Can anyone recommend a budget(?) external hard drive for me?

[BaroqueAroundTheClock]

Preferably one that's no more than about £50-60.

Don't need it to be huge - maybe 250GB sort of size?

Works with Windows XP

I haven't got a clue where to start.

or a portable hard drive?

gah - I'm not sure

I guess if I told you what it was for it may help.

We have a laptop at church with a tiny (and almost full) memory - it's used by several people in the church so gets handed round lots (well actually it generally seems to be in my house these days......but that's by the by).

There's loads of stuff on it that we want to keep which is taking up oodles of space (nearly 9GB just for the stuff for one years holiday club) but as it may not be used for quite some time have decided that storing it externally would be the best option

At a little under 50 quid, there's a Hitachi X-Mobile 500 GB drive (which comes with backup s/w) and works with Win 7, Win XP, and earlier versions...

Comet have them at about 47 quid (can order online and reserve so you just visit the local store to collect). John Lewis also have them, with a 2 year warranty (not sure if that is default, but may be worth having).

It is designed as a portable so no mains transformer. Weighs under 750 g where some weigh three or four times that.

There are other portables closer to 40 quid, storing 250 to 320 GB but this doesn't cost a lot more, comes with software to allow for scheduled backups, and has been reduced from around 75 quid in July.

Alternatively, depending on the PC, it might be a cheaper option to see if someone (friend / work collegue) has enough PC knowledge to plug in a second drive.

You can buy anything from 80 GB up for low amounts of cash (get something off Ebay, or use google.co.uk and see if it gives you the 'shopping'option (so you can search for UK sites and see scores against various retailers if you prefer brand new).

Online stores I would recommend for low cost hard drives are scan.co.uk, svp.co.uk and ebuyer.com, if you must buy new (there might be some deals from PCWorld but generally I think they and Maplins are more costly).

ooooo NetworkGuy - I was hoping someone like you would be around - I know your tend to appear at ungodly hours of the night. It's actually an ancient (bought in 2006) laptop that it'll be used with. And it would appear that right now I'm the most knowledgeable person using it (which is really rather scary as I'm really quite a novice at these things - can ues them, and figure out how to "do" things with them but the technical side it rather beyond my comfort zone)

That Hitachi looks just like what I'm looking for and John Lewis have it in stock for £48.95

(I may actually buy it for "me" and store the church stuff on it and just lend it out if and when it's needed seen as though it's 500GB )

Thank you you've made what could have been a horribly long and potentially dreadful decision process nice and simple

Sorry I got the price wrong. Knew that JL had it priced little higher than Comet, but also know some people swear by JL and if speed of getting it is not high up the list (or you have a branch nearby) then it looked likely to 'fit the bill', while there are some cheaper options if preferred (but half the storage for 80% doesn't look such a great deal).

PS 2006 is hardly 'ancient' - I only got rid of a 1984 IBM PC in 2006 !! (192 kB of RAM and 2x 5.25" floppy disks, plus 20 MB Hard Drive - the HD upgrade alone cost 1000 pounds in the late 80s.)

Don't worry was close enough to what I actually paid

and yes I know it's not really "ancient" - but it was an expensive but rather rubbish laptop when it was bought and ime better quality ones tend to age better than crap ones

I have confess I've never bought anything from JL in my life .

But I had a search around and couldn't find it any where else as cheap that could deliver (for free and quickly). I could have had it delivered on Wednesday - but decided that waiting for 5 working days was a better option than spending £7.

Thanks NetworkGuy - it arrived this morning, it's much smaller (in dimension) than I expected - and very easy to use - thank you