In urgent need of an external hard drive

I am located in toronto and i am in need of an external hard drive
I was going to get a 500GB DriveStation Turbo USB but it came to 160CAN and i was wondering if i can get something cheaper but better

I need a 500Gb or more. I need it to transfer data from my dling desktop computer to my laptop. My laptop will have esata but not my desktop but its not that important for an esata.
I want something that is about 120ish b4 tax and i dont really want to pay shipping.
the Buffalo is expensive because of the $16 shipping and its the cheapest there is.

 

Maybe I'm missing something .......

You can pick up an internal 500GB Internal HD for next to nothing nowadays, and encosures with USB connection are almost free ! - you could even take the HD out of your Desktop, and put it in an enclosure, and just transfer your data directly onto your laptop, without the use of an intermediary.

If money really is the issue, and the sole purpose of purchasing the HD/enclosure would be for data transfer, then why not just transfer all the data via network ? - OK, it's going to take some time, but it's going to cost you erm .............NOTHING !

My personal solution would be to simply buy an enclosure, they now even do them with IDE/SATA/E-SATA combined. When you've done you can put it aside for future use.

 

yah i noe but i need an external hdd anyways for my desktop to store stuff also. And the one i wanted..buffalo..is hard to find in canada. But like there are others like seagate for like 100 but i dont noe if they are good or anything

 

And
Whatever external drive you buy for your laptop, can also be connected to your desktop in exactly the same way - i.e. via USB 2.0?

Icaru's suggestion is what I'd recommend (and use) as well.
It's an alternative which is often cheaper than buying a dedicated external hard drive... it allows you to buy whatever make/model drive you want... and it allows you to replace the hard drive quickly and easily, as/when it becomes necessary

So... just choose whatever external (3.5" SATA) enclosure you like (preferably one with USB 2.0 and eSATA connections), then buy as large a capacity SATA 2 hard drive as you can afford.
Seagate (Barracuda), Samsung (Spinpoint), Hitachi (Deskstar), +/or Western Digital (Caviar), are the four most popular manufacturer's.


If - after that... you still need more/specific advice... tell us your budget, and we'll help you choose suitable products.
It would also be an idea to point us in the direction/provide the URL's for a few Canadian online stores, 'coz I'm not sure if the likes of Newegg deliver to Canada?