I'm looking for an external hard drive, around 250GB for backup purposes, but as my laptop only has 2 USB slots ideally I'd like a firewire one.

Does anyone have any recommendations?? Don't want to spend more than £100.

Ta in advance!

I've got a 240GB Western Digital Passport, small and powered by the USB, and a 500GB Maxtor USB with a normal power adaptor.

I'd recommend either

Buy a USB hub, then a USB hard drive Tom

Firewire drives are becoming rarer, so will be more expensive and you won't get as much for your money.

I tend to use WD drives almost exclusively, so I'd recommend either a Passport in 2.5" size for a bit more portability, or a MyBook if it will just be sitting on a desk.

Steve

Any particular reason you want a firewire version?

Firewire == Lacie IMHO

Another vote for Lacie here..

Thanks guys.

Looks like I've been sorted out with a wireless/USB solution. Not quite what the brief said, but sounds ideal to me.

Cheers again.

Firewire is outdated.

If you are going to use it only at home, than better buy a small usb hub and a 3.5" external HDD. They are cheaper than the 2.5", but not as mobile.

For the external FiWI HDD you will need an extra 220V socket, for the USB ext 2.5" HDD an extra USB socket or an extra 220V socket for an ext 3.5" HDD.

You dont want to loose one USB socket, so you will always need an extra 220V socket. Either for the FiWi HDD or for the USB hub.

In this case, I would chose for the USB HDD. You can already have those (in Germany) from 50 euros on. At 100 euros you will get at least 500 if not 750Gb. Even the 1Tbit ones come at just over 100 euros.

Here is a site which compares internet prices in Germany, just to give you an idea what the prices in Germany are.

Preisvergleich Geizhals.at Deutschland

Go to Hardware (on the left)

-> Festplatten (=HDD)

-> Extern 3.5" or extern 2.5"

Most of them also send abroad (if the prices are low enough)

If you need any (german) help, just ask.

Thanks guys.

Looks like I've been sorted out with a wireless/USB solution. Not quite what the brief said, but sounds ideal to me.

Cheers again.

What have you got then?

Firewire is outdated.

Compared to what?

Compared to what?

Think maybe he meant compared to USB. I would say USB is more readily available, as standard, on any notebook or desktop product. And of course there are new version of USB coming out as well.

If its only for backup purpose i would stick with USB.

There are so many options. Looks like he's maybe decided on a NAS system.

I have two WD MyBook external drives that haven't blwon up yet so they must be alright! Ones 18 months old and the other coming up to 12 months, used for torrent downloads so get some hammer.

As long as you dont want speed, then the wireless solution will be fine. However it will be very slow for things like media playback, but for normal file storage will be ok.

Firewire maybe old hat, but you cant beat it for throughput. The specs are simillar to USB for max speed, but firewire doesnt use any system resources unlike USB. Thats why most decent MiniDV camcorders come with firewire interfaces as its the only thing that can get the data off the tape fast enough.

Compared to what?

I meant for his purpose, ext HDD and data backup.

Got a USB external HDD and was very surprised by the speed of it to be honest

Firewire maybe old hat, but you cant beat it for throughput. The specs are simillar to USB for max speed, but firewire doesnt use any system resources unlike USB. Thats why most decent MiniDV camcorders come with firewire interfaces as its the only thing that can get the data off the tape fast enough.

Lets not forget firewire 800...

You can daisy chain firewire devices giving much more flexibility without having to resort to external hubs etc.

Compared to what?

Too true, having used both USB 2 and Firewire disks to restore macs, I know which I prefer