Portable hard drive

Astraeus

Astraeus

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Ciaran
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I have searched the forums for information on this but I'd appreciate that which I've already read being fleshed out by a few opinions here. :help:

Basically, I currently have 8GB of photos which aren't backed up. This, I'm sure you'll agree, is a cardinal sin of photography. Now my original thinking was to buy a reasonable branded 1TB (or even 1.5TB) drive and leave it permanently on top of my PC's tower. Then I saw the Seagate FreeAgent Go series and thought twice.

Whilst it's true that this HDD will remain near my PC for the most part, I do run photos on two computers at different properties and, furthermore, like the flexibility of being able to run the HDD to family and friends if they want to see photos. Besides that, the current 300GB HDD I have running requires external power and just makes carrying it that much bulkier.

And there's more - I'm off on my travels to Switzerland and Australia for several months next year - being able to shift all of my photos onto a truly portable HDD no matter where I was (so long as I had a PC) is a massive boon to me.

However, am I being stupid in paying £70 for 500GB when 1.5TB can be had for the same? Or here does the practicality override the size issue? I'd never fill 500GB anyway...(or so he says).

Lastly, does anyone have any superior alternatives to the Seagate FreeAgent? Reviews generally seem to favour this over the Western Digital Passport range.

Any help greatly appreciated - thanks! :thumbs:
 
Hi Astraeus,
I was in a similar quandry and I needed a portable HDD. I have had good experiences with Freecom portables and I have just bought myself a 320Gb Verbatim (self powered) drive from Dyas at £50. I was pleased to learn that the physical drive fitted inside the Verbatim was a Samsung HDD. So far no problems.
From reading various reviews, people used to swear-by Western Digital but their latest portables have received a panning in some (user) reviews. I guess you pays your money and hope that you are lucky!
BTW I wouldn't personally use a portable HDD as my only back up device, I just use it to move files around between drives.
 
I can help you on the portability, Lacie do rugged HD's with a rubbery finish... Making them pretty robust for taking out and about, apart from that I am clueless!
 
I have a Seagate external drive and it works away quite happily. Easy to save and retrieve data, and I have it set to download my pictures automatically.
No idea if its better or worse than any others as its the only one I have used :)
 
Split your budget between two (or more) drives, and duplicate the backups. When a drive fails, replace it with something bigger. If both drives fill, add one or more larger drives and retire the older drives when necessary.

Photos for screen viewing needn't take a huge amount of room, and I think it's better to take them on a memory card and use a player connected to a TV.
 
Thanks for the opinions. I'd not use the drive as a sole means of backing up - they'll remain on two PCs and I'm going to start burning them to DVDs.

If looking at the massive drives, am I best off with a Samsung Story 1.5TB at ~£80?
 
Its a personal opinion, some good drives fail some don't. I have the seagate free to go 250gb. I love it, it just pops in your laptop bag or pocket. I use it to take my images to a pro tog for his comments. Its so easy to use. Check out ebuyer.com best prices on computer stuff usually.
 
Opted for the Seagate FreeAgent Go 500GB with a free case and dock from Play.com as well as a couple of quid cashback from Top Cashback. I'm going to wipe my old Iomega 500GB and leave that as a permanent fixture atop my PC, leaving the FreeAgent solely as a transportation backup.
 
Interesting thread I've been looked at the Freecom toughdrive and Novatech shockproof. We've had freecom drives in work for years with no problem, still trying to find more info on the Novatech drive though.
 
Have you considered the Samsung 500Gb? Very potable, I use a seagate 750 mains as a further back up seems to work well. Maplins did a good deal on both and the Samsung has an auto back up function
 
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