HOW can I choose an external hard drive?!

[littlefrog]

I hate shopping for things like this! Everything I look at seems to have no reviews (suspicious) or a mix of really positive and don't-touch-with-a-bargepole ones.

I need something that will allow me to back up data and pictures. And a tiny bit of video. No music, no games. So I don't need a vast drive.

It'll be used pretty much solely with laptops, and it would be good if it could be fairly portable.

Oh, and I don't want to spend a fortune.

Where can I look for reviews? Anyone recommend anything? Or hate anything?

I have wasted SO much time backing things up lately, I need a solution...

These are pretty much a commodity item now, with the only qualitative difference being bundled software. If you are going to use Windows built-in backup software, or a third party package, then just go for the cheapest/biggest (capacity)/smallest (dimensions), or if you want to play safe (at a premium) go for a big name in disks like Maxtor.

thank you! have just ordered one from LaCie - seemed not to have too many terrible reviews, and is small and portable.
Does depress me though that here is another piece of electronic equipment that will be out of date and thrown away in just a few years - to add to the mounting pile I've already produced in my life...

little frog,... I use Lacie drives professionally and they are without doubt the best on the market. I've hundreds and still using drives that are years old, you won't need to update it.

hurray!
that makes me feel better. I'd rather buy something decent that will last much longer, but all the reviews I read online seemed to suggest that external hard drives couldn't be expected to last more than a couple of years...

I have a very pretty 320Gb Lego block Lacie that is a few years old, have never had any problems at all.
And In the last few months have just bought a 160Gb maxor as well.
Both are excellent and portable.

In all honesty, you should always have important stuff backed up in 2 places. so could be your desktop and the lacie. If you're removing from the desktop you should either burn to dvd or back up to another drive. I've only had problems with a couple of drives over the last 10 yrs, and work has been recoverable.

tis true, I know things need to be backed up in lots of places - I'm hoping this will make it easier to do (ie I can plug the drive into different places and copy off it).

It's fine with work stuff, I have almost everything on their server; it's just pictures that are causing me grief - they're so huge! and there are such a lot of them!