UP DOING, JUST REMEMBER 2 THINGS. ONE IS THAT YOU WILL EVENTUALLY OUTGROW IT, SO GO FOR THE BIGGEST YOU CAN GET, SO YOU DON'T OUTGROW IT AS FAST. AND ALSO REMEMBER TO GET THE MOST BANG FOR THE BUCK. THE OTHER RECCOMENDATION OF GETTING AN INTERNAL DRIVE, AND THEN GETTING AN EXTERNAL ENCLOSURE IS A GOOD, CHEAP DEAL.CAUSE YOU CAN SCORE A HUGE HDD FOR CHEAP AND THEN PUT IT INTO ONE OF THOSE ENCLOSURES FOR ABOUT $50 AND YOU ARE COOKING WITH GAS GIRLIE.GOOD LUCK AND HOPE I WAS OF HELP.

Answer 2

ebay search maxtor (biggest hard drive manufacturer), and search IDE to USB external. Take a couple weeks to reasearch, a lot of stuff but not very complicated. you can buy a IDE to USB external enclosure for less than $30, then buy the biggest hard drive you can afford. 300gb Ultra ATA is well under $100 now, but used 40gb can be had for as little as $7 each.
You can also build your own extenal enclosure by buying a ide to usb cable $10, then a power supply for the drive.
But there are SATA drives out there now, I doubt you are ready for that with a laptop, so stick with ata hard drive.
IDE is same connector as ATA, but IDE is also for dvd drives as well as ata drives. The only difference between a hard drive exyernal enclosure and DVD optical external enclosure is a front bay opening to put your dvd disk in, or not. So buy the right enclosure. Some lay flat, some upright vertical, some neon lighted, some beautiful metalic finishes.

Answer 3

I do think the cheapest hard drive that you could get is by buying it off from computers/desktops that is abandoned by your friends. Buy it from your friend that is upgrading their computer. Then add an external casing that will enable you to use the hard disk. Remember to format the HD before using as it might contain virus and malicious software. The external casing for the HD is just below Usd10 and the HD, with sweet persuasion, i think your friend might just give it to you.

All the best,
Cheers,
Vearn

Answer 4

Go for a 400GB USB SATA Drive which cost around 10,000 INR in India 1$=47 INR, so calculate, go for USB HDD only as it is very small and comfortable to carry and use. I have one and its works excellent.

Answer 5

you can get an 80gig for ~120 dollars. there are better deals for 120gigs and up for the same price. takes some looking though.

or you can drop a grand on a NAS for 1 terrabyte :)

Answer 6

Siempre he comprado en los sitios web hard disks de buena calidad, y siempre acabo llenándolas así que al final me he decidido compra un hard disk con una gran cantidad de almacenamiento, de una marca que ya conozco muy bien he encontrado un hard disk bastante grande a un precio sin rival, la compra ha valido la pena porque aunque es grande tiene una excelente velocidad de respuesta, una excelente compra.

Answer 7

Here's a 160 gig for 119$ us.

Pretty good price! Dont ever pay more then a dollar a gig though. ;)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2204140&CatId=0

Answer 8

any usb exterial hd will work all u need to do is put in usb plug it will id ex hd and go to windows exployer and do a drag and drop to new hd then del the old info or burn it to data cd

Answer 9

dont know