External hard drives

pokermonkey

hi,
im in the market for an external hard drive for my laptop. i dont know what to look for. what would be good as far as cache, hd type etc.
i'm a little clueless.
thanks,
niall

carrotcake

i'd go for one with a 16mb cache and 7200rpm. we've a maxtor onetouch here at home and i've no complaints. i've seen a link here for www.envizage.com, who are supposed to be good. good prices anyway

TempestSabre

The desktop 3.5 drives need AC power. If you get a laptop 2.5 drive it can be powered from the laptops USB.

bonoman66

I guess what type of external drive you need will depend on what you need it for etc... but if you were just looking for an external drive that was small, light, very portable, no need for additional power supply (takes all power through usb cable etc..), & was USB2.0 you could try one of these

http://www.shop4memory.com/products/portable-hard-disk.asp

Its only 40gig so I realise it may be too small a capacity or possibly not have enough i/o speed if you're doing digital video editing etc.., but its been a great piece of kit for me & never let me down. Its as small as a pack of 20 cigerettes & very light. I stream divx movies from it through my laptop which is connected to my TV! (Among other things of course)

Very reliable in use with Windows 2000 or Windows XP no drivers needed, gets detected straight away, no special software needed.

Also the company is excellent to deal with in case you've never dealt with them - excellent customer service, free postage to anywhere in Ireland & I've always had what I ordered within 48 hours of placing the order (providing its been in stock at time of order etc..)

Hope this info might help you

Creamy Goodness

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312779&cks=PRL

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=122590&cks=PRL

for 170 euros odd.

it's a 100gig hard drive instead 40gig's from shop4memory and it's 30 euros cheaper.

i've got that enclosure for my portable hard drive and it's great, works a charm.

bonoman66

Very good Cremo - didn't think of that one!

Proves why these forums are so beneficial to people.

Happy Christmas

TempestSabre

Nice linkage.

I have a few 3.5 external drives which are great for capacity, however they are a pain to move, especially if a powersource is awkward to locate, or use. So if you don't have a lot of data a 2.5 drive is a lot, lot handier. I'll seriously consider getting one myself to be honest.