External Hard Drive

If you plan on leaving it plugged in all the time and not moving data back and forth between laptop to desktop, desktop to desktop, or even laptop to laptop an eSata capable drive would be one thought since the drive would be under the onboard sata controllers and not the usb bus. Yet the 500gb WD usb model used here has been quite reliable once the factory Fat32 partition they come with saw a reformat to NTFS. No software needed for either XP or Vista to readily see the drive.

WD and Seagate both have some models to look through there. Both companies will also recommend seeing the factory partition replaced with NTFS for those using Windows alone and not running Apple/Mac. Still downloading a backup copy of the software for the drive you go with from the support is still a good move however for the initial reformat to NTFS or simply in the event you need to clean the drive for some other reason like a surprise virus.
 
I have a 500gig Iomega firewire drive and it is perfect for my needs and super fast at accessing data. It uses its own power supply which means its not super portable, but mine is used just for movies and music so it stays put anyway. They are very affordable as well.
 
How big do you want it???

Is the hard drive going to be sitting at the one computer all of the time, or is it going to go walk about?
 
The only complaint heard on external drives is temps. They do run a bit warmer so leave some space free around the one you go with. The Seagate there sees a good price as well as the special seen on the WD model at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136175

The drawback however is both of those are strictly usb only. For about $45 more you can go for one that sees firewire and eSata capability as well. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136170

The Seagate equivalent is seen for $109.99 however at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148240
 
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