External USB Hard Drive

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Hi all,

I am considering buying 1 of the 2, but now sure which one?

Any input most appreciated

Ebuyer

or

Lidl

Cheers...

 

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Unless you can get to Lidl on the day that the offer goes on, and as soon as they open the doors, I'd go with the first one!

What do you want to do with the external drive? Data Storage?

 

On the info given (which isn't much) the Iomega wins hands down - it uses USB2. The other doesn't state - which either means incompetence or that it isn't USB2.

A hard drive on USB1.1 will be horribly slow.

Personaly I don't buy these made up like this - I buy the case and fit the drive I want.

Harry.

 

of the two choices, i'd go with the iomega. but as harry mentioned, you could also look at bying the case and the disk seperately.
me, i usually prefer an external storage that i can hook up to the network.

 

I have considered the following:
1-Ebuyer - todays deal only... I like to think for at 48 hours before purchase.
2-Lidl - When they had those DVD players, all went within 1 hour, so i have wait outside like a b*tch like everyone else for the store to open, and im a lazy so and so...
3- Ebuyer
I have always have got this option, which i am considering.

I have a sep download machine to plug it in anyway

I keep filing my hdd up cuz of my downloads, and have always considered getting a NAS, but was waiting for the right moment. At least now, i can transfer my music, films, straight onto one of these and then that will clear up at least 100gbs.

The main reason for this would be cuz of my XBox and my bros media centre, everything at the moment is mapped to my computer, so it has to be on for playback.

*I am not allowed to use any more drive space on my bros computer, my allocation on his is 120gbs, and i have only got a total of 4 gbs free on my computer *

 

Anyone seen any good deals recently?

I'm after about 40gb and powered by usb only. It's basically so I can transfer all my music onto my new system (when I buy it : see below) and also use it for uni.

In respects to a new machine.... I have had a look around but am unsure as to what I could get for about £1000. I know PCWorld is the ultimate evil and all that but .....

THIS

Seems to be a decent machine. Any advice?

 

On the outset it does look like a decent machine, but you could probably knock a good few quid off that if you bought the components individually and built it yourself. I don't know what your skill level is like, but pre-built machines are always more costly.

If you look into it, be sure to check out if it comes with any software though, as it doesn't mention anything. A lot of people (particularly first time buyers) buy a machine from PC world and expect it to be crammed with software, and get a shock when they have to spend a good few hundred quid more getting Office and that.

 

one question mate? why 40gbs? you rather get the biggest drive you can afford, data seems to be getting bigger and bigger esp now the hd-dvds / blueray is out and kicking

edit: like cockles mentioned about the software - on the pc you linked to, you have MS Works and not Office

 

Thanks for that. I could probably at a push build it myself but just in case things go wrong like it did with my most recent machine it will be nice to have someone to shout at.

For the short term I only need office and I have that currently anyway. So that shouldn't be an issue.

I have found

THIS

for an external hard drive that looks like a good deal. Is there anyway I can transfer my itunes over as it is? I have created all folders and album playlist for 30gb of music and I really don't fancy doing it again.

 

I am going for 40/60 as I don't really want to spend too much as it will only be used initially for my music and then for uni. Although transporting DVD's around could be quite fun. Looking at spending around 50 notes. I can get something super duper if I need it after xmas.

 

For things like that, I'd recommend sites like

www.scan.co.uk
www.novatech.co.uk
www.aria.co.uk

These are actual computer component suppliers and they will offer more in terms of price and warraties as well as support. I'm always wary of buying hardware from a place that don't actually specialise in that area as any support you may need will be minimal.

 

does size matter? i.e. portablity? cuz for £60 i got a 250gb? but that was external powered and chunky

 

Lefty's spec was 'powered from USB' - so this limits quite severely what you can get.

Note that the PC powering this must be up to puff on USB - I've seen a few laptops that couldn't source the power to drive these.

Harry.

 

yes does need to be wuite light and small as I walk to and from uni. Also it would be better USB powered so I don't have to mess about when I'm in the uni library and stuff.

 

Just a thought, but it might be worth getting a laptop HDD and an enclosure like i done. They are alot smaller and mine is USB powered. The enclosures are about £7 on ebay. And the laptop drives are about £45 for 80Gb, or £35 for a 40Gb on dabs, but i reckon ya will be to pick these up cheaper mate

 

One thing's for sure --- no external devices unless they are dual interfaced ... USB and Firewire. My 250GB MyBook screams on Firewire, and USB 2.0 just can't keep up (regardless of the specs). Call it a peer-peer advantage over the controller-dependent USB, or any other architecture disparity, but sustained throughput is definitely higher through IEEE1394.

 

...and even better using eSATA. Definitely my choice.