Looking for an external USB HD

All,
I would like to buy an external HD USB 2.0.

[EDITED]
I need to carry it often, so would be better a device that does not need any power supply - just one cable - the usb one.

Which model do you suggest me, and why ? As budget, I would like not to surpass the 100 euros (ca. 190 US$)

Basically I need ca. 80-100 GB, and a fast, quite and reliable plug&play HD (I'm using WinXP).

Thanks in advance,
Sergio.

Icy boxes are excellent and very cheap, plus it is very easy to remove and insert hard discs. Just get a USB2 one of these for somewhere around the £20GB mark and insert the hard drive of your choice - Seagate/Maxtor whatever.

Depending on how often you'll be moving the drive/carrying it around, I might recommend a bus-powered drive. It'll be a little more expensive (eg. LaCie's bus-powered 100GB drives are around $240) but soooo worth it for the convenience. Instead of two cords, one to plug into the computer and one to plug into the wall, there's just one that plugs into the computer.

Of course, if you won't be messing with the plug much, and mostly use it in one spot, then this added convenience would be a waste of money.

Thank you for the suggestions, but I need a portable usb one, which should not require an external power supply..

:-)

Sergio.

Unless it specifically says it is bus-powered (ie. powered by the USB interface) then the drive plugs into a power outlet. The fact that the drive is USB tells you nothing with regards power supply.

Froogle 'bus powered usb drive'

Freecom do fine usb 2.5" hard drives, powered from the usb port.

You wanted a fast drive, but I have to forewarn you that the USB interface is slower than a lethargic tortoise on cannabis having an apathy attack.

I "use" a 2.5 hard disk unit with twin USB connectors, except I dont use it, I use a fireware drive instead where-ever possible.

a usb drive should be quite usable if your motherboard supports usb2. usb1 may be a little slow but its a lot better than those flash drives.

A "little" slow? I would never use an external harddrive on USB1, thus I always use firewire drives, because I can never remember if a given computer supports USB2. And the point of flash drives is not the speed, it's the insanely convenient portability.

i know its only 20GB, but i use a soyo 20GB cigar drive and love it.

iomega usb2 80gb here.. Fast as hell and no need for external powersupply.

I use, and have used for a few years now, Maxtor external USB and FireWire drives, they have external power supplies and they are very quick.

Do not use a USB powered drive - as Banshee says it will be very slow.

IPete2.

Working for me :)

Last time I helped out with one of these the whole thread was deleted, so I'm not going into any depth.

Your requirement for one lead naturally selects a 2.5" drive, that means your budget needs to be about £100-£120 GB for larger drives of that type and a case to enclose it in.

There are smaller to be had and they are ready made, my preference at that point is to look into the fairly recently introduced Western Digitals, as that will lean towards the reliable end of the market. You could see prices of half those I've quoted above, but the drives will be in a much smaller sized range than one could get by making your own set up.

Here's hoping this is allowed to be here long enough for it to be of help this time. I've not posted any links as, for all I know, that is why whole threads get deleted, it's a guessing game at best. It could be that the moderator needed to use less drugs. Who can say one way or another. One can only speculate in the absence of hard fact in that respect.

USB 2.0 is on par with firewire -- the catch is making sure that both the external USB drive supports it, and that it is plugged into a USB 2.0 port on your computer.
Many computers come with both 2.0 and 1.1 ports, so you can get a slower speed if you happen to put it in the wrong port.

(If you're not sure if your computer supports USB 2.0, check your hardware device list in windows' control panel, and make sure that your USB hub's say that they are 'enhanced' USB. If you don't see the 'enhanced' keyword, they are either 1.1 or 1.0. (1.1 supports the identical instruction set that 2.0 does, except it runs at a significantly lower speed)

On the other hand, USB is pretty much omnipresent now while firewire is a rarity on PC's (more common the mac). Depending on where you'll be using it USB may still be recommended.

The other thing to keep in mind, performance wise: For maximum portability you may want to pick a 2.5" drive, but performance wise those are significantly slower than a standard 3.5" drive. The 3.5" drives spin almost twice as fast as the 2.5" laptop drives do. You're probably not going to find a bus-powered 3.5" enclosure, though.

Oh, and something else to remember: Many of the bus-powered drive enclosures want you to plug into *two* USB slots to provide enough power to the drive. Just something to keep in mind, because on some laptops that may not be an option.

my usb HD work on booth but usb 2.0 is much faster .

i used the extern usb hd for scanning with antivir.

get hd from virus-pc put it on ext. hd drive and scan

it found moore viruses as you boot from .

USB 2.0 as quick as firewire?

I'm not sure I want to believe that, not because of some quirky USB prejudicce, but, well actually I have a wierd USB prejudice although last week I just bought by first ever USB device for my own personal computer! I also bought a USB to PS/2 adapter. Does anyone know of the actual speeds of USB 2.0 and Firewire 800?

Smartdisk FireLite - use one at work and I really like it. Very portable, bus powered (but with DC socket for power cable option - this is so you can daisy chain them as only the first would get bus power), come in a variety of sizes and either firewire or USB2.0.

USB 2 is as fast as Firewire 400, not the newer Firewire 800. As xlsior was pointing out, the only way to tell what kind of USB a given port is is by checking the device manager; the port itself looks exactly the same. That's why I don't like USB harddrives; I can never remember what kind of port it is, whereas with Firewire it's pretty damn obvious. Although mrtricks suggestion is a good one; maybe get a drive that supports both Firewire and USB, since the former isn't universally found on PCs.

Incidentally, do not expect a USB harddrive to work through the PS2 port. I'm pretty sure that only works with the simplest devices, like USB mice and keyboards.

Joe,

Isn't the speed comparison USB to FIREWIRE a burst comparison?

I remember reading somewhere that firewire is a sustainable speed and USB speed is not sustainable more like a burst.

IPete2.

Sort of. Firewire is better for sustained data transfer, but I wouldn't characterize USB speed as "burst." USB can't maintain the initial highest speed, but the drop-off in speed is gradual.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles/usb20vsfirewire/

Joe,

Ah thats it - so Firewire is probably better for video work MiniDV etc.

IPete2.

Yes, firewire is better for video work because of the sustained transfer stability. The FireLite I mentioned - I think it comes in EITHER USB or firewire, not both. But I might be wrong. My Maxtor OneTouch is both, but it's not bus-powered.

Maybe wait before getting a bus-powered drive. That FireLite I recommended has just died, and it's only about a month old. It just buzzes and whirrs intermittently and then goes silent, and doesn't show up on the system.