Starting with the assumption that I'm not an expert in these matters - here goes.
I've use WD and Seagate drives with great success in the past. I've also used a LaCie drive.
WD drives come with backup software installed on the drive which should make life a little simpler.
I use a freebie from Microsoft called SyncToy which allows me to perform custom backups of selected folders and sets of folders to mirror my files on the external drive.
You can find it at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx
The version currently available requires Microsoft's .NET framework 2.0 to be installed on your system to work ( Windows only ) but if you're up to date that should be OK.
I have two external drives and I backup duplicate copies to each separately and only have them powered up and on line for the backups.
That is, I turn one on, do the backup, turn that on off, turn the other on, do the second backup, then turn that one off until next backup time.
That keeps them safe from power spikes, viruses, or other malicious software.
The drives are about 500MB each and cost about $100 each. They can connect to either a Firewire port or to a USB 2.0 port.
That makes it convenient to have them connected to two separate computers ( not simultaneously ) for large file transfers ( I scan on a separate system ) and to be useful to backup that second system.
If $$$ are not too limiting, then you should look into some of the RAID systems that support mirroring. One of the new ones has bays for 4 drives and does the mirroring automatically so you don't have to struggle with the setup which I'm told can get a little complicated ( no personal experience here ).
Hope this helps.
James
At 01:21 PM 4/27/2008 -0400, you wrote:
I am thinking about getting an external hard drive for storage and have been told that 1TB is probably way to large. I've also been told that getting one with it's own power supply would be a good idea.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what would be good? I wouldn't mind 1 TB as it would supply quite a bit of storage for a while.
Also, any suggestions as to where to read up on the external hard drives would be greatly appreciated. Really, anything that would point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. One person has said he only uses Western Digital but some of the other brands I've seen look enticing as well. Sorry to put this to the list but I really have no one else to ask. Thank you ahead of time for any tidbit of information. :) Linda B.
