Portable Hard Drive...?

[Nicolecat]

Okay, so...
I couldn't find a thread on this, so here goes.

I've just started looking at portable hard drives, but don't really know what to look for.

One of the techs at my work said that I could find a 500G for around $60 at Best Buy...by simpletech.
(I didn't see anything for under $160...if not more for that size...maybe I suddenly grew blonde hair)

I suppose what is the best portable hard drive for a price of under $100...
with at least 250G?

Are there brands that just suck...or I should avoid?
Or should I just go to amazon and order one of the refurbished ones and call it a day?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Nicolecat]

I suppose it would be helpful to add, that I won't be using it for gaming...and it will be used for storing photography, music, and graphic design work.

 

[iParis]

I would never by a refurbished hard drive, chances are it's crashed.

...Anyways, I use a 160GB Western Digital (WD) portable external hard drive.
It contains the majority of my iTunes library.
I'm probably going to upgraded to 250GBs in a few days.
And I believe there are no portable external hard drives that are 500GB, I think the max is 320GB.
I believe that at Circuit City I found a 250GB for $90 (At Best Buy $115) and a 320GB at Best Buy for $120.

 

[techound1]

I've got a refurb lacie set-up that has been worked and worked and worked and it's still humming like a champ. I suppose the question really is what was refurbished - the drive itself or the enclosure.

 

[illegallydead]

I just got a 250 GB LaCie drive, has pull-out USB cable so it doesn't get lost / have to be carried around, plus two Firewire 400 ports. It was like $120, but I absolutely love it. Anything w/o Firewire WILL be cheaper. Link to mine:
http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-301282-...6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1222449911&sr=8-6

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Note: the USB-only one is right at $100. Go with WD if you want cheaper. However, 250GB for < $100 might be somewhat tough to find, unfortunately...

 

[vultureboy70]

Other World Computing (OWC) aka www.macsales.com has quite a few self-branded solutions as well as stock other manufacturers goods. I personally have a 160 GB Mercury on the go and a larger RAID, both OWC brand. Might be a bit pricier than others, but recommended.

 

[ChrisA]

Are there brands that just suck...or I should avoid?

First off the brand name of the outside of the box is not who made the disk drive. For example LiCie and g-tech don't make drives try buy them from Western Digital and Seagate. What maters is what's inside.

The next point is that you really, really should design a backup system than will survive the failure of one or more disk drives. Do that and you don't need to care so much about brands and the like.

What I look for is the kind of interface FW800, USB, .... and what the enclosure is made out of, aluminum or plastic and if there is a cooling fan and if it make noise.

I prefer Seagate drives because they offer a five year replacement warrenty. Most others are three years. I like aluminum boxes without fans and i like firewire.

 

[Nicolecat]

500G is simply a half terabyte...not sure as to the spelling or the abbrev.
I guess it would be TB

I've seen those and I've seen full terabyte externals...they aren't as portable, however.

Thanks for all the responses.