External Hard Drive - Which one is best?

[Mazdagirl]

I'm looking at getting an external hard drive to store my photos and mp3's on. I'd like something fairly future proof thats compact and reliable. Any suggestions?

[LordGrover]

You could do worse than iomega desktop hard drive: 320GB USB 2.0 for PC & Mac. About £50 +VAT I think.

[Mazdagirl]

LordGrover said:

You could do worse than iomega desktop hard drive: 320GB USB 2.0 for PC & Mac. About £50 +VAT I think.

Is that a good make? I was looking at a Western Digital My Book. Whats the difference? Assuming there is one.

Edited by Mazdagirl on Tuesday 31st July 16:03

[LordGrover]

I hope so ... I just bought one a couple of weeks ago.

Iomega have a good rep in low-end backup solutions at least, so far as I'm aware. Like I said though, I've only just started using mine so can't be certain yet.

ETA Click here. The price quoted must be list, I paid way less than that.

Edited by LordGrover on Tuesday 31st July 16:31

[hawkaye]

I have a couple of Lacie 320gig, highly recommended and extremely quiet, not the cheapest around though.

[kiwisr]

Another LaCie user her - quality bits of kit.

[cjs]

Iomega for me, I have a 320GB. If you have a Firewire port on your Computer then you may want to get a Firewire Version for extra speed.

One issue with external drives is what make of HD is inside, Iomega and Lacie fit other manufacturers HD's inside,(mine is a Samsung I beleive) Western Digital will have a WD drive, try and read some reviews first.


I got mine from Ebuyer.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/store/2/cat/Hard-Drives

[voyds9]

LordGrover said:

You could do worse than iomega desktop hard drive: 320GB USB 2.0 for PC & Mac. About £50 +VAT I think.

Ebuyer have Iomega 500Gb on offer at moment £69.99

[ATG]

FWIW over the last five years or so I've used about half a dozen Maxtor and LaCie external drives. All have worked faultlessly (touches wood).

[Mazdagirl]

voyds9 said:

LordGrover said:

You could do worse than iomega desktop hard drive: 320GB USB 2.0 for PC & Mac. About £50 +VAT I think.

Ebuyer have Iomega 500Gb on offer at moment £69.99

That sounds like a bargain. Will check it out. Will also look at LaCie as well. Thanks

Edited by Mazdagirl on Tuesday 31st July 22:46

[Mazdagirl]

cjs said:

try and read some reviews first.

Have been reading reviews and I think thats where I'm getting confused! Couldn't tell you whether my Sony Vaio has Firewire or not - any ideas?

[PJ S]

Yes, only they call it iLink.
It's all an adherence to 1394a (Firewire 400) or 1394b (Firewire 800), as ratified by the 1394.org committee.

[Scooby_snax]

LordGrover said:

You could do worse than iomega desktop hard drive: 320GB USB 2.0 for PC & Mac. About £50 +VAT I think.

I would advise avoiding Iomega...do not seem to be reliable...discovered after I bought one and then in various PC related forum the brand got a slating
I now use Lacie without problems

Edited by Scooby_snax on Wednesday 1st August 20:46

[Mrs Fish]

James here:

Do not leave all your vital stuff on ONE Hard drive, make sure you BACKUP.....

Plenty of nice drives out there, buy two and get them to syncronise, if one breaks you haven't lost it all.

Personally I'd go for a NAS drive which can get tucked away and left to it's own devices. The Buffalo ones are good.

[Mazdagirl]

Mrs Fish said:

James here:

Do not leave all your vital stuff on ONE Hard drive, make sure you BACKUP.....

Plenty of nice drives out there, buy two and get them to syncronise, if one breaks you haven't lost it all.

Personally I'd go for a NAS drive which can get tucked away and left to it's own devices. The Buffalo ones are good.

Now theres the thing I was just going to get one - so sounds like I should get 2 to make sure have a back up. Don't back up now... suppose I should really! Thanks for the advice.

