external hard drive , can i use any drive?

[nobber]

i need an external hard drive , im looking at 500 gb usb drives.
will my lappy be able to cope?

this is my lappy spec.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01179831&cc=uk&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_UKEN

so guys , anything i need to know about stand alone hard drives before i go and buy one?

[Quickstop [UK]]

depending on the format you won't be able to copy files bigger than 4GB but that's only for backing up DVDs.

Most will work fine - make sure it is USB 2.0 though or it'll take forever to save files.

[sherpa87]

You'll be fine, the laptop has USB 2.0 and I haven't seen any USB 1.1 Hard Drives for ages.

Make sure when you first format the drive (if it even needs doing) you format it in NTFS, makes life easier for big files.

Look at the LaCie range of HDD's, might look like something off of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they're cheap and I've not had any problems.

Good Luck

Josh

[Satancom]

USB drives are great. Although solid state stuff is coming down in price. I currently have a 16gb memory stick which I find invaluble for work and when out and about!

[discohopeful]

USB hard drives are brilliant and laptops will use them without a problem. I hold my entire music on one and this leaves loads of space on my laptop drive. Some are faster than other though. 7200 spin speed is recommended.

that said...... If you load and hold all of your files/songs/photos/movies on 1 drive then if it breaks you lose the lot.

Best practice would be to buy 2, one for general day to day use and the other as backup ONLY.

1Tb Toshiba drives are available from Tesco's for around £65. This is an absolute bargain.

I paid £4000 for a 2Gb drive 10 years ago. Wish Land Rovers had come down that much.

[Esqulax]

I paid £4000 for a 2Gb drive 10 years ago.


HOLY CRAP!
I swear i paid 130 for my internal 30Gb HDD about 10 years ago... 4k for an external.. Jeezus!

[goo]

We paid £1000 for a 100MB SCSI drive in 1991. Scary!

[Alane]

I've got a 250gb external drive.
I install all my games and programs straight to it and keep all my itunes and photos on it.

Nothing was kept on the laptop itself.

[landowner]

Just bought a 350 gig e hard drive for a family member and it cost 49 quid including post.
I've got a 160 gig for storing docs and pics.
Just in case my computer crashes again.:eek:

[Stumpy Doofleer]

I got a 500Gb one from Comet last year for £75, I also have a 400Gb as well, easy to use even on an old laptop which doesn't have USB 2.0, loads video and music files OK, but is too slow for my dvd camcorder videos, but it woks OK on my main computer.