konica135 Loc: Ormond Beach, FL

Sabbath on Saturdays

johnb20 Loc: West Sussex. UK.

Hi

I have a Seagate 640GB portable drive. Part No: 9SD2AG-500 It has just one connection, which is a standard USB.

Just plug into a USB port on your PC/Laptop and Windows recognises it as the next drive on your system.

So easy to use and because it is pocket size 3"w x 6"l x ½"thick, it is very easy to use and will match with any PC you care to plug it into. I have also plugged this into my TV to run a slide show of holiday snaps, and it works just fine. I picked mine up from EBay for just UK £21. Had it for 2 years and although I use it as a backup for my PC hard drive, it still has just under 500GB of space left. I would guess that it would hold a max of 3000 JPEG photos.

donnahde Loc: Newark, DE

I use a one GB Western Digital portable hard drive called "My Passport" and love it. Have had no problems whatsoever. I have TB hard drive and it was approaching full. So I now put ALL my images on the Passport. I got it from Costco for about $100 if I recall. Probably can get
a 2G now for the same price and I may need one soon!! lol

I love that I can just uplug it and take anywhere to put on a slideshow, etc....like a giant flash drive! It's about the size of two business cards side by side and comes with a carry case.

Emjem Loc: Perth australia

What is the make and model of this drive and where did you get it?

DeanerNiker Loc: Lakewood, Colorado

Just bought a Seagate 3TB external drive for $119 at Costco 3 days ago. USB 2.0 and 3.0; will also work with a FireWire adapter.

windy

i wonder if anybody can tell me how to use one of these as a hard drive so i can see my pictures on it ?

ted45 Loc: Delaware

For what you are asking get a 2.5 inch portable drive with a USB connection. I would also suggest that you go someplace local like a Best Buy or a computer repair shop. If you drop these drives they become paper weights. They also have a 10% failure rate when new out of the box. It is easier to have a local person recover your data or replace the drive than it is to deal with a mail in.

Benttree Loc: GA.

How one know if this really working beside its blue light ?

Fotomann Loc: Toronto, Ontario Canada

I bought a 3TB external drive cheap at Costco two years ago. USB 2.0 and 3.0 and it's working great already half full. :-)

GC likes NIKON Loc: East Greenwich, Rhode Island

I have two WD Scorpio 250 Gig laptop SATA drives (Ebay $25 each) in USB 3.0 enclosures (Ebay $14 each) that I use to transport data and pictures around. Easy to make. Open the case, plug the drive into the socket, slide the drive into the case. Insert & tighten two screws and plug in the drive to a USB port. Format it and you are good to go. WD drives also available on Ebay at 500 G and one TB........

Great to take pics to transfer image to a family members computer or back up. Slips into a pocket, about 3" x 5" x 1/2" I've been making these for my use and others for years.

lazyjt1 Loc: Potter Valley, CA

http://thelightroomlab.com/2009/05/recommended-external-hard-drives/

Hope the link works. This is a great site. Took a class from David. Very knowledgable.

finalimage Loc: Brattleboro, VT

I have Western Digital 1T external and a Seagate 2T. Both are easy to set up and small enough to pack up and go. Won't go in your pocket but not big. I travel with them in their original packaging. I try to keep a backup of all my photos on each in case one of them fails. When i fill up the 1T drive I'll get another. Both connect by USB . Hope that helps.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

I get my hard drives for traveling from "Other World Computing"
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/SATA/DIY/

I recommend getting the enclosure and hard drive bundle to meet your needs and budget. Insert drive into the enclosure. Takes only a couple of minutes and a small screwdriver. Works with both Macs & PCs.

Also, after upgrading my laptop's internal drive, I've put the old one into their enclosure to make a cheap travel drive.

saichiez Loc: Beautiful Central Oregon

SEE your pictures on it... Do you mean a storage drive that has an LCD on the unit so you do NOT have to have it hooked to your computer...??? A slot to download memory card and a screen to see.

Those are available.. quite high priced. In fact the last time I looked the they were more expensive than a small "Netbook" computer that would have a lot more storage, a much larger screen and act as a full blown computer, ie do editing and such.

Epson introduced the first one I saw, a few years ago. limitations are storage space, small screen, priced more expensive than a bigger but small laptop. Here is a link to one currently not available on Amazon (I think Epson discontinued).

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000J3YFM2?tag=allthingsp0f5-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B000J3YFM2&adid=0FRFNWSFF1N07JT85M4G&&ref-refURL=


In fact here's what I did. I bought a routine External Hard Drive... Seagate. (My profession for 25 years now has been computer consulting and tech'ing) My preferences on hard drives are Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba. Hitachi would be on that list, but they were acquired by WD in 2011. Seagate acquired Samsung HDD about the same time.

So, the name of the external drive is less important than which of the three drive manufacturers are inside the unit. For example LaCie external drives are touted as higher quality, and certainly priced to the marketing hype. However, they are (as documented by personal observation, and internet chatter) more unreliable than Seagate, WD or Toshiba. I cannot discern whose drive they use, but they may be using some other drive, or their added circuitry is suspect.

Another IMPORTANT point about external drives. Most of them are USB connection to the computer, so it is extremely important to click on the "safely remove" icon in the notification tray, and wait for the message "it is now safe to remove.....". This is trickier on external hard drives, and you may receive a message that the drive "cannot be shut down at this time....". Do not get anxious (right, you need to be somewhere...)... Simply shut down the computer to complete shutdown and remove the drive after the power is completely off. That way there won't be the 5 volts of electricity running through the port. You can damage your new external drive, just as you could damage your camera, or your memory card, or your flash,jump,thumb drives if you just pull the USB cable from the port without exercising "Safey Remove"... Been there, Done that...personally know that's a destructive move for any USB storage device.

Good luck. Of all the USB connected storage devices, external hard drives are the most secure. However, nothing is 100%. Any of these devices can fail.

I have two of the laptop drive size external drives. They are redundant and I synchronize them at least quarterly. One is a Seagate and one is a Western Digital. That, and the fact that all my data also resides on the big drive in my primary computer comforts me.

Last point. I've been doing computers, software and storage. I DO NOT rely on any "cloud" storage (storage on the internet), backup or otherwise. It may be convenient, but in my personal experience, it is not safe as a sole system. First, it is outside your control, second, websites leave the internet usually for financial reasons and with no warning (personal experience with two instances of that happening.), third, contractually they disavow responsibility for any value of your data, fourth, they contractually and usually claim rights to your data. The list goes on. Be personally responsible for safety of your own data. You cannot pass that responsibility to another party.

bedgmon Loc: Burleson, Texas

I use 1T LaCie. I am ignorant when it comes to this sort of thing. Kelby training was using them, so I tried one.(I am easily influenced.) I needed help and LaCie's support was dandy. LaCie also followed up later to see how I was doing. Some support has a cost, but mine did not.