External Hard Drive advice please.

Hey y'all!
So I currently own a Western Digital 500GB My Book Home Edition. It's been working fine so far (though I have read numerous reviews on multiple sites stating that their hard drive stopped working after about a year).
I'm really not sure how accurate those rumors are but so far so good (it could very well just be a few incidents). The main thing is that this hard drive is fairly big and I'm looking for something a little more portable.

So I'm just looking for some opinions on portable external hard drives. Not sure if someone has any preference (and reasons why).
I came across this Seagate FreeAgent Go 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive, which seems pretty nice and at a reasonable price.
Just looking for some feedback and other opinions.
Also, these smaller portable hard drives are USB powered (from what I can see). How does this affect their speed?

Please and thank you.

 

If you are running from a USB cable, then you only get around 28-35 mb/sec read/write.

USB connection will bottleneck so there isn't much speed difference.

If you are looking for portable external hard drive, I recommend getting the Western Digital Passport. USB portable HDD transfer around 20-30 mb/sec so you don't see that much of a difference.

Bestbuy usually have them on sale every two weeks or so.

Ch28Kid

 

+1

Best Buy has the 500gb WD MyPassport on sale this week for 119.99...Great deal.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8993164&type=product&id=1218007082970

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9084108&type=product&id=1218018141821

Just picked up two of the silver ones at my local Best Buy.

Also, I picked up last week two of the Seagate 500gbs described in the original post for 109.99 each at Frys.

 

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...6&cs=19&c=us&l=en&dgc=CJ&cid=24471&lid=566643

and use coupon code 138BFW5PN676V2 to make it 120.

Hurry expires soon
Edit: saw that you want portable, but in case you might be interested.

 

+1 for the WD MyPassport..........can have my complete music/movie/TV show collection as well as all my web work with me wherever I take my lappy

 

I own a Seagate Freeagent Go 160GB from the last generation of drives (the brown and yellow one), and I chose it mainly for the nice 5 year warranty from Seagate.

The difference in transfer speed between a 3.5" external hard drive and a 2.5" external hard drive is negligible, even if it does exist.

 

I think what many people in this thread are forgetting is that, providing Thibault does not need the software that comes with the FreeAgent Go or the WD Passport, you can purchase a 2.5" hard drive separately and install it in an inexpensive 2.5" external hard drive enclosure. This method is usually cheaper than going the pre-built route with WD or Seagate.

Since Thibault seems to be concerned about transfer rates, he could theoretically purchase a 320GB or 500GB 2.5" hard drive and install it in an external hard drive enclosure that features eSATA capability, such as the CoolMax HD-250L or the Tagan Icy Box IB-290STUSD-B. With 500GB 2.5" hard drives now below $100, you can easily purchase an external HDD enclosure and be right around the same price as you would for with the Passport and the FreeAgent Go, but have eSATA capability which those do not offer.

 

I don't think anybody is forgetting anything. Don't be patronizing.

His question was not about making one himself. His question regarded recommendations and opinions on good portable external hard drives, and the tangential question of their speed.

If your recommendation is for him to put his own drive together so that he can have eSATA capability, fine, but that doesn't mean that the rest of us can't read.

Your advice is the same that many would proffer on this board. Don't act like you just discovered penicillin.

 

Yet no one did over the course of five replies to his initial question. Feel free to check your attitude before someone checks it for you.

 

Right back at ya, babe.

 

Is it that time of month again for you? Is that why you're so cranky? Perhaps your pad needs to be changed out.

 

Is that the best ya got?

 

Back to the topic...

To the OP, whatever portable hard drive you get, make sure you get a Case Logic portable case, or similar, to protect it. They are normally 19.99 but stores, such as Best Buy, frequently have them on sale for 9.99.

Portables, no matter how careful you are with them, tend to get a bit more abused than desktop externals.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8378347&st=case+logic&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1178926024303

I travel a great deal and have each of my portables in one of these cases. They are very protective. I also label each one with the contents of the drive that is stored within, with a similar label on each corresponding drive.
These cases really are great, regardless which one of the portable externals you choose.

 

Thanks for the advice. I don't actually need the software that comes installed on the Seagate or WD external hard drives. In fact I plan on formatting the drive as soon as I get it to get rid of the software.
So that's not an issue. As for the speed concern, I'm not overly concerned for the speed. I was just wondering if it was significantly slower than my current external hard drive (with external power supply). But it seems that the bottleneck here is the USB transfer rate, and not the power supply. So I am satisfied with the speed I get from the USB port. I mostly use these hard drives for backup. So the eSATA capabilities would be nice but not required.
Thanks for the suggestion of building my own. I didn't really consider doing that though I should. It wouldn't be hard and would save me some money, but depending on how much it saves me I might just order a WD or Seagate one (if the savings aren't very significant).
Thanks for your input.

Good advice. I was actually planning on buying a protective case for it and that one looks quite nice.