Best external hard drives to buy right now?

Building your own external drive case used to be a smart way to save some cash, but honestly, over the last few years, you're much better off just picking up a pre-built external drive.
Personally, I’d suggest going with the WD Elements Portable 500GB. It runs right off a standard USB interface, doesn't need an extra power brick cluttering up your desk, and the build quality is solid enough.
The transfer speeds are perfectly decent—you aren't going to see anything faster since the USB connection itself is the main bottleneck here—but don't go thinking the drive is actually slow; it isn't 🙂. For $167, I really don't think there's a more cost-effective way to go. If you want more storage, you'll either have to shell out significantly more money or settle for those bulky 3.5" desktop drives that require their own dedicated power supply.

Thanks so much for getting back to me! But hey, if you don't mind me asking, what makes buying a pre-made external drive actually worth the extra cash? Is the price gap really that tiny... or am I missing something? And honestly, I definitely don't want anything that needs its own power plug, that just seems way too clunky for what I need. Will I run into any issues using that one you suggested for loading up my music and movies? Like, can I just leave it plugged into my laptop for days on end while I stream tunes and stuff? Is that even how people use external drives, or am I totally overthinking this...

When you actually crunch the numbers, those pre-built external drives usually end up being the better deal. Buying a standalone hard drive and pairing it with a separate enclosure tends to cost more than just picking up a finished external solution 🙂
. Just to give you a quick comparison, 500 GB drive plus whatever enclosure you decide on—you’re already looking at a higher price tag than a ready-to-go unit 🙂
. That said, I don't see any issues with what you've described. I actually have a few setups just like that hooked up to my home server, and I haven't run into any lag or connection hiccups. Plus, they've been running for ages now—my rig stays powered on indefinitely unless there's a specific reason to shut it down 😁
.

So, are we talking about this being the absolute best bang for my buck at this price point? THIS
Man, I’m sitting here just wishing I actually knew how to navigate the checkout process on this site... seriously... :/

add to cart
Just head up to the checkout and knock it out..
Gotta register first, obviously.
http://www.amazon.com/login

I’d recommend a WD external drive. Generally speaking, when it comes to internal drives, stick to smaller capacities—say, 250GB. Why? There are so many perks to going external. You can just unplug it when you don't need it so it isn't spinning constantly. And there's no point obsessing over 200-$133; the data you're saving is far more valuable. Regardless of what you choose, always keep a backup. You never know when things might go sideways.

Bryan Evans77 said:just toss it in the (cart)
head up to the checkout counter and grab it...
you gotta sign up for an account first, obviously...
http://www.amazon.com/login.php

And what about paying for it? Because I really don't feel like getting hit with extra delivery fees on top of everything else. They mentioned something about being able to pick it up at one of their locations, but they didn't say where in the world those are located! Honestly, I think I'll just give them a ring on Monday, that's probably the easiest way to go...

☕

Cash, cards, everything—it’s all right there on the page if you just take a quick look...
It's all listed right there. Are you really too lazy to read?

42nd Street

So, I’m dealing with a massive headache involving my MyBook Essential 500 and (most likely) my ASUS motherboard. The drive keeps dropping out—it just vanishes from the system and then pops back up again, over and over, like some kind of digital glitch loop. It's driving me insane! The weird part? The drive works perfectly fine when I plug it into a different setup with a Gigabyte board, so I know the hardware itself isn't dead. I’ve been scouring every tech forum under the sun, but honestly, it feels like nobody has a clue how to fix this specific mess. Has anyone actually dealt with this before?? Does anybody out there have a solution????

Ran into a bit of a nightmare here:
http://www.gamingmasters.co.uk/threa...und-halp.4309/
Managed to fix it this way:
http://carltonbale.com/western-digit...ving-the-drive

The USB controller inside the hard drive enclosure basically went to meet its maker with an axe to the skull. So yeah, it’s not an external Hard Drive anymore 🙂—it's just a regular internal one now.

Hey there! I’m thinking about picking up an external drive—something at least 500GB since my current 320GB one is getting a bit crowded. What I'm really wondering about is how reliable these 1TB drives actually are... I have this nagging fear that the higher the capacity, the higher the chance they just "die" on you—kind of like what people say happens with camera SD cards. My current drive is a Seagate and honestly, it's been solid so far. Any advice on which brand is the best bet? If you have a specific model you swear by, please let me know. 🙂Thanks in advance!

Capacity doesn't actually have any bearing on the likelihood of a drive failing. It’s much more about the spindle speed—and with external drives, you're almost always looking at 5400 RPM.
The biggest factor is really just how you treat the thing. A drive that isn't sitting on a flat, steady surface while it's spinning is hardly going to last as long as one that stays perfectly still.

Of course, if a larger drive does give up the ghost, it'll obviously take a much bigger chunk of data down with it—but that's just an unavoidable reality of the math.
So, what kind of setup are you actually looking for? A compact portable unit (just a simple USB connection) or a beefier desktop drive that stays put (one that requires its own power brick)? (The ones I linked earlier are my top picks 😉)

If I may just interject here, when we're talking about the 2.5'' portable category, I honestly think you’ll find a much more sensible selection if you look at the 500 GB models rather than jumping straight to the higher capacities; specifically, the elements portable is the way to go.

Frankly, those 1TB 2.5'' drives are an absolute rip-off—the prices are completely inflated right now.

As for the elements desktop, I'd give it two thumbs up, though I would personally be willing to shell out another twenty bucks just to snag an extra half terabyte of space.

There’s definitely some logic there—especially regarding that whole memory and speed aspect... 🙂 As for how I handle it, I make sure to keep it on flat surfaces and try my best not to mess it up through my own fault. 😁

If I end up going with the 1TB version, I wouldn't be lugging it around everywhere all the time—so that "brick" suggestion would actually work fine for me. Plus, I already have the 320GB one, which would be my go-to for traveling.

Thanks for all the help and the suggestions, I'll definitely keep them in mind... 😉

Honestly, what really gets under my skin about this brick setup is the absolute mess of cables; I already have far too many cluttering up my workspace. 🙂 To make matters even worse, I don't even have enough power outlets to plug everything in properly 😁

So, why on earth would I need to format my external Hard Drive??

So, just to clarify—is it impossible to use it before the formatting is done?

Casey Long2 said:So you can't even use it until after it's been formatted?

But I actually used it before I ever formatted it! What’s the big deal if I just skip the formatting step??

Look, if there’s already a file system in place—and some manufacturers actually pre-format them right at the factory—then you don't necessarily need to go through the trouble of formatting it yourself.

So, I’ve got this Western Digital Elements Portable 500GB plugged into my rig and I was just wondering, can this little thing stay hooked up to the computer and just sit there all through the night?
Like, is it actually doing any damage to the drive, or am I better off just yanking the cord out when I'm done? See, the main reason I even bother with this disk is because I spend most of my day loading up all my tunes from it...
It's got this little light on it that keeps blinking away as long as it's connected to the PC...