I'm in the market for an external hard drive to act as backup/extra storage and could use some suggestions on which ones would be good to go with.
I would like to get one that's 2-3TB, given the older computer systems I frequently have to deal with I might have to go with one that's USB 2.0 compatible and compatible with Windows XP and up. I've been looking over what's on newegg and all the ones they have seen to have no cooling or power switches. The no power switch I could live with, but the no cooling makes me concerned about their use.
I was going to go with an internal drive that I could mount to turn it into an external but unfortunately the switch from ATA to SATA might make that a problem.
2-3TB seems a bit excessive unless you are backing up multiple systems.
You don't exactly need cooling on an external hard drive, you mostly just need that for an internal hard drive, and not all computers need that either. All the fan does is blow the heat out of a computer, and the heat from an external hard drive isn't trapped anywhere. The only thing it will do for it is extend the length of the hard drives life. If you really want, you might be able to make a few holes in the drive's case to allow heat to escape.
Like master said, 2-3 TB is enormous. If I were you, I might think about a 500 gig. They're cheaper, and will most likely do the job just as well. As far as being extra space, I didn't try it yet. My computer is also 500 gigs (same size as my hard drive so I can have a full back up) and, even though I've had this one for well over a year now and downloaded a lot of stuff, I still have a LOT of space left.
I have a 500GB external hard drive for my computer, and it works fine for my family's uses. 2-3TB will just be too much, unless you have a ton of extra files and are constantly making new ones that need a place to stay.
My family has a 1 TB external hard drive. Except we got it like a month or two ago. But we haven't even made it to 100 gigs yet! So unless you are backing up like a lot of games, then I suggest you wouldn't need more than 1 TB.
2TB only seems enormous. Yet when you get a lot of media, it seems like just enough.
Take 100 gigs of music, combine with an equal part of movies, toss in another 500 for games. Let simmer for two hours and sprinkle with a random smattering of pictures and videos. Serve on a bed of back-ups.
Given the reviews I'm seeing I might settle for a 1TB. I'm currently leaning towards a Seagate 2.5" Goflex drive. It seems to have good versatility and and is powered through the usb connection.
