RocketScientist Loc: Littleton, Colorado

Thje bigger the better. Seagate is great. Get 2 of them. Use the free version of SyncBack from the nice people at 2brightsparks.com to keep them automagically backed up to each other.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Now don't shy, tell us what you really think!

Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

I thought I was quite clear!.....NK72,..you are the photo guru here, and I respect that(a lot).....
Conversely,....I "AM" a PC geeeek!...and I said what I believe.
.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Look at it like the Nikon vs. Canon comments Don. Can't let it get to you.
I had a WD 500GB drive that was losing segments like a sieve! Found out the warranty was still in effect and they sent me a brand new one along with free transfer software. That one is still in my computer today, nothing against WD at all. I have the Seagate portables because they were less than 1/3 the price of the smaller capacity WD portables, no other reason. I won't use Gateway or Compaq computers because I think they are crap, but I doubt Gateway or Compaq owners will agree with me. I have found people sometimes defend their purchases to the death to justify their decisions as being correct, whether they were or not. ie a few Canon owners here as an example.
Don't sweat it, have a good nights sleep and go burn up some gigabytes tomorrow!

Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

You are the man MT. (not that I always agreee with you,.. and I don't on this one.) BUT WTF>>>>
Let the guy buy what he wants.....He'll soon find out.

Besides,.....(Lets get a D7100!!!!) Who will have it first??? As far as a retailer???........In your expert opinion?.....

wschubert Loc: Clarkston Washington

As with most here I too have a Seagate external drive (1 Tb) but have used many different brands in my day with good luck. I keep a copy on my internal hard drive and backup on the external. Now having said that this is still not a good way to back up your pictures. Yes it will protect you against a hard drive failure but in the event of a disaster (fire, flood, theft etc) you will loose everything. The only safe alternative is offsite storage. The easiest is an offsite storage service. You can also do it on your own by keeping a copy at another location, but you need to be religious about it. Purchase two external hard drives. Back up your files on one then store it offsite (parents house, friend, office, safe deposit box, whatever) Then use the other external drive at home to do your back-ups. Then on whatever time frame that works for you (daily, weekly, monthly ) swap the external drives. You will still loose some work, but not a lot depending on your time frame.

PHFoto Loc: Idaho

I've had a Seagate for a few years, i'm ready to get another one, no problems yet.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Just teasing, Big Guy! I know squat about storage, so I let my PC-savvy son dictate the computer stuff.

coatachrome

Hello donrent, Coatachrome here. It seems that you have the pros and cons of just about every external stroage device maker on the market in the responses you have already received.

From my perspective, I would purchase the drive with the largest storage capacity you can afford. Your going to find success and horror stories about all of them. I have about 15 of them sitting in front of me, all the way up from the first ones I purchased at a whopping 256 Kilobytes to the multiple Terabyte drives I use today.

I have not found a "really good" scheme to store the images. I've used dates, and discriptive text as file folder names and I've still forgotten where I have put one thing or another.

For the past few years I've just off loaded the camera images to the drive and I use Nikon's free ViewNX2 to search for the image I need to find. You can down load that direct from the Nikon web site. As with any software there is a learnig curve, but I like the advantage of searching through the thumbnail images to find what I am looking for.

Keep this in mind, ultimatley all the electronic devices will fail. I have five or six I use as coffee cup stands and/or bookends and paperweights. For the really important files that I will want to make sure I have available, because of contract terms and ongoing projects, I burn them off to Read/Write DVD's. Newer DVD burners run quite fast, are very small and powered via the USB ports of your computer. You may need to look at some good software to run them, I prefer Sonic's software. Some of the burners come with software for transfer and burn, but they generally have terrible interface programs and are not "intuitive" to use.

I hope I haven't given you too much information, have fun.

woodworker236 Loc: Western, Pennsylvania Home of the first JEEP

I have a question for you. How do you go back and find a picture you may want a week or so later? I am looking for a better system than what I now use.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm gald to hear that. Now I have someone to pester wilh all my computer questions.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have a couple of external drives that I use as backups. Aside from my computer, I like to backup to two places.

Before buying a drive, I look for reviews - like PCMag and PC World. Also, check the manufacturer's site. One company makes drives of diffeent quality, and price, and codes them with colors. I spend a few dollars more to get the better quality.

Some drives require external power, and some work off the computer. I have a small Toshiba drive that has a Y cable,so it plugs into two laptop USB ports to get enough power.

Buying on sale is a good idea, too.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

I have eight externals, ranging in size from 500 GB to 2 TB. I have no loyalty to anything computer wise. Whatever is on sale when I need a new drive.

I bought my first external back in 2001. It's still going strong.

I have only had one external go bad, and it was the one I took apart to see how it worked. LOL

Freeaviator Loc: Buffalo,NY

I have a 1T (terabyte) external HD...it will hold roughly 215,000 jpeg images (of course depending on file size).....hope this helps.

Jeff

ordinarytom Loc: Randsburg, California

I use a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk external drive with 1 Terabyte storage