So, I'm shopping for something specific and possibly nonexistant...

[MystyGlyttyr]

I'll keep it brief. I'm looking for an external hard drive for my computer. I want it to be USB plug and play style because I don't want to have to do a whole bunch of complicated stuff just to make it work. Though 80GB would suffice, I suppose, I'd prefer to get as much storage space as I possibly could and I'd rather it was a quick connection, though that's not such a big concern. I don't plan to travel it too much as it's mostly just to up the storage space on my 80GB computer (I already have a 1 GB flash drive that suffices for my traveling files), so it'll probably stay plugged in most of the time, but I want to be able to pull it when I need to, and for it to work with Macs and PCs. Preferably, I want it to be fairly small and lightweight...and by that I just mean that I don't want to have to carry a suitcase to cart it around with me Anything that weighs less than a pound or so if possible.

And if at all possible, I want to get it for cheaply. Which means going through Amazon or buying used, I'm sure, but I'm hoping for something in the $50-$100 range.

So, does that exist? If not, any suggestions? ...if so, any suggestions? I've been hunting around online for a couple days and everyone proclaims their greatness, so I'd like some real honest opinions if anyone has them.

[Pedersen]

Nope, definitely exists. Right now, my personal favorite brand of HD is Seagate. As such, here's a 250GB drive for $99.99, new.

[digilight]

Uhhh Mysty guess what....that shouldn't be a problem I would recomend a http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=232

I have one of these and love it myself. One of the biggest things to be concerned about in a external hard drive is cooling/overheating and this drive has a awsome case that really helps keep it cool. You just plug it in and it will be automatically detected. I have moved it from my home computer to my work computer a few times with no issues (detected on either computer).

Its about the size of an average book (give or take). I got the 500gb sized one for about a hundred bucks. I've heard of them being discounted even further at certain stores (clearance as they make way for the newer models).

[PCGameGuy]

Something like this http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/S...roductID=12596 or this http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/S...roductID=13779 is probably useful. You can use any old drive you have as a backup device with em. The first one even lets you have both a SATA and and IDE drive at the same time.

[Shangri-laschild]

My friend has something that's maybe about 5x6x.5 (inches) and it holds a huge amount. really light and portable, could fit in a pocket easily. Just go to an electronic store and they should have a whole section for them. His works just like a USB drive as far as opening and such so it's really easy to use.

[Naaman]

Do you want the "press a button and it backs up your PC" style - if so then as Pedersen said the Seagate stuff is good value.

If you just want an archive type of thing then I'd suggest an external caddy that you can stuff any old drive into (like these).

If space is at a premium then you can do the same thing with notebook drives, buy an external caddy and drive seperately - most of these are USB powered as well so less cables to bother with

[lordlundar]

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Gee Mysty! I thought you had a challenge for us!

There's no real shortage unless something drastically happened when I left My first employer. The biggest thing to remember is most of the actual drives inside the external ones are usually either Maxtor or Western Digital. So if you have a particular preference, check out which company supports which drive manufacturer. Once done, for what you're after, just look for one that runs off of computer power and is portable. simple.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Heh, well, truth be told, when I talk to most of the "tech people" around here, and throw around words like "USB", "flash drive" and "computer", they give me this horrified look and back away slowly. I keep forgetting there exist people who actually know what the hell I'm talking about.

Anyway, these look like great suggestions, once I get my tax refund, I think I have an idea of what to get

[volatile]

I want to be able to pull it when I need to, and for it to work with Macs and PCs.

One thing people forgot to mention is the file system used to format the hard drive. Macs and PCs use different file systems and you can not readily mix the two. Unless you have software on a Mac to read NTFS or FAT32 the Mac will view the hard drive as an unpartitioned drive. It is also true for a PC trying to read a Mac file system. I know Mac has software to read PC stuff but I am not positive if the reverse is true. If anything, I'd recommend taking your external drive and creating two partitions. One with the an NTFS file system and the other the Mac file system.

[Pedersen]

If anything, I'd recommend taking your external drive and creating two partitions. One with the an NTFS file system and the other the Mac file system.

Nah, don't bother. Partition the drive as pure FAT32. OSX reads it just fine (speaking as a user of OSX, I can say this). Windows reads it just fine. Data transfer works. You get all the space in one area.

Just go with FAT32. It's the only sane method for an external data transfer drive.

[Cyphr]

i prefer NTFS but im in a purely windows enviroment so yeah... FAT32 is the way to go

[digilight]

And yes, there is software out there to read Mac formated discs. As a printer I've had to do this a few times myself.

[volatile]

Nah, don't bother. Partition the drive as pure FAT32. OSX reads it just fine (speaking as a user of OSX, I can say this). Windows reads it just fine. Data transfer works. You get all the space in one area.

Just go with FAT32. It's the only sane method for an external data transfer drive.

Thanks for that tidbit. I didn't know that. I know jack about Macs other than how to fix hardware for the laptops. So OSX was the first MacOS capable of reading FAT32?

[Pedersen]

So OSX was the first MacOS capable of reading FAT32?

Honestly, I don't know. I do know that every version of OSX I've seen to date reads it, though, happily.

Kind of became mandatory to support when external hard drives became the norm, ya know?

[digilight]

I do know that for years Macs have been able to read PC formated discs, while PCs can't read Mac formated discs (without special software). I would say this goes back at least 7 years in my personal experience.

We used to get customers setting up files to print on Macs, if they used a PC formated floppy we didn't have a problem with it. Now this may be different from a FAT32 format but Pederson could answer that better then I could.

I do know that the rule was allways, PC disc would work on either platform, Mac disc would only work on Mac.