[Vault]

I won't add to the technical feedback here. I run a 80 Gig external USB Laptop drive, been working pretty flawlessly.

Advice on online vendors in Oz: Try Harris Technology or PAW. Both carry a great range and HT's shipping charges aren't too bad.

 

[Nospam]

I highly recommend getting a drive with the longest warranty available. I tend to stick with Seagate for the 5 year warranty, but I did grab a 200GB Maxtor for $25 shipped

Although I've heard good things about Western Digital recently, I've had a couple of bad experiences with their older drives.

I had a 200GB drive overheat on me after less than 2 years, but it works OK now. Then, one of two 80GB drives I bought 3 years ago just died. Don't know what happened, but it doesn't even spin up.

Still, I figure drive failures happen with all brands (although WD is the only one that's died on me - I use IBM/Hitachi, Maxtor, Seagate, and WD). So, I now buy based on price and warranty. Needless to say, I've got a lot of Seagates

 

[el_matt0]

I am quite a computer fanatic and honestly from experience i would STRONGLY recommend sticking to SeaGate. they are in my experience by far the most economical HDs to buy, very good performance, and very reliable. i use two of the seagate 7200 RPM 320GB HDs for music and data in my desktop along with my Western Digital 150GB 10K RPM Raptor HD which i use for my OS and programs. again, like others have said, id strongly recommend buying the drive and the enclosure separately. ordering online shouldnt be a problem, even from australia. this should allow you to upgrade/swap, etc. cheers hope this helps

 

[pkshiu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by onvn /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi, I am a laptop user -- as main entertainment center and as my source for aural pleasure.. Using an external DAC. I am planning to buy online an external HDD to allow more storage for music, photos, videos, etc. because I have so much programs my laptop HD is nearly full.. Some questions on external HDDs.. 1. When an external HDD is used, will the sound change or quality suffer? 2. What external HDD do you recommend? I wont need ridiculous amounts of storage capacity -- 120 or 250GB is far more than enough. Also, I am on a budget, so an affordable brand is preferred but will add some money if budget brands suck.. 3. Any Australian online retailers? or ones that ships to Australia?

If you are really on a budget, get a no-name brand external HDD enclosure and put in a HD yourself. You can even salvage an old HD from an old PC if you just want a small (capacity) drive. For example, when I upgraded the harddrive on my laptop, I needed to transfer files from the old drive to the new ones. So I bought a drive enclosure so that I can connect the two drives one time. Now I have a little spare notebook size 40G external drive for portable music. Just make sure you backup your files!

 

[Fang]

I would also suggest getting Seagate, its quieter and more reliable. Basically, I just have a USB-IDE cable that is connected to my PC, not using any casing with it. Its running just fine, but if you are going to use an existing HDD as as external drive, remember to put the jumper to master.