What's the best $200 external hard drive right now?

[cheapie]

My new boss told me to buy an external hard drive to make sure my stuff is always backed up. I don't have a ton of huge files. I'm only using about 10 gig on this computer for my files. I'd also like to back up my pics as well that are on our Mac. so prolly at least 200 gig.

If you had $200 to spend what would you buy?

[kimchicowboy]

$200 is enough to get a big HDD (i think i saw a 250gig seagate for <$100 after rebate) and a dual firewire/USB2.0 external case.

just do a pricegrabber search for the case and find HDD deals elsewhere.

[cheapie]

i can find a deal. but i don't know what the best brand is and what features to look for.


i could always just snag something like this but don't know if i should look elsewhere for additional features, cool stuff, reliability, etc.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6971048&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat33200050002&id=1099386965391

[Jeffbx]

That's a great choice - I like the Maxtor One-touch drives. They come bundled with backup software & you can set them up so you can fire off a backup just by pressing a button on the drive. This one also has dual interfaces (Firewire + USB 2.0), so if you happen to have a firewire port on your machine the transfer speed will be crazy high.

http://www.buy.com/prod/Maxtor_250GB_One_Touch_II_7200RPM_16MB_USB2_0_Firewire/q/loc/101/10381782.html

[eSDee]

I like Lacie and recommend them to people who ask because I have never had a problem with them. I like the durability of the case as well, which can be mounted upright which saves space. Here is one right around your price range:

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10058

It has interface for firewire1, firewire2, and usb2. Pretty handy.

[ArkiStan]

Yeah I'm interested in getting the LAcie for backup purposes. They seem to get good reviews and they're really cheap. I think you can easily find a 250Gb external with USB 2.0 for about $120. With your budget, you could get two!

[_=DeltaForce=_]

Get a Seagate hard drive or a Western Digital Dual option drive...