External hard disks

[SGirl]

I'm just about to buy an external HDD to be used for backing up files on two or three PCs. And what I was wondering is what you'd recommend? It has to be fairly robust and reasonably portable, with a USB connector and 250-300 GB. I was looking at the following:

Maxtor Onetouch III (300 GB, 7200 rpm, 16 MB cache)
Seagate ST3300801CB-RK (300 GB, 7200 rpm, 8 MB cache)
LaCie 300728EK (250 GB, 7200 rpm)
Freecom Classic SL (250 GB)

What do you think? Or does anyone have any better suggestions?

Cheers.

[Plotloss]

Buy a HDD (250Gb for £80 odd IBM/Hitachi Deskstar for example)
Buy a USB to IDE interface and case thing (about £20)

Job done.

[Jinx]

www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0870552662.1141824013@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccgaddheldlfljcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=751024&category_oid=

Jobs a good'un.

[maxed]

Jinx said:

www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0870552662.1141824013@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccgaddheldlfljcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=751024&category_oid= Jobs a good'un.

Got similar on one of my computers a year ago.

No probs with it

[annodomini2]

There are also now becoming reasonable cost, NAS drives or Network Attenuated Storage. Basically files servers without the need for a pc/server.

These guys do both:

USB External drives and enclosures

NAS Drives

The benefit being, if you run more than one machine at home with a network, both machines can access the drive(s) without the need for them both to be turned on.

Obviously there are others.

[roadsweeper]

Whatever you do, do not buy a Maxtor EHDD. They are dreadful - mine has failed twice in 12 months. My brother's has failed totally and had to be scrapped. I know two other people with one and both have failed at least once.

Personally, I'd buy an EHDD caddy and install a Seagate HDD. The Seagate HDDs come with a 5yr warranty so you're laughing. This is exactly what I did to replace my Maxtor unit.

[SGirl]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I went with the Seagate in the end, even though the drive I was replacing was a failed Seagate. Well, it was about 6 years old.

Anyway. Top marks to EBuyer! Not only are they pretty cheap compared to other sites, but I chose the wrong delivery option by mistake - and a quick call to them got that all sorted out.