Most reliable USB external HD?

Specifically, I'm looking to buy a fairly small/portable consumer level external USB-powered hard drive. Does any one brand stand out above the others? The reviews on virtually all the commonly available external HDs are frightening--be it Toshiba, WD, Lacie and so forth. Is this really such a difficult piece of hardware to build reliably?

I know companies like G-tech make excellent HDs, but I'm hoping to spend a little less.

Are SATA docks a reliable way to go?

Thanks.

 

Hitachi and Fujitsu are very nice and high quality.

 

You DO know that most External HD's are basically a case with an internal drive, right? You can go and purchase whatever 2.5" drive you want and stick it into an enclosure, and viola! External portable hard drive! Same thing with the bigger 3.5" desktop drives, except they stop being as portable.

I saw in my local newspaper that Fry's electronics had a 160Gb 2.5" Drive for about 80 bucks and an enclosure for about 30... It had E-SATA as well...

 

I am aware of this option. I'm not completely sure what the advantage is, though. Are they more reliable?

The Fry's price you site seems within the range of a store-bought external drive at that size.

 

I know you don't like Toshiba, but I've had good luck with the Toshiba portable 320GB Hard Drive. I have found it on sale at a bunch of stores, and for the money, it could not be beat.

I returned the iOmega Ego's I bought, because the first was DOA.

So, obviously, YMMV.

I carry my portable hard drives in Case Logic Portable Hard drive cases.

 

Everything is better lol, except more work.

Less $
More warranty (internal drives carry longer warranties, 5yrs or 3yrs vs 1yr)
More options, most enclosures that come with externals are plastic. Metallic ones cool better. Also you can find one with more I/O options.

Only downside is that you have to assemble it. It is very easy however. If you can follow simple instructions you should be fine.