Best Storage Option for College Student?

I just got my Vaio Z13 and I have a paltry 60GB of free space left. I'm going to college this fall as an engineering and philosophy double-major, so I figure I probably need more space haha! What's the best option for me?

1. External hard drive... With only USB 2.0, I'm worried about transfer speeds and even just the inconvenience of lugging it around. I saw some USB 3.0 Expresscard adapters, but they all seem to be even worse..,

2. Replacing the optical drive with an HDD caddy comes out to be about the same price and is far more convenient, but I'm unsure of how important the optical drive is for college. Most of the software for my college seems to be online (through their server), so is this the best bet? Yet, I'm scared of damaging this fragile baby (I've never had any experience or comparable experience with opening up laptops) and the idea of having no back-up for my memory.

3. Network storage. I have no idea how well this works, but considering that I will always be on campus and that the Internet is blazing fast there, this seems to be a better alternative to an external hard drive as well. However, reviews thus far are dreadful and I'm unsure of how secure my data will be...

4. Other? Are there any other better choices?


Any help would be greatly appreciated! As much as I love the speed of SSDs, the lack of storage is stressing me out a bit. I didn't even have the guts to leave Atlantica Online in my computer for more than four days after seeing the free space drop so much haha!

 

Why not just replace the current hard drive with a much larger one?
Hard drives are a very low price/gig, easy to change, and fast.

If that's not an option, I would get an external (possibly portable) hard drive and move all the games, documents, and other things over to the external while using the internal for the OS and Apps.
You could also add your documents to Dropbox (sign up with this link and get an extra 512MB free for both of us http://db.tt/4YPJWcZ) so you could also share your files across multiple computers easily.

 

I'd say the best way is to figure out what files you need all the time, and what files you end up accessing only, say, once a month. Take the latter and put it all on a large 2TB external hard drive, and you shouldn't have any problems. Usually, you can leave that drive safely in your dorm. I've been doing this (although I actually leave the drive at home when off at college), and I have no issues--my T500 has an 80GB SSD, and my X120e has a 64GB SSD. They are both at ~50% filled.

 

I agree, you don't need all your data with you constantly. I am considering switching to an SSD. Already have all my backups and space consuming stuff on the 1TB NAS.

 

@debee1jp: After experiencing the speeds of an SSD, I don't know if I'll ever be able to switch back. Not to mention the drives are a bizarre shape in the Z, having an elongated 1.8" form I believe.

Alright, I guess I will be going with the external hard drive then. Any suggestions? I've been eyeing the Lacie Rikki Go 500GB ( LaCie Rikki Go (500GB) - reviews - Servers & Storage - Hard Disk Drives (External) - PC World Australia) as a portable and affordable drive. Not to mention it's aluminum and goes well with my lappy. ^_^ 500GB should be large enough for the necessities and few distractions, I suppose.

 

Something to consider is an external hard drive that you keep in your dorm and place copies of all your important study stuff and work that would set you back if it were lost. I have had the unfortunate experience of having my vehicle broken into and my ultra portable computer taken. There went my favorite toy and all my current unbackuped work. Keeping your external drive in the same case/backpack with your computer is inviting disaster.

 

._. Good point. I never really even thought about that; thank you haha! Hmm, do you have any recommendations for a specific model though? It seems as though they're all virtually the same...

 

Welland ME-580J (USB2.0 + eSata). It can accommodate up to 2 3.5" HDDs (as separate drives, JBOD, RAID0 or RAID1). I've been using it myself for over a year. Very good (and cheap) solution for a backup system. No Ethernet interface, so it can't work as a NAS though.