external hard drives...?

[hop]

Ok, I'm very close to maxing out my internal drive on my iBook. Searches show about a million options for external hard drives with flash memory, discs, whatever.

Being a computer jong, what do I want? I'm gonna store music, documents, and such and try to leave the internal drive free for programs.

Suggestions? Ideas?

Edit: I did see the thread from January but maybe there's something new out there?

[NorCalSJK]

Being a computer jong, what do I want? I'm gonna store music, documents, and such and try to leave the internal drive free for programs.

Suggestions? Ideas?

I had the same problem with my laptop...60gb just isn't enough. I built my own external HD for under $100(including rebates, etc). I would suggest building your own, and getting a case that uses USB 2.0 and Firewire, they are only a couple bucks more than just a USB case. I bought my case from here--->dealsonic and it's been great, they are the cheapest i could find and same quality you'd find at Fry's, etc. As far as the actual HD, if you don't mind rebates, you can check here--->Techbargains and find a big internal HD that comes with a rebate. Get the biggest you can buy, i have a 250gb, it's perfect! At that point, you just slide the HD in the case, hook up a couple easy plugs/wires...format the drive on your mac, under Utilities--->Disk Utility, and you're good go! Let me know if you have any other questions, i'll try and help.

[Nobody Famous]

A USB External Hard Drive is definitely the way to go (or USB/firewire for a MAC). I’ve worked with a few of them, my employer supplies them for people who work remote/form a home office, and I just recently got one for use with my own laptop.

As they said above, there are two ways to do it. You can either buy one ready to use out of the box, or buy the hard drive and enclosure separately, and put them together yourself. The difference is about $80 (+/-) in savings, and 10 minutes of your labor.

For ready to go out of the box, Costco has a SimpleTech model 250Gb for $179 (link), Sams Club has the same for $10 more. Costco also has 160 Gb for $129, firewire/USB, these are very good prices.

For buying the HD and the enclosure separately, Sam’s Club has a 250 Gb for $118, and 300 Gb for $159 (links, 1, 2 ), and Costco has a 300 Gb for $175 (Maxtor brand, can’t find it on the Costco website, but saw it in store last week). Best Buy retail stores currently sell enclosures from Adaptec for $50, or you can get the enclosures via mailorder, try www.newegg.com or www.zipzoomfly.com (in both cases search for Hard Drive Enclosure).

Advice if you buy the drives via mail order (or eBay, or at some local weekend computer show), don’t get ones in OEM packaging, be certain to get ones in retail packaging. The OEM versions will have a much higher failure rate, they were not designed to be shipped/handled a lot, and the manufacturers will not honor the warranties at a consumer level. Note the big bubble packaging in the links above, if the drives are in something other than this, say 24 of then in a styrofoam crate, and just wrapped in anti-static plastic, then they are OEM packaging.

As for the drive enclosures, get a metal case, not a plastic one. It will dissipate the heat from the drive much better. Match the interface type the enclosure uses to the interface the drive uses, EIDE or SATA.

[backpack]

I have a bunch of them and there are a few things I'd suggest:

1) If you want 80GB or less, and can spare a few extra $$, I'd get a laptop-drive based external that is USB powered. The lack of a power cord, small size, and lower noise makes it worth the extra money for me. They're about $180 (not $280 anymore like spew mentioned).

2) If you need a huge amount of space (my digital photos, for example, take up almost 100GB at this point, and with movies, tv shows, and music added I need about 220GB of space just for media), the 250 or 400GB "desktop" drives are a good deal. If your mac has Firewire 800 a lot of the 400GB drives are FW400/800 + USB2 triple interface.

3) If you need a smaller amount of space and size is the biggest concern, external drives based on the 1.8" disks used in iPods, etc. might be your best bet. They're super expensive ($300/60GB), but tiny tiny tiny.

type #1 is my pick... best mix of portability and price.

[skier0178]

This or this plus one of these (you can probably find a cheaper one). One thing for certain, GO FIREWIRE. USB 2.0 is a little flakey in the iBooks and USB 1.0 is a no-no for external drives (way too slow). firewire is great and faster then USB 2.0.

[Nobody Famous]

This or this plus one of these (you can probably find a cheaper one). ..

Both of those hard drives are in OEM packaging:

Specifications: type OEM
Important Note: OEM hard drives do not include cables, software, or hardware (screws, brackets, etc.). Full manufacturer's warranty applies.

[skier0178]

Both of those hard drives are in OEM packaging

I've am using the Maxtor in an external Firewire enclosure right now. It came with screws and if the one you get doesn't, they aren't very expensive. You don't need cables with your HD, that's what the enclosure if for...

[bossass]

I have an iBook with an external firewire Fantom 120gb. No problems at all. Got a really good deal (like $110) off dealmac.com (compiles deals on mac stuff, updated daily, my favorite site after SAC).

I concur with most said. Do firewire. My fantom, and lots of the LaCie's have external powersources, but don't have fans. So mine is pretty quiet and cools itself through it's metal exterior.

Try buy.com, newegg.com, and ecost.com for good deals.

good luck.

[cj001f]

If you have a Wifi network/router at home (if you have a home) consider a network harddrive. You can get passable one's for a $50-100 premium over an external and they support multiple computers, etc.

The do-it yourself external kits are the way to go if you are looking for just an external drive. Especially if you live near a fry's or are willing to wait to buy online.

[eDub]

Western Digital 80GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - $50 After Rebates.

[Arty50]

hop, your iBook only has USB 1 not USB 2. So definitely get a drive with firewire. Watching grass grow is faster than transferring files over USB 1.

[snowsprite]

I got an iomega 20 gig external HD for about $80. It's teeny, like the size of an ipod only thinner. Added bonus: it requires no power supply. Runs right off the USB. So far so good. I heart it.

Sprite

[Telepath]

Either a bus-powered external drive of like max 80GB (LaCie makes some pretty sweet ones that I like myself) or a bigger external one with a power supply if it won't be moving around such a lot. I have some LaCie 250GB drives ( LaCie P3 they're called, at least over here) that are USB2; they're also made in a Firewire version and decently cheap. I'm happy, keep music, movies and pics on them and back up my Laptop drive on them too. Works really well imo.

You might be able to save a little (very little methinks) in building something yourself; but I didn't find the saving enough to justify the time spent etc. Pretty easy to just by a good-looking, compact drive, plug it in and go.