What hard drive to buy?

big_drive

I would like to get a hard drive but no idea what to get? Ive never used a hard drive before

I have a lot of important Microsoft word documents on my laptop and instead of saving them to a memory stick I thought a hard drive might be a better investment.
Also I have some photos and could save these.
At least then if I have any problems with my laptop in the future I should have a copy of everything


Any do's or don't when buying a hard drive?

mordeith

big_drive wrote: »

I would like to get a hard drive but no idea what to get? Ive never used a hard drive before

I have a lot of important Microsoft word documents on my laptop and instead of saving them to a memory stick I thought a hard drive might be a better investment.
Also I have some photos and could save these.
At least then if I have any problems with my laptop in the future I should have a copy of everything


Any do's or don't when buying a hard drive?

Of course you've used a hard drive, there's one in your laptop .
But seriously, you're talking about an external hardrive. Any 2.5 portable drive will do really. They don't require an additional power supply and can be easily carried around if required. Your main factors should be what capacity you require and whether or not you want USB 3.0. Stick to any of the main brands and you should be fine. Here's a selection of 500GB drives:
http://www.memoryc.com/storage-products/external-hard-drives.html#Capacity=500GB&Form_Factor=2.5%22&page=0

advertsfox

OP can I recommend using online storage instead? For a small price per month / year you can have all your documents available to you on any PC / laptop / phone in the world with the added benefit on not worrying about your hard drive or enclosure failing. Suggestions are Google Drive / Sky Drive / Box / Dropbox. I use Google Drive since it integrates with my Android phone and Gmail account perfectly.

big_drive

advertsfox wrote: »

OP can I recommend using online storage instead? For a small price per month / year you can have all your documents available to you on any PC / laptop / phone in the world with the added benefit on not worrying about your hard drive or enclosure failing. Suggestions are Google Drive / Sky Drive / Box / Dropbox. I use Google Drive since it integrates with my Android phone and Gmail account perfectly.

Thanks. This isn't something i am familiar with but sounds good and i'll look it up. Like the idea of items being available on any laptop/device etc.

advertsfox

Well with Google Drive for instance, you install the application and login with your Google account. By default, you get 5GB of free storage and a "Google Drive" folder in your documents like below. Anything you put in this folder will be automatically synced to your Drive account online which you can then access via the website (drive.google.com), the Android or iPhone application or on any other computer with Drive installed that's signed in with your Google account.





Below is the common prices you can pay for Drive with, as you can see I pay for 100GB (which totals about 130GB with bonuses over time) and it's $4.99 a month or $60 (€44) a year for constantly online storage accessible from practically anywhere. It also integrates with Gmail and Google+ for extra storage towards your emails / attachments and Google+ Auto Backup feature (my main use for it next to all my documents).

big_drive

Thanks a lot for the detailed information. sounds perfect for me