Spec me an external HDD

EirePlane · 10 Sep 2006 at 23:08

Need to get something to put all my work on for school now, computing projects take up a lot of space im told.
I've had a look at some pen drives and with the prices of the larger oens I may as well go all out and get myself an external hard drive.
What's the best one I can get for around £100?
Needs to be USB compatible

Cheers,
Mitchel

Mujja · 12 Sep 2006 at 08:49

If you want it to be portable then get a 2.5" drive. It'll fit in your bag easily and you won't have to carry around a power supply.

I'd recommend buying a bare 2.5" drive and an enclosure of your own choice. It will work out a lot cheaper.

A good enclosure to get is the Icy Box IB-281U. This enclosure looks good, gives good protection to the disk and has a small usb cable built in. Saves you carrying around a USB cable.

EirePlane · 12 Sep 2006 at 18:46

not too sure, i considered that but it seems i can get more space for my money by getting a premade one.
also i dont mind about the size, it would be in my schoolbag anyway, and as long as it is at least battery powered it's ok

Rambaud · 12 Sep 2006 at 19:51

I wanted something that would work with my MacBook, so I went with the 300Gb Seagate with Firewire 400 and USB2. it should be arriving tomorrow.

OcUk is doing it for ~ £109.00 inc Vat.

EirePlane · 12 Sep 2006 at 20:59

looks good but it needs AC power. I need one that is either powered by USB or a battery pack or something

rpstewart · 12 Sep 2006 at 22:58

The only self contained ones that I know of are 2.5" devices, 3.5" drives need too much power to run off either USB or a sensible battery pack.

The idea of mix and matching an enclosure with an HDD is actually very sensible, not only do you get to pick the drive make but you usually also benefit from a better warranty this way. Premade drives tend to only have 12 month warranties against the 3-5 years available on bare drives.