So I've been looking for an external hard drive solution to store all my porn on (obviously). I'm looking through TigerDirect, cause they've got great prices and a great reputation.

But here's my problem: I know next to nothing about external drives.

I know I want at the very least 100GB (more is better), 7200RPM, and less than $150. But I know absolutely nothing about the various brands out there, and my research on Amazon has, as always, yielded mixed results.

Thus far, this one stands out as great value-for-money, but some of the reviews are less than stellar and I can't seem to find a professional review anywhere.

So... anyone have experiance with externals? Any brands to avoid? Any to look for?

I nabbed a 500 gig Western Digital "My Book" from Best Buy a few months ago for only $200. I didnt' know anything about external HDs at that time, but I was just looking around for one to pair with my laptop. My friend was suggesting I just get a regular hard drive and put it in a case myself (sold seperately)... but when I saw the Western Digital it seemed like a good deal for 500 GB, easily a better value per GB than any of my other options, and I turned out to be right. It looks cool (google it or something), and I've had no problems with it yet. Not exactly a professional opinion, but it seems to me that with an external hard drive, since it's being used pretty much just for storage, the important things are just capacity and reliability (a well-known brand is usually pretty dependable). If you're willing to go up to $150 I have a feeling you can get a good deal more than 100GB (probably around 200?). I wouldn't fret too much over it. Storage is storage. A good-sized 7200 rpm HD with some good software (lots of them have bundled recovery software, etc) from pretty much any big brand company will probably suit you just fine.

That's good value (even in USD). Is it a My Book Essential, or My Book Premium? Western Digital sounds like a good brand, but I've never heard of most of the external hd makers, which makes it hard to buy one with a good reputation.

*shrug*

But the Cavalry looks like good value, and has some good reviews, so I'll likely end up going that route.

The autobackup would be nice, but most of the software doesn't seem to support Mac, only Windows. :(

I just bought a case for $30 and threw an old HD into it. When it comes time to do it again I'll do the same. Say, one of these pared with one of these. 250GB for $100, and you can use the SATA drive for something else if needbe. Like, say, if your system drive pooches the dog. This Seagate comes with an external enclosure, 500GB for $230.

Yeah, those Barracudas are all the rave too.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that if buying online you can get a better deal buying and enclosure and a regular HD. $70 for 250GB is sweet. Plus, performance-wise, an internal drive has the performance advantage (right?), whether you are actually putting inside your machine or not.

On the other hand an off-the-shelf external is a lot easier to install/assemble... insert USB here... tada!

As for the software issue... forgot you use a mac. That's a bummer.

This isn't much use to you since you are looking to buy now, but external SATA drives are on the way (eSATA), which will supposedly wipe the performance edge internal drives have over external.

Yeah. I was looking online, and I checked out our local computer store. They don't sell any external drives, but lots of options for internals + enclosures. The internal drives are cheaper, and are a lot better (bigger caches is the major thing).

I did the math, and when you factor in the better performance of the internal drive, it's actually a much better deal.

Seagate drives have a good rep and are relatively inexpensive, so I'll probably pick one of them up.

Thanks, guys. :)

If you have firewire, go with that. Faster. If you don't have firewire, spend the $14 and get a PCI card. Faster.

Yeah, I use the enclosure + internal HD as well. It has a USB connection and I've never had a problem with it, no matter how many times I've swapped HD's.

I had a lot of data on old HD's from computers that bit the cheese and simply buying an enclosure allowed me to move the data over and then discard the old HD in lieu of something with greater storage.

Little update:

I order THIS from TigerDirect today. Actually just stumbled upon the package, seperately the drive and enclosure I was looking at would have been about $150. This one also includes the FireWire & USB cables, which are probably worth $20 on their own.

I ordered around 2:00 this afternoon, and I just checked and it's already shipped. So far, TigerDirect seems to be a pretty good vendor (great prices, too).

I'll check back once it shows up and I have a chance to play with it. :)

Sweet buy.