external hard drives
 

Hi, Is there any one who can give me some advice on external hard drives. My laptop is full and I have been told I need to create more space and that to do that I need an external hard drive. I have very little knowledge regarding this. I shoot in raw and so space is used up very quickly. Also I am on a tight budget. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and best wishes Dette.

I get mine from [url]www.ebuyer.com[/url].

You can get 500GB 2.5" SATA drive for about £45, add an external case for about 6 or 7 quid & you're good to go, just plug it into a USB port on your laptop & you have another drive (though you might need to format it forst).

I usually get 2 or 3 at a time & use them as storage & backup for my photos.

Maplin are having a bit of a sale on external hard drives at the moment. 1TB for £54

[url]http://www.maplin.co.uk/1tb-freeagent-goflex-desk-external-drive-396163[/url]

I got at 1TB western digital harddrive from Amazon for £50 but that was a sale some time ago. The Maplin deal above is good too.

I agree with Jediboy. Western Digital (I have two hooked up) are remarkably reliable and inexpensive too.

The reason I go for laptop hard drives rather than the big desktops is that they are about 6 times smaller than the 3.5" desktop ones and the desktops need their own power supplies.

Possibly not a problem for you if you only want one or two but I have 6 desktop external hard drives which take up around 12" of shelf space and they all have their own power supplies, whereas my 10 laptop hard drives take up about 6" of space & power off the USB port, so in my case space is a premium.

The 1TB desktops are better value per GB but take up more resources. (space & power)

My two WD external harddrives are as different as chalk and cheese. My older one of the two (a 350 gig drive) is the size of a medium hardback book and does have its own power supply which is a boon some of the time. But it isn't in any way shape or form obtrusive. I keep this one on the bottom shelf of my desk. My other EHDD is a 500 gig WD Elements, which is not much bigger than a packet of cigarettes, weighs 1.2 kg and sits on top of my PC tower and blends in nicely as they are the same colour. This one gets its power from the computer and is plug and play. You can now get the 1TB version for around £42 at Amazon.

You can get an external hard drive that is usb attached or you canto for a network attached system. I have synology disk station with 4 x 500gb drives in raid 5 configuration which means even if i loose a drive all i have to do is slot in a new one and off we go again

I would recommend a proper external hard drive rather than an hdd in a case. I've seen deals recently of 1.5 & 2TB from about £60. Can't remember where but try Amazon, WarehouseExpress, 7DayShop.
Cathus - What are you grumbling about? My first hard drive was a 5-platter, 15" Winchester. It measured about 600x700x250h and weighed about 8kilos. It made a noise like a jumbo on take off and stored a massive 1MB! Thankfully I've moved on and now use old 250GB drives to prop up the wobbly leg on my desk.
Chris

1tb western digital are £50 in pc world and currys