Cheap external HD recommendations?

[dvandom]

Okay, so after the debacle I made of my backups (I lost 8 months of stuff due to some stupidity I hope to avoid repeating), I've started using Time Machine. The HD I got on sale at Walmart the other day should last me a while, so I can take my time with Part Two of my plan.

"Part two" is to get a second HD so that I can swap between them for Time Machine. Once Ghidorah1 (the one in use now) fills up, I trade in the other drive. When it fills up, erase Ghidorah1 and switch it in. That way, I don't have to worry about trying to delete to make space on the active drive, plus if either drive fails catastrophically I have at worst a relatively recent image on the other drive.

Ghidorah1 is 320G, and the initial run of Time Machine took 55G, so given the default "fresh full run every month" setting I should have at least a couple of months before I need Ghidorah2. 320G is fine, I'm looking for a good price on a decent quality second drive, but since I know nothing about HDs I figured I'd solicit advice on brands to seek or avoid, and if anyone knew any good deals out there right now. (I do watch Woot, but they tend to have internal HDs, and once you factor in the cost of a housing the bargain isn't so good anymore.) Slender is good, too, I've got Ghidorah1 tucked away between two things, it's not much more than a centimeter thick.

Comments

[aardy.livejournal.com]

I recently picked up a WD Elements 1 TB external hard drive. I don't remember what I paid, but Amazon currently has them on sale (http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-External-WDBAAU0010HBK-NESN/dp/B002QEBMB4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1283707986&sr=8-1) for $79!

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

I use Maxtor and Western Digital.

[gary-williams.livejournal.com]

What ports do you have on your computers?

I think an eSATA drive is the best option if you have the port for it.

Thermaltake takes the cake

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

What you really want is a Thermaltake docking station (http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Products.aspx?C=1346). I have one and it's just the neatest thing. It's basically an external enclosure that isn't enclosed: you can plug full-sized internal SATA hard drives into it like Nintendo cartridges and hotswap them at need.

Among other things, it means you can buy as many subsequent "external" hard drives as you need (at least until they switch to some other hard drive bus format) without paying again for the enclosure and power supply every time. And if you think your main HD has caught a virus that hides itself when you boot from it, you can pull it out of the case, plug it into the dock, and scan it from another computer.

[grant-p.livejournal.com]

I and my sister both use Western Digitals as well, so far they work well for us.

One thing I do (which may not be a viable solution for you depending on your data file sizes) is to burn 'base' files to a DVD every so often so if I have a serious problem, my most basic files that don't change much are fixed on optical media. I've been doing it for years and it's saved my neck on more than one occasion.

Media Play probably has these

[drewdederer.livejournal.com]

Little book-sized (maybe 1" wide 6" tall 4" front-to-back) self-contained (with fans etc inside the case) USB drives. I got a 1TB one for just over 100 bucks a couple years ago. I think they have 2TB sizes now and lower increments saving you 20 bucks for halving the size each time. I use it as my general dump drive, but you could get fancier.