External Hard Drives

I have a few ways of backing up my data at the moment but would like to purchase an external hard drive so that I can

1) Copy all my music onto it should I have a need to reformat etc etc.
2) Copy any info from my laptop onto it for safe keeping.
3) Transfer all the data my missus wants to keep from her account plus her work related data.

Do any of you know (UK) the best web sites or shops I can visit to get the best deals ?

I was looking at perhaps a 40GB HD.

forget 40gb

400gb is available at PC World for about £100

I have one for 320gb at £70 but that was sold out - they may have another offer of that - I also purchased 2 400gb ones for my work - make great backup devices - alternate them overnight

Thanks for that Chris, I'll have a look in my local PC World.

400GB It's just a few songs and a bit of work documentation, not War and Peace translated into 800 languages plus the complete King James Bible !

Having said that, at about £70 for a 320GB HD you're probably better off buying one of those.

Amazon have a few good deals

I bought myself a Seagate 250GB external from PC World before Christmas just for the purpose of back-ups and it is one of the best things I have done. I thought at the time 250GB was huge but in reality a huge chunk of that can quickly be used up so I would certainly aim for more than 40GB, and there are quite a few to choose from as well most of them at quite reasonable prices as well.

Thanks for all the info guys, I'll start looking at the suggestions.

I like to buy stuff from newegg from time to time.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822144282
This 300GB drive isn't bad, but if you were really able to find one with 400 then by all means, grab it.

I'm actually in the process of finding a new USB thumbdrive, since my 128MB and 512MB sticks are choked full of tools and I don't have anymore space.

KG

I have a few ways of backing up my data at the moment but would like to purchase an external hard drive so that I can

1) Copy all my music onto it should I have a need to reformat etc etc.
2) Copy any info from my laptop onto it for safe keeping.
3) Transfer all the data my missus wants to keep from her account plus her work related data.

Do any of you know (UK) the best web sites or shops I can visit to get the best deals ?

I was looking at perhaps a 40GB HD.

I would only buy internal IDE drives.
I would buy the smallest in capacity drive that fits for me.
Most likely you will want to buy somethinhg like a 80Gb drive.
Big drives are harder to recover from disaster because they will have bigger density. If a 40Gb /80Gb in enought for what you want to backup you most likely will want to buy one of those.
Also internal IDE tend to have better error correction than USB.

Good luck finding a hard drive that's under 100 GB that isn't used or over 2 years old. Internal is better, but USB has advantages of swapping and being easily mobile. I wouldn't use a USB one for day to day use though.

I bought a 160GB external some months back and have not regretted it, DO IT. I've seen some advertised for about 360 canadin or so that go up to 500GB or something, they amaze me very much. My bandwidth isn't really high enough to accumulate anything in that amount of time though. Even now my 160 is only half full. I fully expect to have a new computer by the time I'll actualy need the extra space.

Beyond the extra space, the advantage is that you can use it as a place to backup your computer data if you're reformatting. That, or ifyou need to leave the place in a hurry, like in a fire. It's also something you can take anyway (comp hard drives are too bulky) like if you had to go to a lot of business meetings or wanted to access or share stuff on a friend's computer.

What I think would be cool is if they designed an external in a fireproof box (I have this for important papers like birth certificate) so that it could be connected, but wth an easily contractible and sealable cable hole so you could quickly do it and leave quickly if there's a fire. Fires scare me.

I use external for PDF, image collections, videos (fansubs!), and also for game installation files. There are a lot of awesome free games out there. You can easily forget about them if you don't install them, but what if your computer isn't good enough? Download the installation files, store them on an external, and then when you get a better comp you won't need to wait to download them, just install and get updates and it's ready! That's what I've done, I think I have 50 game install files from those free MMORPGS ready to play. They get supported by people donating or by buying items with real cash no one else can get.

I hear that buying a drive and case separately and then putting them together can save $$$. I've been looking to do it for awhile now but haven't gotten around to it.