best external hard drive

[dhodson]

my recent data disaster has made me decide to invest in an external HD
I was going to get another large internal but figured external would be smarter
any recommendations on a particular brand

D

 

[tdg]

If I were to get one I'd go with Seagates since reliability is their key feature, but you can't really go wrong with any.

 

[Ultra Wide]

If you are concerned about archiving data, just burn it onto DVDs, make 2 or even 3 copies and store them in a safe environment. This is much cheaper unless you have 400GB+ worth of data.

 

[unhappy_mage]

And takes forever... even burning 20 DVDs for only 100gb takes a good couple hours of swapping dvds. Optical media is pretty slow compared to hard drives; 16x is only 20 MB/s.

 

[dhodson]

sorry i should have mentioned i need to back up about 150gig

mostly home video and pictures with the video taking up the room

D

 

[TeeJayHoward]

Brand choices these days are the Chevy-vs-Ford arguement. If you select the high-end drives of any brand, you'll get quality.

Oh, and I prefer Seagate.

 

[_Korruption_]

Get yourself a Seagate. Good shock characteristics to handle the rigors of being an external drive. An aluminum 3.5" enclosure will do also... Vantec and Bytecc have some available.

 

[NulloModo]

I personally have always liked Maxtor drives, never had one let me down (knock on wood). In fact, I have a 2 gig maxtor in a side system that has been running pretty much constantly 24/7 for about 8 years.

 

[dhodson]

anyone with experience with external network drives so i can leave it next to my access point

D

 

[canis]

I have a 300GB Maxtor external and love it. The metal case is durable as is the drive (it survived a car accident in my glove box!). The damn thing just works. Plus it doesn't freak out if you randomly disconnect it without using the unmount utility.