Looking for suggestions on External Hdd, please.

Y'all seem to be the gods of computers in general and I'm trying to get an external for my computer. Its mainly purpose is to back up my data so I can do a clean install on windows xp. Due to some really stupid things on my part I ended up deleting restore points and other things that I think ended up hurting my computer.

I've been reading review after review and just can't seem to find the perfect external so I bring my question to you kind folks. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Reggie

p.s.
I have an HP and it didn't come with a restore disk, but came with a second partition on my hdd that has been deemed the "Restore HDD". Is there anyway I can make a somewhat "hybrid" version of a restore disk, with all the newest windows update files? Again, thanks in advance. ^^

 

your gonna get all kind of opinions. we got someone here a seagate 500 gb (5 yr warranty), for about $120. i've had g/l with iomega (my 1st external h/d - 80gb, which i still have. i like western digital (i have a 250 gb external), it's only a 1 yr warranty (hopefully you'll never need it though). i've used maxtor, but when i needed tech support (for an internal h/d), they were almost non-existant (sp). therefore, i won't go that route again. if it were me, i'd stick to a name brand h/d (wd, seagate, maxtor, etc, etc).

i guess, we should ask, how much are you looking to spend? and do you know what size your looking at? these are a couple of links i posted earlier. i didn't notice if you are in the states or not.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/660780/External-USB-Hard-Drive-500GB/

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005014&prodlist=celebros

yes, there is a way to insert updates to your recovery software, but it'll take alot of work. let me dig up those links. - sos

 

i had to make another post.

http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwindowssetupdisk.shtml <-- How to Create a Bootable Windows XP Setup Disk on a Preinstalled / Preloaded Windows System

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2747325&SiteID=17 <-- this thread is actually talking about sp3 release for xp. however, there are alot of interesting links in there. g/l, sos

 

Thanks a lot for the info. I was thinking about going the Western Digital route, but the site I normally shop on (http://www.newegg.com) had some bad reviews of it. Also on some other sites I went to they also said they weren't to good for external needs.

As for size I'm looking for something around maybe the 150gig-500gig range. The website I talked about sells many computer parts cheap and I know a guy who can get me half off anything I need at Best Buy so price isn't really an issue.

 

i've had g/l with western digital, but maybe i've gotten lucky? i don't know how everyone else uses their external h/d's, but i disable (turn mine off), when i'm not using it (kinda like a thumbdrive, i plug it in when i want to use it). anyway, your added info might get you more replies.

fyi, i have a "my book" 250 gb by western digital. i'm really lookin' at the 1tb from western digital, but that'll have to wait until i start working again. - sos

 

I use a Maxtor one touch ll and more recently a Seagate Free Agent model. They both work fine. I didn't find the included file back up software of either model to be of much use. It might suit you fine, however. Neither of them require the included software to work.

I'd check your disk for errors and bad sectors before you do any backups. My Seagate model had a few bad sectors. Seagate claims they put additional sectors on their drives to replace bad ones. The Seagate has a strange on/ off switch that takes time to get use to. The Free Agent Pro models have an eSATA connector that potentially make the drive almost as fast as an internal, but they don't include an eSATA cable. You have to find your own and apparently the available cables don't fit well in the seagate drive as the plastic housing is too large. One can only hope that as eSATA becomes mor popular, appropriate cables will become available. In the meantime I use USB. The Segate Desktop models do not offer eSATA connectors.

Ask the sales people which external drive do they love to sell because because no one comes back complaining about it. Or alternately, what do they hate to sell due to lots of returns.

 

Well thanks for all your help. After a lot of thought I just gave in and decided to buy a Western Digital 320gb external. I'll check it for any bad sectors and hopefully it won't crap out on me.