External Hard Drive recs?

[DrSteggy]

I am getting weary of backing up my computers onto CDs. I thought an external hard drive would be a better idea, since I could backup the desktop and the laptop to the same chunk of hardware.

I found this:

http://www.superwarehouse.com/Iomega_40G...3/p/441096

which seems like a good price for that much storage, and I have had good experiences with other Iomega things...but I figured I'd poke about and see what other folks had to say.

Jackie

[jdc]

do you need it to be portable?

you could get 300 gigs for that price...unless you need portable

and for good drives, visit the forum sponsor in the upper right corner =)

[rz]

For that price, you could easily put together one with about 6 times the storage. It wouldn't be portable, but it doesn't sound like you need it to be. Someone posted a like for a 250GB drive for $50 here: http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/277...msg-277791

You could then buy a case at any number of places for less than $40. Putting together the case with the drive is simple: plug in two cables and insert 4 screws to hold the drive in place.

[DrSteggy]

I don't really NEED it to be portable...but space is a bit of a premium for me on my desk. I'm not sure I NEED that much storage space either (but my oh my that is very tempting)

Thank you for the heads up though, I had no idea memory was so freakin cheap. I'll shop some more.

Jackie

[jdc]

what kind of desktop?

heres 250 gigs for $120 and it sits on its side, not much space

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20W...PFW7250GB/

[DrSteggy]

I've got a G4 iMac...and it shares space with a bunch of other crap...but that drive would probably fit very nicely into the wasted space behind the computer....

I'd like to think it would take me a while to fill 250G too...that might be the trick.

Jackie

[michaelb]

Since you don't have an external drive already, and you do need one, I would seriously consider paying a bit more and getting one that is firewire and USB2. OWC has a bunch of these for example. You pay a bit more for the dual interface, but down the road when you get a new mac it could be handy to have USB2 on there.

Also, your imac is silent right now. Don't get an external drive with a fan. Although there is some dispute about the wisdom of a fanless case, I think the noise of a fan buzzing on your desktop could really bug you. Well designed fanless cases like the OWC one will cool the drive just fine.

[Lew Zealand]

[quote DrSteggy]I'd like to think it would take me a while to fill 250G too...that might be the trick. Don't even think that. If you are, then consider going at least the next size up (320GB). I got a 320GB ext. HD last year for the same reason as you and it's had 7GB left for about 4 months now. Should have gotten the 400 GB.

[Dennis S]

There's a 400GB at Frys.com for $100 with free shipping, I think. (bare hard drive)

[JoeBob]

I picked up an OWC ministack, and got the Frys deal for the $99 400 gig Seagate drive.
The ministack is almost as quiet as my G4 iMac, and powers up and down with the iMac.
Awesome so far, I am very impressed with how quiet it is.