Hello,

I'm looking into buying a 500GB portable external hard drive with USB port. I have had a good experience with internal seagate HD. What would you recommend based on your experience or knowledge?

Thanks in advance for sharing your views.

 

I'm using a Seagate 250Gb. Sure beats rewritable CD's.

I got an external drive housing and then the HD. They were cheaper that way a year ago.

 

I bought a network drive to use for backups.

 

I have a 500GB Maxtor which works fine. A bit noisy when file transfers occur but I think newer versions are more quiet.

 

I use my house network and another computer. At 10Mb/sec it is pretty slow going though.

I've been thinking of trying out 8Gig SD cards. I'll let ya know how that works out.

 

Thanks for your views.

I've been recommended to go for Western Digital instead of Seagate portable hard drive. Apparently, recent customer reviews have been low. What's the meaning of FreeAgent? They seem more expensive.

 

I have a 500GB MyBook from Western Digital. It works great. Got it new for less than $100US.

Jeff

 

I have a Fantom Drives 1TB..Love it LOVE IT. and for $130us free shipping

http://store.micronet.com/GDII1000EU.aspx

 

I've finally bought my HD. 500GB Western Digital My Passport Essential Portable. Got it for £70 with free delivery!

Thanks guys for sharing your views!

 

Letting your USB external drive connected to your PC all the time reduces it's lifetime. Is this true?

 

I wouldn't think so, after all, that's what it's designed for. Also, my "MyBook" powers down and "sleeps" after a few minutes of inactivity...

 

I think same. Non-tech people have various beliefs.

 

STAY AWAY FROM WESTERN DIGITAL! I have had three of their 500 gig externals over the years and all three had unfortunate demises

1 - My brother knocked it off a table. Not WD's fault
2 - It died about 6 months after the warranty expired
3 - The USB connector fell into the casing. The cases are meant to not be opened so it was hard to get it open and I opened it to find the pads had been ripped off.

That being said, I now use an IoMega eGo 500 Gb. The activity light can be annoying in dark rooms, but I'm satisfied overall.