What's a good external hard drive?

[bull]

Last night I finally stopped putting of the purchase of an external hard drive; now I wish I would have put it off longer. I bought a Western Digital 250 gb EHD from Best Buy that is really turning out to be a POS. You can't drag and drop files/folders into it, you can't organize anything by creating files, there's not even an easy way to move files into it en masse, it's got to be done one at a time unless you jump through a bunch of unnecessary hoops. I'm not going to sit here for six hours moving one jpg or mpg file at a time -- I'd rather put my stuff on 50 flash drives because those at least those look something like XP.

Anyway, what's a decent ext. hard drive you'd recommend? Something that mimicks a familiar operating system setup so it makes life simpler?

[2Gunz]

An external hard drive should act just like an internal hard drive or a flash drive.
Its the exact same hard drive thats inside the computer, expect it has a fancy case and a USB interface.

Did you install software for the Hard drive?

If you did uninstall it, then browse your drives like normal.

[bull]

I installed whatever drivers it automatically installs when you plug it in. There was no software to download other than that. Not sure what you mean by "browse your drives like normal" because this thing is not normal. I'm telling you it's a screwy POS. When I plug one of those Lexar flash drives in to my USB port it looks and acts just like everything else I use on XP. This Western Digital thing is it's own deal, and it's a pain in the butt.

[bakerhillpins]

Screw the external HD and get a NAS.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MVIH24/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=304485901&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0013FW8XS&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=18M2E5B8CWKV566669F5

I picked one of these up and stuck 2 $50 (on sale) seagate 500gb drives in it. Its a RAID system (redundant disk backup, hot swap) and its networked so you can put it on your home net and every pc can hit it. It can be setup to backup PCs to and you can expand the drive size as you feel fit. Does streaming media..etc.

Bryan

[1970Moparmann]

I have an external Seagate I picked up at Fry's-never had a problem......

[bull]

I don't care what I get as long as it's easy to use, and by "easy to use" I mean something that looks and acts exactly like what I'm used to using already.

[Silver R/T]

I have internal Maxtor hard drive that has been working for over 9 years now. Check www.newegg.com for very good deals. I built my computer for a fraction of a price I would pay at local store.

[captnsim]

I use a Freeagent. It works great...easy to transfer files too and from the unit.

[Neal_J]

I have several Western Digital passport UDB HDDs from Wal-Mart that work great.  As I recall, Costco sells something similar - a 2-pack with each drive having either 500GB or 1TB.

[Dans 68]

I use LaCie D2 Quadra hard drives. Nice for the price. Get them through J&R. http://www.jr.com/lacie/pe/LAC_301442U/

Dan

[2Gunz]

I installed whatever drivers it automatically installs when you plug it in. There was no software to download other than that. Not sure what you mean by "browse your drives like normal" because this thing is not normal. I'm telling you it's a screwy POS. When I plug one of those Lexar flash drives in to my USB port it looks and acts just like everything else I use on XP. This Western Digital thing is it's own deal, and it's a pain in the butt.

When you plug it in windows will automatically find it because its a USB device.

The hard drive may have come with some software pre installed.
If you had to click next or yes you installed it.

By "browse your drives like normal" I mean double click on "my computer" and go to the drive.

Anyway as I said before all internal and external drives are exactly the same.
However if you installed some software from western digital it will act differently.

But its not needed and you can just uninstall it.

[bull]

I have several Western Digital passport UDB HDDs from Wal-Mart that work great.  As I recall, Costco sells something similar - a 2-pack with each drive having either 500GB or 1TB.

You like it? I don't have the patience to learn a new way to save files. I want something ultra basic that I can just drag and drop the files to move them around.

I took that WD thing back and bought an 8gb flash drive for $25. It's probably cheaper to increase my desktop computer to 250gb than it is to spend $100-$150 on a 350-500 gb external HD. I'll get one someday but between increased memory on my desktop and a new laptop that will have at least 250 gb I should be fine for a while.

[Neal_J]

That's the thing that makes me think your problem may be "operator error" Bull.  I do nothing different with my Western HDD than any other drive internal or external.   I simply copy/paste files using My Computer.

[2Gunz]

Sorry had 2   

[bull]

That's the thing that makes me think your problem may be "operator error" Bull.  I do nothing different with my Western HDD than any other drive internal or external.   I simply copy/paste files using My Computer.

All I know is when I pop a flash drive into the USB port and double click the F drive icon in My Computer the thing opens up and I start dragging files and pictures into it. Two minutes later I put the flash drive back in the drawer and I'm done.

Maybe I got one that has more to it than what I wanted. This thing was advertised as having email synchronization, footprint cloaking, security protocols up the wazzu, etc. It even takes your desktop picture with it so when you plug it into another computer your own desktop pic shows up (and conveniently wipes out the current one). I don't want all that BS, except maybe some security encryption.

[Neal_J]

[All I know is when I pop a flash drive into the USB port and double click the F drive icon in My Computer the thing opens up and I start dragging files and pictures into it. Two minutes later I put the flash drive back in the drawer and I'm done.

Yep, that's what happens to me with my Western drives.  Glad you found a solution.  Cheers!

[Chad L. Magee]

I run Seagate external drives (750 Gb, 250 Gb and an older 160 Gb) for my important stuff that I want to keep (research literature, scientific documents, car pictures, etc.) and a WD 500 Gb for miscellaneous other stuff that I am currently working on (that I don't mind losing such as music or games).  One thing that I found on the 750 Gb drive is that it can be touchy about the plug in power cord (the cord just plugs in oddly).  If you just want to move files around, use a thumb drive as they have become pretty cheap nowdays.....

[Neal_J]

The post of last week reminded me that I need a bigger drive for backups.  At lunch today, I bought a Western Digital 500-GB passport from Costco @ lunch. Totally plug & play installation and drag & drop file manipulation.

Later I received an email from Office Depot that offered a 4GB thumb drive for a whopping $12.