External Hard Drive Recommendations?

Since I've not bought one before...

I need an External Hard Drive, any brand/type better than another?

The important parts of an external hard drive are the ports it has (USB 2.0/Firewire preferred) and the portability of the enclosure (needs to have proper cooling on it to prevent the drive from overheating). You can buy the EHDD & enclosure as a combo pack or buy them separately. I prefer Western Digital as I have bought all of my hard drives from them. YMMV. Don't really buy EHDDs so I couldn't tell you which one to buy, but that's what you need to be looking for.

I have a Samsung S2 Portable 160 GB. It comes in bigger sizes but this one really does the trick

http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-s2-p...350-5.html

It's pretty too.

wow.. samsung is invading the world with their products, I see Samsung growing bigger and bigger.

Personally, I have had no issues with my Seagate external hard drives. I have a 6 year old 100gb and it still works just as good as my 320.

If you use the external harddisk for mobility, get an external laptop harddisk.
The external casing for a laptop harddisk is a -LOT- smaller then from a normal external 3.5" desktop harddisk.

And brands... They don't really matter a lot anymore, it's all the same these days... Western Digital, Seagate, Samsung, not really a big difference.

But a few good ones:
- Samsung S1 Mini 120GB Black - 65 euro (1.8" -> Extreme small)

- Samsung S2 Portable 1TB Black - 99 euro (2.5" -> Normal small)

- Samsung G3 Station HX-DU020EC 2TB Black - 120 euro (3.5" -> Medium size)
- Western Digital Elements Desktop 2TB Black - 120 euro (3.5" -> Medium size)

I think if you go shopping for EHDDs you just need to try for the highest write speed, size (1 TB HDDs are getting cheaper nowadays, and if you D/L tons of movies and stuff even 1 TB will last a good while), physical size (portability is important; you don't really want to carry around a 10 pound hard drive), all while staying within your budget.

Personally, i like seagate. Their warranty is pretty good imo.

I'm probably looking for a 1TB drive. I've seen some here for around $100.

Whats the difference between in the WesterDigital ones that are labeled MY Passport, My Book or Elements? The price ranges for the same memory is quite a lot.

This is the one I use. Western Digital HDD, eSATA support, always cool and very reliable. Have had it for almost 2 years now.

I'm probably looking for a 1TB drive. I've seen some here for around $100.

Whats the difference between in the WesterDigital ones that are labeled MY Passport, My Book or Elements? The price ranges for the same memory is quite a lot.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=8

Do you think the Automatic backup, Password protection and hardware encryption and the WD SmartWare are worth the extra cost?

Do you think the Automatic backup, Password protection and hardware encryption and the WD SmartWare are worth the extra cost?

Well I think it's just software you get bundled with the Harddisk... Mind that if you use password protection, you'll most likely (I don't know this for sure) have to install software on each computer you want to use it with, the backup thingy... well for me, I can backup my own stuff...

But mind that the casing itself is different too, just get the thing you like most on sight, you'll have to use it a lot.

Personally I would go for a 1TB 2.5" HDD, with the best looks / smallest & strongest casing, and I don't really need the software.

Edit: It seems the 1TB Samsung Drive is 100 Euro and the 1TB WD Drive (+Software) is 130 Euro... Just watched the video from WD, the software looks quite OK to me, but the question is: Are you -really- going to use it?. Or will thee drive be nothing more then a Data Dump?

The important parts of an external hard drive are the ports it has (USB 2.0/Firewire preferred) and the portability of the enclosure (needs to have proper cooling on it to prevent the drive from overheating). You can buy the EHDD & enclosure as a combo pack or buy them separately. I prefer Western Digital as I have bought all of my hard drives from them. YMMV. Don't really buy EHDDs so I couldn't tell you which one to buy, but that's what you need to be looking for.

I second Fiel's Western Digital recommendation and advise you to stay away from: Maxtor, Hitachi, Samsung ... these three companies have shared production plants in the past and have a higher failure rate than western digital and seagate ... my preference is Wester Digital, as I've used them for several years in several machines with almost zero failure rate outside of the manufacturer's expected lifetime. Also, stay away from ANY Fry's Electronics warehouses for your items, as their products have an even higher failure rate across the board for computer-related products (except CPU's)...

If you want some exceptionally good backup software, might I recommend 2BrightSparks' "SyncbackSE" http://www.2brightsparks.com ... I use it on my clients' PC's for backups... best program I've found so far in terms of flexibility, power, and intuitiveness.

This is the one I use. Western Digital HDD, eSATA support, always cool and very reliable. Have had it for almost 2 years now.

I essentially use the same one, except it is the Green Drive Variation. The thing about it I like the most is that it has a power switch so that it doesn't need to be left on when not in use; and therefore not build up heat which eventually can lead to damage. Seconding the recommendation for the external enclosure+HDD Combo provided by Fantom Drives.

I recommend IOMega. They make good stuff and I have not had any problems with them. I think they use a lot of Maxtor and Western Digital drives in their units as well.