Discount Western Digital My Book Home Edition 1 TB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive WDH1CS10000N

After reading all the negative reviews, I was a little reluctant about purchasing the drive. However, because of the easy return policy and great price, I decided to take a chance.

I have only been using the drive for about a week, but so far, I have had none of the problems that others have mentioned. The unit runs quietly. It came with both a USB and firewire cable, both of which worked.

I'm working off a PC running Vista Home 64bit. The first thing I did was re-format to NTFS (it comes as FAT32) I also broke it down into 3 partitions - I only did that for my particular use, you don't need to partition the drive. I read one review that said it took hours to reformat... the formatting and partitioning took me less than five minutes. I then ran a couple of tests with the various interfaces. Transferring a file that was slightly over 1GB took 43sec on the USB, 40sec with firewire and using the eSATA (you have to buy that cable separately) was only 19sec. As they say, your times may vary, but this at least gave me a sense of which interface I wanted to use. If you are going to be doing a lot of transferring or backing up files, it's probably worth investing in the eSATA cable.

For the short time I have had it, I have used it both for backing up a fairly large set of files (70GB) as well as an auxiliary drive with files I may need to access daily. I have found it works fine for both. Yes, depending on which interface you are using, the drive may shut off if your computer goes to sleep, but starting it back up was as simple as pushing the power button on the back. And in the reverse, if it didn't shut off when you closed down the computer, you simply push the power button and hold it for a few seconds and it powers off. I also read how several people complained that it couldn't be plugged into a surge-protected power strip. I'm not sure what problem they had, but I have it plugged into a surge-protected UPS without any problem.

I can't attest to how well it will perform over a period of time, but so far, it has worked very well for me.Get more detail about Western Digital My Book Home Edition 1 TB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive WDH1CS10000N.

Cheapest Sandisk 8GB Extreme CF memory card - UDMA 60MB/s 400x (SDCFX-008G-A61, Retail Package)

Get more detail about Sandisk 8GB Extreme CF memory card - UDMA 60MB/s 400x (SDCFX-008G-A61, Retail Package).

Cheap Transcend StoreJet 320 GB 2.5-Inch USB 2.0 Anti Shock Hard Drive TS320GSJ25M

I purchased this portable HDD (320GB Version) about two months ago in order to store all of my work related files and references since I am frequently moving and rarely use the same computer for any length of time. I had been looking for a semi-rugged portable drive for quite some time, but happened on this one by chance and ended up buying it. As I have not used this drive for a significant length of time I cannot comment as to its durability yet, so I will instead give my initial impressions and update later with durability/reliability comments as necessary.

Rather than run off at the mouth about all sorts of nonsense, I will simply address what I consider to be selling points or potential hang-ups for someone who is doing some research and comparison shopping like I was before I decided on this one.

Fit and finish are excellent - It feels very well put together and extremely solid. Based on the weight and tactile feel of the HDD it feels like it will live up the advertised MIL-STD-810F (drop test). This standard is one of the reasons I chose this drive as I do a lot of moving around and don't tend to be gentle with equipment. It's obviously no Toughbook, but it's held up fine so far and for what it is and the price I feel it will be rugged enough for me.

Compact size - I am used to a desktop external HDD, so going from that to any portable drive is going to be a big difference. It is larger than some of the more compact portable HDDs, such as the Seagate and Western Digital portables, but not excessively so. For me it is worth the slight trade off in size for the drop protection and the price.

Ease of use - Plug and play, no problems at all. The included Y USB is a thoughtful touch, but I have had no problems thus far using it with a standard USB with several different computers and USB ports.

Software - The only negative reviews of this drive cite the included software as the reason for the negative review. I have not used the software so I cannot comment on it, but what can you really expect? I purchased a portable Hard Drive, not backup software; if the data you are backing up is that important you should probably be purchasing actual back-up software.

Bottom line, this is a great drive for the money, end of story.
Get more detail about Transcend StoreJet 320 GB 2.5-Inch USB 2.0 Anti Shock Hard Drive TS320GSJ25M.