External HD purchase help

[Shaggy3391]

I've got a 3yo Macbook and I want to purchase a portable external hard drive. nothing fancy, just something to back-up some documents and transfer my music and video files too. I was told that the LaCie Rugged 500GB was a good buy, but after looking at some reviews, I am a little uncertain. If this is a good purchase, that works, but don't want to get a lemon. Any help/advice is appreciated.

 

[miles01110]

There is no "best" platter-based hard drive. Unless you are willing to shell out the extra dollars for an SSD, you're best off getting the drive that offers the best warranty.

 

[kellen]

I would purchase a drive separately and then put it in an enclosure from OWC (macsales.com). They offer everything from USB only to quad esata, firewire, usb in 3.5" or 2.5" dual and single drive layouts.

 

[sine-nomine]

The Western Digital Elements drives are pretty inexpensive. They're pretty barebones, but they seem solidly constructed and are very very quiet. I picked up a 1.5TB Elements from Amazon for $70.