Do You Recommend a Certain Type of Portable Hard Drive?

[...] Do You Recommend a Certain Type of Portable Hard Drive? [...]

I personally use a Western Digital Passport 120GB and I know of a couple friends who swear by the My Book series of drives. The passport is fully USB powered (at least mine is), and I think the My Book needs a cord as well.

I’ve not heard of any problems from either from anyone I know. Considering I spent close to four years at a college with everyone bringing their drives in, that’s gotta say something!

I travel a lot and need to carry with me a large amount of data. I recently purchased a 500GB Buffalo’s MiniStation TurboUSB. It is very compact, lightweight and shock resistant! You can find one online for about $200. I am very happy with my drive.
-Wanda-

Hello,

There are actually some 9.5mm high 500GB 2.5″ notebook hard disk drives now available such as the Samsung M6 and Western Digital WD5000BEVT. There are also 12.5mm high hard disk drives such as the Fujitsu MHZ2BT and Hitachi 5K500, but these will not fit in a typical notebook computer’s hard disk drive bay or in an external USB enclosure from a third-party (although they may be offered mounted in one by the manufacturer).

Perhaps replacing the internal hard disk drive in her notebook computer with one of these and then providing a second one in a ruggedized or semi-ruggedized external hard disk drive enclosure would be adequate? I believe 4tress, Iomega and Lacie all offer models like this, or a conventional enclosure combined a soft case or hard case for transport.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Recently, I’ve been thinking about getting a portable hard drive myself. I think I really need one for school and work because my 2GB flash drive isn’t gonna cut it anymore. I saw some good ones, one from Fujitsu and one from WD and have 320GB and 500GB capacity respectively. I’m really more concerned about the durability than the difference in capacity. I can’t be compromising my files since they are so important to me. I guess I have to read more reviews on them and I hope Ponzi considers durability as well besides portability.

Gabe

My personal favorite is the Western Digital Passport because of its design and ease of use. I bought my 120gb last year during Black Friday at Staples for $50 after rebates, which was an extremely cheap price then. The biggest size for a portable external hard drive was either 250gb or 320gb.

Now that technology has seemed to be soaring in quickness, Western Digital now has a 500gb portable external hard drive. Half a terabyte in something so small! I think the cheapest I’ve seen them going so far (like some slick deals on slickdeals.net) is around $160 for those.

In conclusion, although external hard drives seem to be extremely cheap for the amount of storage they provide, technology continues to develop. And in 6 months, there might be another external hard drive that’s half a terabyte bigger than what you just bought–for the same price.

I’ve also had good luck with My Book. Generally, though, I tend to view external hard drives as a commodity item. I’d focus more on looking for a good deal and something that’s aesthetically pleasing / good form factor for your environment.

Seagate 100 GB Portable External Hard Drive

Technical Details
Compact 100 GB drive weighs less than a pound for ultra portability
Chrome-plated, aluminum-alloy enclosure and internal design keep the drive cool
Supports speeds up to 480 Mbps, is hot swappable and powered by the USB bus
Rugged, durable design resists scuffs and scrapes
Comes with USB 2.0 cable, quick connect guide, and utilities CD

The moment I saw the video title I went to Amazon.com and picked out that hard drive and was about ready to send I when showed the hard drive I was about to send him.

If there was one thing that I would like to see from Iomega is not necessarily to make it lighter but to make it draw enough power from the USB port on you computer even if it does draw power quickly you can charge a laptop, but not a external hard drive. Although there are only two ways I can think of that would make it run of USB
1. Internal Battery
2. Have it spin at a slow speed
Thanks for spending your time to read my comment.

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I recommend all hard drives if it stays in ur desk.
If u need a portable one then ya look for one that is charged by usb
i have a LaCie DESKTOP 320GB of hard drive space
if i didnt have that my computer would be lacking a lot
hard drives are always useful especially external ones if u dont want to touch the inside
i recommend external hard drives all the way
and geeks too

Iomega REV 70GB
A platter in your pocket: Iomega`s 70GB REV has been developed to be more robust

I personally can recommend the Trekstor range of portable laptop sized hard drives. Mine has had its fair few share or knocks and ware and tare and still works brilliant. With its hard metal case and the hard drive itself mounted on a bracket to help stop it being crushed or anything of the kind I highly recommend them as they last for a long time. considering what mine has been through in its 2 year life

I think that the Western Digital passports are the best because of their functionalities. Apart from being sleek, compact and very quiet, they include Google tools and they do not require a power cord. They are pretty inexpensive and very reliable for everyday use. Also Western Digital products are extremely easy to use and they have a great customer service. They probably meet most people needs for an external hard drive.

-Gianni-

I just bought a “My Book” for about $100.
It’s worked out great so far. It’s 500 gb and it worked right out of the box. it’s usb and the only downside is that you have to plug it in.

It really depends what you value more but I agree with the comments about the wd passports. A friend has one and is happy with it. Except they don’t hold as much space. This 500gb http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822216051 external hard drive is the smallest I see with the highest capacity. I still say a laptop with the biggest internal hd available and the highest gigabyte portable drive would be the best bet. This would avoid having to carry around the adapter for the drive too. Or just buy two 500gb drives lol.

DiskGO™ by EDGE Storage products provide a convenient and fashionable solution to backing up and transporting all of your important documents, digital pictures, music, videos

ITs what I use.

I definitely recommend the Western Digital Passport series they are such good value for money and are fully USB powered meaning that there is no need to carry around a power adaptor as well. They are a very slim and Western digital have just introduced a 500gb model which should be enough for most people so capacity isn’t really compromised by size as it used to be and they are good value for money with the 500gb model costing around £120.

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/2144/1411/-/6791605/Western-Digital-500GB-My-Passport-Essential-Portable-Hard-Drive-Black/Product.html?searchtype=genre

I would also recommend the Western Digital Passport series hard drives. They are awesome. Very compact and sturdy. I bought the 250 GB one and it comes with some software that you can use to sync files on your computer to the Passport. I dont use it since i just use it to put extra movies and videos on it.

However, one thing that bugs me is that it doesn’t work with a USB Hub. My PC doesn’t recognize it, so thats a bummer. But other than that, its awesome.

I like the portable hard drives that have the software that transfers everything on your computer to your Portable Hd

Portable Hd’s FTW

I would use the regular hard drives because they are inexpensive. I would use newer hard drives if they dropped in price. Sorry!

I have a 500G Western Digital Passport. No wallwart and only slightly bigger than my iPhone. When I get home from traveling, I dump it onto a 1T Western Digital external that guards the laptop stand while I’m gone.