Portable External Hard drives - advice?

[Ivo]

The external drive I have is clunky and I need to plug it to the power and to the USB. There are some small ones that just get their power through USB and are much more portable (a known type is the WD "My Passport" series).

I don't really need a lot of capacity now, particularly as I have the other external one and I have a lot of space in my main drive, so I was thinking 160 or 250 GB, but I could go to 320 if its really worth it.

I've been looking mainly at Western Digital and Iomega, but maybe the other brands - even though not as well known - are cheaper and offer the same (or better) quality?

Advice is welcomed

[opethfan]

All hard drives are made by a small circle of companies. Hitachi, Toshiba, Seagate, Maxtor (owned by Seagate), Western Digital, Samsung, etc. So if you buy a drive not made by one of those companies, it will still have one of those drives in it, and that's what's important. The external enclosure is just a box with an adapter that converts the native connection of the drive to USB or Firewire, or both. In that sense, you can't go wrong, too much at least.

If you have a local computer store and don't mind DIYing, you could always buy an external USB enclosure for a drive, then buy an internal drive to place in it. This sometimes has the benefit of a longer warranty (HDDs usually come with 3 or 5 year warranties nowadays, compared to 1 or 2 for a storebought box), more selection when it comes to picking a drive, and they're often cheaper. But if that isn't within your scope, no worries, just get a drive that has the capacity you want, with the connections you want, at a price you want.

[Ivo]

This is actually what I did to my external one - got a case and put an internal (at the time an IDE one I think) inside. My concern with that approach, which is probably more cost effective, is about the portability (e.g. I expect the ones that come prepared look like they would be more resistant to shocks, or being moved while in data transfer).

I also read however that some pre-prepared ones are somewhat crappy in terms of transfer speeds (not talking about the firewire ones) because the manufacturer used some cheaper chip (?) in their case that doesn't get all the speed from the HD (often the same HD used in a non-portable outing that gets better speeds).

[executioner]

A usb powered portable drive would be your best bet. I'm giving this thread a follow up since I was considering buying a 500GB WD passport essential drive as they are small and really portable. My main concern is being able to have it with me almost everywhere I go so the size is perfect. Don't want to mess with carrying a power supply just the drive itself and maybe a usb cable.

Also considering teaming up whatever usb hdd I buy with a WD HDTV. For the price it beats other competitors with media format compatibility and there are some guys making custom firmware for the little box. Portability is also a big plus on this one but like the idea of not having it together with the hd and should be easier for my folks to use than a media center pc, but now I'm just off topic.

I've looked at iomega and toshiba models but didn't like the looks. The other ones I'm also leaning towards is the Lacie Little Disk which has a built in usb cable so that looks like a plus but don't have good references for the Lacie brand.

[opethfan]

Some store bought drives can have cheaper USB chips, but if you're serious about transfer speeds, Firewire is the only way to go.
Knowledge of USB - SATA or USB - IDE bridges is so slim, even by tech enthusiasts like me, means that even if you know what the drive uses (which you won't without buying and taking it apart, voiding the return policy and the warranty), that information will be useless to you without something to compare to, which there isn't. It isn't worth the hassle.
The rule of thumb is, the smaller, pricier ($$ / gig) HDDs are gonna be laptop ones, which don't need power. Go with one of them. Performance will be slower, and you might not get Firewire, but from what you seem to want, that doesn't matter, as you want a bigger thumb drive, to be moved around, not an external hard drive, no?

[Dakinggamer87]

I recommend a Seagate or Western digital drive.. I have owned several external drives and had no problems.. I'm looking into a small one I can carry anywhere with just a usb cable and no power adapter just like executioner...

[Ivo]

Yes the transfer speed won't be a big deal - my desktop PC doesn't have a firewire connection (although I could probably just get an adapter, as there is a slot for it in the case) and my travel laptop is one of those tiny Asus ones so it doesn't have it either.

Some of the Iomega ones seem to have firewire output I don't think that guarantees that the USB speed will be higher than the ones that just have USB (I would think the part that handles the firewire is completely separate and that they just use the same part in the USB side as they use for USB-only drives). Although for a some extra USD they throw in the Firewire and its 320 GB instead of 250 so maybe I'll just go for that anyway:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C5 ... 37&sr=8-10

I personally like the look of the Iomega ones (they look like flasks, but the black ones are matte unlike the glossy WD - I also like the look of the WDs but I prefer matte over glossy).
The comparable WD one would be this I guess:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-P ... 886&sr=1-3

If anyone knows a local store in Boston that has better prices than Amazon I might check that, but probably it is worth saving myself the hassle unless I want to buy an internal laptop drive and a case. In that case, when I bought the internal IDE drive and the large case here the local store just put it in for me free of charge - that would be cool, although I reckon it's not difficult to just unscrew some bolts and then plug in a couple of cables and put the bolts back in.
But at least in Amazon all the 2.5'' internal drives are almost the full cost of the ones that already come with the case on.

[Ivo]

Just for those interested in the same thing, I ended up deciding on the Transcend Storejet mobile (320 GB).
It seemed cheaper than the comparable alternatives, the transfer speeds quoted in reviews were decent (if not good) considering it doesn't have firewire, and it is really rugged even able to withstand falls during handling / transport, even fulfilling some US military standard for shock-resistance (I wouldn't recommend trying it yourself for fun, but they show it happening in their advertising video and it seems legit, at least the last tumble is shown in the same sequence where they plug it into the laptop - I found it rather funny to see:
That is the stupid way of getting the drive next to your laptop though )

I excluded the WD passport / my passport early, as I personally don't like its looks that much - although I can see why others consider it attractive - but mostly because it seemed slightly more expensive than the alternatives, in some cases with less features (for example, I don't believe at all the WD is any sort of shock-resistant).

I was thinking to buy about the Iomega eGo with firewire 400, which was still a bit cheaper than the WD (Iomega with Firewire was cheaper than the WD without firewire) - it looks really sleek to me, particularly the matte rather than glossy. It also looked like it could take a bit more movement like inside a backpack than the WD (which really looks fragile to me). But then I don't have firewire myself at the PCs I use.

When I saw the Transcend, I had to decide between the Iomega's firewire option, which I thought I may end up never using anyway, or the cheaper Transcend (without firewire) but that looked like it can survive falls. I also like the looks, and the silicone "casing" is built into it, which also should help *prevent* falls. The Transcend is a more recent model as well, which may or may not have good transfer speeds - the reviews I saw seem to point to it having among the best transfer speeds of the USB-only drives.

[DerekG52]

I recently bought a 640gb drive for backups. Picked up the drive for 50 shipped off ebay (forget which brand, but they are pretty much interchangeable), and an enclosure off newegg for 20. The combo beat anything comparable for the price by far. It has an external power source (sort of annoying) and still has decent speeds over the USB connection. Firewire would be faster, though they are fewer and further between. Also recommend encrypting the whole thing (I used TrueCrypt, fantastic software) and so far no problems.

Edit: From your post it sounds like you don't really care alot about the details, just something cheap. From my experience, USB is fast enough (this is external and for file storage / backups / transfer) and the external power source is a minor nuisance. I'd check out ebay or similar for an internal drive and then find the enclosure somewhere else, IIRC there were extremely cheap enclosures from China on ebay for $5-10, but then again you get what you pay for. Also, unless you have it already, a friend w/it etc, finding a drive smaller than 250 is going to be slightly harder / not worth it because their is a price floor. If you can find a 150 / 250 for $30, you can probably double or triple sizes for not much more.