A search didn't show up much for this but I'm sure it has been posted before.

I'm looking for a portable hard drive. Currently I am using 47/55gb on my laptop (mac) and 85/120 on my PC. I'd use the hard drive mainly for storing videos/backup so being fast enough to run programs from isn't an issue. Really 160gb would probably be enough but getting one seems pointless when 250gb models are a few quid more. The Western Digital My Book range seem to be good value and what I'm looking for, not sure what I should be really looking for though, or doesn't it really matter?

I'm also not sure whether I should go for firewire, both my computers have firewire (only 400 on the mac and I guess my PC will be 400 as well) but is it really worth it? Will USB be painfully slow or is it only a bit slower than a normal hard drive and IIRC isn't USB actually faster than firewire 400?

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/109356

Firewire is twice as fast as USB2

Quote from Jakg :

Firewire is twice as fast as USB2

My understanding:

USB up to 480 Mbit/s
Firewire 400 is only 400

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S ... A_compared_to_other_buses

So without a firewire 800 connection USB is faster?

No, Firewire (on paper) is slower, but because of the (much superior) way Firewire works, it can get almost double the data through

Quote from Jakg :

No, Firewire (on paper) is slower, but because of the (much superior) way Firewire works, it can get almost double the data through

Right, how slow is a USB hard drive, seeing as it makes a big price difference, I'm not wanting to spend much and have no real need for a super fast hard drive would going for the USB be a sensible option?

I'd personally never use a portable drive for anything but backup and data that's not used too frequently (or for portability... duh). I like high-speed drives for stuff I'm working with on a frequent basis However, a USB drive is perfectly fine for what you're describing above

USB 2 is as good as firewire, as stated above ^^
Plus you might want to move it to another PC sometime.
Since a firewire port is not a standard even on modern PCs I would highly recommend the USB solution.

They USB implementations are cheaper too, if money is an issue.
(I know, money always is an issue )

Quote from ajp71 :

Right, how slow is a USB hard drive, seeing as it makes a big price difference, I'm not wanting to spend much and have no real need for a super fast hard drive would going for the USB be a sensible option?

well, tbh the drive really is the limiting factor - what i would do is look on eBay for a cheap IDE HDD and then a IDE to USB converter, and some way to power it, it aint pretty, but it might be cheaper

You can also get external HDD enclosures, which you put your own drive in, this could be a cheaper solution?

TBH i would do the first with a nice big cheap - im happy with my HDD's, so id just buy another one (i see 160 GB Seagate Barracuda's going cheap on eBay)

Quote from KMSpeed :

USB 2 is as good as firewire, as stated above ^^
Plus you might want to move it to another PC sometime.
Since a firewire port is not a standard even on modern PCs I would highly recommend the USB solution.

They USB implementations are cheaper too, if money is an issue.
(I know, money always is an issue )

The my book drives are offered in three stages, essential (usb only what I think I'll get), premium (usb + firewire) and pro (same but faster hard drive).

For the usage you've stated above, and for compatibility's sake, I'd say grab the "essential" and be done with it.

I have a 150gig seagate that uses usb. I mainly use it for games and movies. Not sure what kind of speed differences there are, but mine copies to/from plenty fast. Running games from it also works fine.

I have two external USB caddies which take standard PATA (or if I ordered a different model, SATA) IDE drives, for file general file copying they're not really that much slower. Transfer 60GB of stuff over and sure, it will take longer than two internal drives but it will still be tolerable. Really easy for making large backups and with little fuss.

Plus it's cheaper than NAS, and if you're running a 100BaseT network, faster too.

What I did for my external firewire drive was get a 120 drive for $80 (this was 3 years ago, so the price difference between that and larger drives is more than it is today), and an exernal encloser for $30. $110 total. and i was able to pick exactly which drive i wanted, with the exact specs that i wanted...and did it for less than 1/2 the price (at the time) of prebuilt external drives, which was very important because i was in school at the time and money was very tight.

only thing i'd recommend is if you go with your own enclosure, get one that has a fan on it. mine is passively cooled, and it gets hotter than i'd like...expecially when trashing it with video read/write for extended periods. never had any issues from the heat, just made me nervous, that's all.

I'm not convinced how much difference a little 40mm fan makes when blowing air out of an otherwise sealed enclosure. They also tend to be really cheap fans, which in my experience means they'll last 6-12 months before dieing. The fan on one of my units is already making a really loud horrible noise, and it's only on for 10 minutes a week.

Change of plan I think I'll go for this combo:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer ... WV3&product_uid=79988
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Seagate- ... ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Quote from Bob Smith :

They also tend to be really cheap fans, which in my experience means they'll last 6-12 months before dieing. The fan on one of my units is already making a really loud horrible noise...

I have a LaCie Brick and the fan makes that horrible noise, I'm thinking of opening the case and removing it. Is it really that necesary for the drive to work properly?

in a case they could do with SOME airflow, in a big box they really need some!

Tried finding a replacement?

I bought a 100GB 2.5" notebook harddrive and a case for mounting it in.

Pros: Small size (fits in your pocket), quiet and no external power needed.
Cons: Not superfast, but ok for just backup.

What's the difference between SATA/IDE? Is there any advantage in either system as there seem to be plenty of SATA caddies around and SATA drives seem more readily available on ebay. Should I just choose my caddie/drive system based on which is cheaper?

SATA is newer and faster

Quote from Jakg :

SATA is newer and faster

So there's no reason to go for IDE other than cost, is SATA actually faster once your using it over a USB caddie?

I'd recommend a Firewire drive, my Mac never likes mounting USB drives. Also, don't buy a pre-made one, for less money you can buy a caddy (I like the Icy Box) and a larger drive (I like Samsung, v. quiet). IDE vs SATA probably isn't so important in an external drive, as they're already not super-fast.

Remember you're not going to be able to use the same one for both computers as it comes, the standard Windows formatting is NTFS, and Macs use HFS+. If you want to use it on both, you can buy software called MacDrive to let Windows read HFS drives.

Quote from spookthehamster :

Remember you're not going to be able to use the same one for both computers as it comes, the standard Windows formatting is NTFS, and Macs use HFS+. If you want to use it on both, you can buy software called MacDrive to let Windows read HFS drives.

So the best thing to do would be to format it on the mac and use the software to use it on the windows? No way of doing it the other way round (software on mac)?

There can't be any reasons to not have it formatted as FAT32? I know Linux can read NTFS so I'm sure Mac's must be able to somehow.

^^Having looked a bit it seems macs can read but not write NTFS/FAT