Buy a regular harddrive and an external enclosure.. Unless you plan to move them -a lot-, in which case you need something with shock absorption.

Something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ.....82E16817816008

Cheap and practical. You can choose whichever HD you want. Brand and size :3

While an external enclosure paired with an internal drive is a valid idea I'd advise against that one.. Could be troublesome in the long term being so cheep and with to DOA's in the reviews. also cheep drives don't secure or ventilate the drive that well which could cause it to fail in the long term under heavy use.

Also it's for an IDE drive, and IDE drives are slowly dieing off. This means that newer SATA drives tend to have a better price per GB then older IDE drives.

Meep. I just bough a similar one. Yes it doesn't have any ventilation because the case itself works as a heat sink. In any case, when you use external HDD, you don't keep them plugged in 24/7. You just run them a couple of minutes for a backup or something and then you shut them down.

All depends is what Occoris is aiming the EHD for. If she wants some heavy use, then probably something with fans and firewire would be best.

YES! OMG yes, I can't tell you the number of external hard drives I've had to destroy to take apart in an attempt to recover a dead/dying hard drive or replace a failed one. Pre-assembled EHDs are an abomination.

Not sure if you've considered this, and it kinda depends on what ports are available on your PC, but you want the fastest interface your computer supports. USB is ok, but getting full USB 2.0 speeds is rare and unpredictable; at the same time, it's a good idea to have a drive that supports USB in addition to other ports due to its universal compatibility. ESATA is the best, because it's practically an internal drive at that point, but ESATA ports are rare except on the newest high-end hardware. Firewire is pretty darn good, and most desktop and laptop PCs support it, as well as practically every Mac made in the last decade.

Those are some good points you brought up regarding interfaces. I couldn't have put that better myself. :)

I'll add though that if USB is the only option for an EHD it should be plugged directly into a port on the desktop/laptop it's used on, never into a HUB, that way it'll have the best chance at getting a full 40MBps/320Mbps (which seems to be the fastest USB 2.0 can get in reality)

I'll name two things bad about arkaid's-

1) It's cheap and easily breakable, and you cant haul it around x3
2) Nowhere near enough memory space xP

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I use the iOmega, which is VERY durable and I take it everywhere I do my laptop :D Plus, it's 250G for only $50

I'll actually talk to Dorian later about a 1Tb external hard drive he's looking at xP He says it only costs a little more than mine, and it's about the same size :3 Just a little smaller than that big Zune mp3 player xP

I've been using a Western Digital "My Book Home Edition" 500GB drive for awhile for backups and it's been pretty solid it's even kept working after tipping over a few times. and several current western digital drives are getting good reviews on newegg and other sites.

Also depending on the deals out there, an external enclosure for an internal hard drive could be the most cost effective option, but that does require some careful assembly, and as I stated above in reply to Arkaid's post, if you go that option you'll want a quality SATA enclosure since IDE drives are a dying breed and becoming less cost effective as time progresses.

If you want to contact me or replay with more specifics about how big of a drive you want and what you're budget is I'd be happy to give you a consultation on your best options.

Whelp- first up, I do plan on heavy use of the drive. I'm essentially in the process of replacing my desktop entirely with my laptop (which is, in itself, mediocre, but, hey, portable =P) and would like to do as little damage to it as possible;
Primary use, I think, would be housing my working files for pictures and such (as this part will happen no matter what I end up -actually- doing with the drive- it wouldn't be so much a "back up" as it would be primary storage)
Secondarily, I would -absolutely- love to be able to install my programs onto the EHD itself- so that, if i switch computers, I don't have to load and re-load everything onto something new/old/not mine. We'd primarily be looking at Photoshop and Manga studio (both of which get a LOT of use) as well as Anvil Studio and mixcraft four.

well.. if you want to run it allot a fan isn't absolutely required.. just a well ventilated enclosure. most retail EHD's have such enclosures, if you want to go the build it yourself route expect to pay about $25 to $30 for a good enclosure, $40 or more for one with a fan. I'd say the minimum drive size you'd want to get would be 500GB.. though if your budget allows 1TB is always nice with plenty of room to fill... expect to spend about $110 to $130 on a good 750GB drive.

As for installing applications.. that is a different matter sure you could install them in the EHD, but they still would only work on the original computer you installed them on if you're using windows. This is because during install pointers are created in the registry file that tell the program where to find required Dynamic Linked Libraries (DLLs), preferences, settings, etc. and without those the program has no idea how to function... The only way to get around this issue it to try installing it as what's called a Portable APP. this process requires yet another application that needs to be installed on each computer it's used on but then allows the execution of any portable apps installed on an external drive, pretty neat huh? Unfortunately you won't find most commercial software supporting portable apps because this would allow the running of the program on multiple computers without having to pay for a license for each one, but there seems to be a way to possibly get Photoshop CS2 working in a portable app environment.

I would recommend anything Maxtor or Seagate made because they are well known brands and their companies have been aroudn for sometime. also i would suggest maybe scanning frys electronics website they have excellent deals on 1 terabyte externals.

Drop-in drive ‘enclosures’ that support eSATA (best speed), Firewire I/II and USB 1 & 2. The drop-in kind use easily obtainable and inexpensive large capacity drives, and the multiplicity of interface options ensure you can connect the drive to any system. The drive is exposed to the air so cooling is as good as is possible. Exposed as they are, an ordinary desk fan can be directed to blow cooling air across the drive, ensuring thermal support. The drop-in kind (as opposed to an enclosure ‘box’) allow you to quickly swap drives easily, to plan for future growth. These drop-in drive interfaces are relatively cheap. Buy two or more and you can sneakernet entire terabyte drives as though they were flash drives. Be sure to keep the shiny silver anti-static bag the drive came in, to transport the drive between these cradles. Amazon has these, as does your local computer shoppe.

Forgot one important caveat. If you are purchasing terabyte+ capacity drives, be sure to purchase “Green” (lower current demand) hard drives. Some enclosures have a 2A current limit, which some non-green drives exceed.