drbarrymary Loc: No. Carolina, Florida

Can anyone recommend a good portable hard drive. How difficult are they to set up and use?

haroldross Loc: Walthill, Nebraska

Are you wanting a true portable or just an external drive?

Most name brand drives are very easy to set up, usually just plug the cords into your computer. There are different interfaces, the most common ones being; eSATA, firewire, and USB. The most common being the USB.

You will find external drives based on the 2.5 inch disk footprint (uses laptop drives) and the will be small enough to fit in your pocket and most do not require an extra power supply. Some come with a special pig tail USB cable to supply the extra power needed.

Some external drives are based on the 3.5 inch footprint (uses desktop drives) and these are larger in size and usually require an external power supply. And again, they come in a variety of interfaces.

The 2.5 inch footprint models have the advantage of being smaller. The disadvntage is that they are usually slower in speed and may cost a little more than the 3.5 inch footprint models.

There are a few models that have built WiFi and can be used a a file server. A few of them even have a rechargeable battery. I use one for a file server for my iPad.

drbarrymary Loc: No. Carolina, Florida

Thank you very much for your information. Think I want one that is usable for my desktop and portable enough to carry to my other place in Florida.I do like the idea of Wi-Fi. Can you tell me any name brands that you recommend?

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

A portable, who wants?, a desktop is good, and still portable. I just bought an Iomega 1 TB desk top, for 129.00. I just plugged it in, formatted it just in case, and it went right to work. I see B&H has them on sale right now, for less than that.

USB feed, separate power supply, doesn't suck power from your computer the way some usb powered portables do. All around performance FAST. Build quality, TANK like.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/674939-REG/Iomega_34836_1TB_eGo_Jet_Black.html

drbarrymary Loc: No. Carolina, Florida

Thanks for the suggestion. Tried to buy it, but they said would not take orders til 9:45 tonight.

lost_found

western digital, seagate and hitachi are the most widely distributed in my area. I am not sure what the wifi advantage for these would be?

drbarrymary Loc: No. Carolina, Florida

OK!!!

lost_found

now I know.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/16/seagates-goflex-satellite-portable-hard-drive-streams-content-o/

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

Yep! they do that, shut down that is from Friday @ 6 PM, until Saturday @ 9:45 PM. But they still have very fast service, so I just put up with the little annoyances. :) And I can say in the last two years of dealing with them, I have never gotten a damaged or bad product.

PS: Seagate, does not rank very well on the product reliability scale. And are usually the noisiest of the crowd.

drbarrymary Loc: No. Carolina, Florida

Thanks for your info! :thumbup:

haroldross Loc: Walthill, Nebraska

The WiFi enabled drive is a Seagate GoFlex Satellite. For most people, the WiFi would not be worth the extra. If you want to use it as a mini file server for your iPad or iPod, this is a good way to go.

I have used Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba with no problems. All three of these companies have had problems with their quality assurance in the past years.

drbarrymary Loc: No. Carolina, Florida

Thanks!!

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

I have a Seagate 500GB USB hooked to my Desktop all the time. I don't even notice it's there. I let it run and back up automatically. I do go in every do often and do an updated backup incase I have deleted a bunch of stuff off my computer or something. Had it about a year now and it has worked great so far. Looking into getting another one to have another backup just in case.

Michael O' Loc: Midwest right now

HaroldRoss below has given some good factors. Iomega, Lacie, GDrive, Glyph, Seagate, make various models of varying speeds. If you wish dual storage for super secure storage, G-Raid mini has selectable RAID.
I just ordered from good 'ole B&H in New York (two stories covering a full city block -- and super helpful, knowledgeable, and reputable) film and slide scanner and desktop storage -- Iomaga. I have purchased repeatedly from them. For non-pushy but great counseling phone them at 800 / 947-7785 If you have time to wait, they will send to you
on request their quarterly 451 page "Professional's Source catalog for Photo, Video, and Pro Audio (Summer 2012 right now)
Michael O'Flaherty soccermick3@yahoo.com

Bangee5 Loc: Louisiana

I have a Western Digital Passport 300GB USB. Very fast, Portable Pocket size. Use it to backup my Photos and to transfer from computer to computer when needed. You can them now with over 1TB or more.