Anyone know anything about external hard drives?

[Streets]

I'm thinking about getting one, but I don't know what's considered a "good deal".

I download alot of movies and music, and it would be nice to have a place to store all of that. It'd also be nice to back up all of my files in case I reformat, and it'll be good if I ever travel.

I know Microcenter has some for around 100-150 dollars for around 200 gigs or something like that. Does anyone else know where I can get some good deals. Also, does anyone recommend not getting an external HD, and just upgrading my computer (which is two 80 gig hard drives)?

Edit: For example, this looks like a good deal, though I don't know (also didn't know that these things are powered separately by AC adapters. I thought It'd be like USB drives and get powered by the computer... that kind of sucks). http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0251394

[rspencer86]

Re: Anyone know anything about external hard drives?

Cavalry 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - $99

Great deal if you don't mind mail-in rebates.

External hard drives are great. You can back up your entire music collection, store videos that would otherwise eat up your computer's built-in hard drive, and use it to backup all your important files in one place. I got a 500 gig MyBook on sale from Best Buy for $119 and it works great with PC and Mac.

[fishepa]

Re: Anyone know anything about external hard drives?

Any western digital or seagate external hard drives would work fine for your needs. They are usually on sale every week as well.

[Liquid-Science]

Re: Anyone know anything about external hard drives?

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...al-Hard-Drives

even if you've never heard of the company it won't matter...they just use one of the big companies' HDs and just put them in their own enclosures

I bought a 250GB WD like early last year and I backed up all my media and acquired like 60GB more of TV shows and like 30GB of movies and still got like 50GB left

they've dropped a lot in price over the last year too so it's a good time to buy

[Streets]

Re: Anyone know anything about external hard drives?

Cavalry 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - $99

Great deal if you don't mind mail-in rebates.

External hard drives are great. You can back up your entire music collection, store videos that would otherwise eat up your computer's built-in hard drive, and use it to backup all your important files in one place. I got a 500 gig MyBook on sale from Best Buy for $119 and it works great with PC and Mac.

That looks like a great deal! Two questions. I've never ordered from buy.com. Are they good/legit? And, is their any installation required, or can I just plug the external HD into any computer and be good to go?

[rspencer86]

Re: Anyone know anything about external hard drives?

Buy.com is a very reputable online retailer.

Most external hard drives work just like a USB thumb drive: plug it in, and it is good to go. Windows recognizes it as a "mass storage device".