I have a laptop, I am looking for a new one because my 80 gig (yes don't laugh) is all full. I was looking for a 500 gig but all the ones I have found do not have their own on and off switch and I do not like to unplug the thing every time I want it off.
I like to keep it off during storms and at night because can't sleep to well with led lights.

any suggestions? or...

Should I just buy a reg. hard drive and install it into my external hd kit that I have had. I would prefer two drives because I can back pics up on both.

also if I go route number two should my hd kit take both SATA and IDE hds. and which do you prefer? I heard and I believe i have SATA but I am not sure and don't want to take it aprart to check.

thanks for the help.

7/27/2008 6:23:02 PM

I've never seen an external drive that did not have a power switch.

500 GB:
http://www.buy.com/prod/cavalry-500gb-hard-drive-dual-interface-usb-2-0-esata-external-hard/q/loc/101/203268361.html

1 TB:
http://www.buy.com/prod/cavalry-1tb-hard-drive-dual-interface-usb-2-0-esata-external-hard/q/loc/101/206805237.html

I have a 1TB Cavalry. Run it 24/7 with no problems. Nowadays you can get a drive with enclosure CHEAPER than just buying a drive. Some people actually buy the Cavalry external drives to take the Western Digital hard drives out. Also sign up and pay with google checkout if you've never used it before you get $10 off. Also, there are coupon codes floating around the net for Buy.com that will get 5% or 10% off any one item.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:35 PM. Reason : ]

7/27/2008 6:34:37 PM

I just bought a western digital my book from best buy for 99.99 so i get my points too and brought it home and no power button anywhere. so i'm a lil pissed.

^ that looks good but see i've been out of selling comps for a while so these brands i have not heard of make me nervous a lil.

oh do those drives have a western digital hard drive in them?

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 6:38 PM. Reason : d]

7/27/2008 6:37:42 PM

Yes, Cavalry usually uses WD drives. The one I have had one of these drives in it (and I paid $20 less than it would have cost for just the drive at the time):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136151

The MyBook external drives have had mixed reviews.

7/27/2008 7:08:11 PM

Quote :

"I've never seen an external drive that did not have a power switch."

seagate freeagent pro

it's on my desk right now

it's an excellent drive and it's cheap as hell

but that pulsating yellow lightbar when it's reading/writing data gets annoying as fuck

7/27/2008 7:31:47 PM

^hahaha. I put black tape over that yellow bar.

7/27/2008 7:42:13 PM

The lights on the Cavalry ones are brighter than the sun, but I just busted the LED in mine

7/27/2008 8:40:53 PM

WD passport's are da shit. I love mine. It's only 250gb but enough for the things I need when away from home. I might buy one or two more for archiving purposes as they are really getting down in price now.

7/27/2008 9:29:55 PM

Quote :

"my 80 gig (yes don't laugh) is all full. "

My Thinkpad only has a 30 gig drive. It is a constant game for me to delete programs and install new ones.

I just lost Team Fortress 2 to Rosetta Stone.

7/28/2008 3:11:58 PM

WD are nice, but I opted for a Seagate due to the 5 year warrenty verus WD 3year.

7/28/2008 3:18:56 PM

I had a question about which hard drive to get. I'm using it for all my pictures and music, but I'm also in school and would absolutely have a breakdown if i lost my files.

I was going to get Western Digital 500GB for $99 at Best Buy....i wanted to check out prices at one more store, and when I came back the next day the sale was gone and it was $130!! But the Seagate FreeAgent 500GB was put on sale for $100 (originally $135). There was also a WD 320GB for $80 at Target. Is 200 extra gigs worth $20? I don't even know if i'll ever use that extra space.

Is seagate comparable to WD? I never heard of seagate.

Also, it sounds like you guys keep it connected to your comp at all times. I was thinking of backing up every week or so, and keeping it in another part of the house (in case of fire or theft). Does it need to stay connected all the time in order to back it up?

8/24/2008 4:47:28 PM

Seagate is one of the major names. No reason to be scared up front.

8/24/2008 4:52:13 PM

^^ Seagate drives nearly all have 5-year warranties. Most WD drive have 1 or 3 year warranties depending on the model. The cheap mybooks have 1 year for the most part and the passports mostly have 3. Some WD drives do have 5, but they also tend to be even more expensive than Seagate.

Seagate is generally considered to be the most reliable brand of hard-drive. I'm not sure of actual failure rates though so the only thing I know to support this assertion is that they give pretty much every drive with the Seagate (NOT Maxtor) brand on it a 5 year warranty. That suggests that they do actually expect pretty much everything they make to last around that long.

8/24/2008 11:05:50 PM

just missed out on some killer external drives from seagate yesterday. 80GB $20, 120GB $28, 320 $48. I picked up one of the 120GB since it was the ultra portable laptop drives that's just USB powered. Glad I got in on the deal before it ran OOS in just a day.

8/24/2008 11:40:24 PM

how is SimpleTech? Saw a 320 GB for $80. I really don't need 500 gigs...I probably won't ever use 320!

8/25/2008 5:15:43 PM

buy a 5400rpm 320GB notebook hard drive to replace your current 80GB one...

better way to meet your need.

8/25/2008 11:13:57 PM

^^320GB for $80 isn't a good deal for a regular desktop sized external drive. There's a few external drives (500GB) for less than 70 all the time. Internal drives are also cheap now that you can get 500 & 640 drives for under a 100. 750GB drives are around 100 or less too.

Laptop drives are cheaper too 320GB for about $90 now.

8/25/2008 11:36:41 PM

http://www.slickdeals.net/permadeal/13695/1TB--Maxtor-One-Touch-4-Lite-USB2-0-External-Hard-Drive-135-w-Paypal

8/27/2008 1:14:24 PM