[Mazdagirl]

PJ S said:

Yes, only they call it iLink.
It's all an adherence to 1394a (Firewire 400) or 1394b (Firewire 800), as ratified by the 1394.org committee.

Say again in English so a blonde woman can understand you... please.

[PJ S]

Mazdagirl said:

PJ S said:

Yes, only they call it iLink.
It's all an adherence to 1394a (Firewire 400) or 1394b (Firewire 800), as ratified by the 1394.org committee.

Say again in English so a blonde woman can understand you... please.

When you look at your Sony VAIO, the term Firewire is not going to be found on it, as that's Apple's term for the 1394 standard. Sony coined iLink as their name for the same standard, so any time someone needed a cable to hook something up, they'd more likely buy one that said Sony iLink than Firewire or 1394, even though they're all the same thing.
In the same way USB (retrospectively renamed as USB1.1) and USB 2.0 are standards to which manufacturers must make their equipment compliant to/with in order to put USB on the box/label/literature/etc.

Judging my that glazed expression STILL on your face, let's turn this into a motoring analogy......
Think of 1394 as 98 RON petrol - BP call theirs Firewire, Shell call theirs iLink. Your car can use either/both since they're the same.
Got it now?

Edited by PJ S on Wednesday 1st August 23:53

[PJ S]

Mazdagirl said:

Mrs Fish said:

James here:

Do not leave all your vital stuff on ONE Hard drive, make sure you BACKUP.....

Plenty of nice drives out there, buy two and get them to syncronise, if one breaks you haven't lost it all.

Personally I'd go for a NAS drive which can get tucked away and left to it's own devices. The Buffalo ones are good.

Now theres the thing I was just going to get one - so sounds like I should get 2 to make sure have a back up. Don't back up now... suppose I should really! Thanks for the advice.

Is your internal drive short on space or something?
I thought that backing up was the point of buying an external one.
Is this a VAIO laptop you're using?

[LordGrover]

PJ S said:

Mazdagirl said:

Mrs Fish said:

James here:

Do not leave all your vital stuff on ONE Hard drive, make sure you BACKUP.....

Plenty of nice drives out there, buy two and get them to syncronise, if one breaks you haven't lost it all.

Personally I'd go for a NAS drive which can get tucked away and left to it's own devices. The Buffalo ones are good.

Now theres the thing I was just going to get one - so sounds like I should get 2 to make sure have a back up. Don't back up now... suppose I should really! Thanks for the advice.

Is your internal drive short on space or something?
I thought that backing up was the point of buying an external one.
Is this a VAIO laptop you're using?

Not me. I'd never trust a hard disk for backups. Externals just used for quick, easy and cheap extra capacity.
A daily backup to tape with a monthly archive to DVDs. All kept off site. Expensive & time consuming - but cast iron.

[Mazdagirl]

PJ S said:

Mazdagirl said:

PJ S said:

Yes, only they call it iLink.
It's all an adherence to 1394a (Firewire 400) or 1394b (Firewire 800), as ratified by the 1394.org committee.

Say again in English so a blonde woman can understand you... please.

When you look at your Sony VAIO, the term Firewire is not going to be found on it, as that's Apple's term for the 1394 standard. Sony coined iLink as their name for the same standard, so any time someone needed a cable to hook something up, they'd more likely buy one that said Sony iLink than Firewire or 1394, even though they're all the same thing.
In the same way USB (retrospectively renamed as USB1.1) and USB 2.0 are standards to which manufacturers must make their equipment compliant to/with in order to put USB on the box/label/literature/etc.

Judging my that glazed expression STILL on your face, let's turn this into a motoring analogy......
Think of 1394 as 98 RON petrol - BP call theirs Firewire, Shell call theirs iLink. Your car can use either/both since they're the same.
Got it now?

Edited by PJ S on Wednesday 1st August 23:53

You could see the glazed expression?!

All becomes clear now - good analogy! Thanks