portable external hard disk

Any recommendations for a portable external hard disk? My laptop is suffering from lack of disk space All those RAW files I need something that I can bung in my rucksack along with my laptop most days. It must, therefore, be very robust. I am looking for something about 160gb.

Thanks, Kris.

Some stuff here.

Have you tried Tesco link or thought about Smartdisk or Jobo to load images direct.

I use a 300GB Western Digital Works very well for me.

You'll fill 160gb in no time a all, I think you need a bigger one. I've been looking for a network HD and Tesco, although not much choice, are considerably cheaper than PC World or Staples.

There is a WD passport running now besides me. It's very small, very quiet, very fast, feels solid (have dropped it sometimes :blush, doesn't run hot and the best thing is it only have one usb cable for data transfer and for the power so no extra cables.
oh forgot to say that they come in funky colours, sound stuppid but if you buy more you know which one is which
link

Ebuyer tend to be a bit cheaper still, and highly recommended. (Network Drives here).

Dan

Hi Kris. I recently got a new PC as my old ones main HD gave up the ghost. Inside I had an extra 250GB slave HD which I took out and bought a portable HD case for. So if you have an old computer then consider taking out your HD and putting it in a case for approx. £25.00. These can be bought at any computer supply shop on or off line. CHEERS Vic.

I don't own one, but the Lacie Rugged series always get excellent reviews & sound just what you're looking for to "throw" in your bag !

If your laptop has firewire then you can get the firewire version & you'll see an increased transfer rate.

Hard drives fail even without abuse, so if it's possible I'd suggest keeping it at home & transferring images from your laptop to free up some space instead.

Thanks all. I have two external disks at home onto which everything would be backed up, I just need something physically small, rugged and portable. I'll have a look at the WD Passport and the Lacie rugged ones.

Thanks, Kris.

Fit a larger drive in your laptop if you don't already have the largest size possible.

You don't have to reinsall the operating system from scratch. The new drive can be temporarily put in an external enclosure first to copy your existing system and data.

It was easy with my DELL laptop. Just a couple of screws to undo, and the drive slots in. I used Acronis Disk Director Suite for the copying. I think there are free programs that can also copy a drive.

We have just purchased a 250 GB Buffalo MiniStation from DABS at under £50. It only arrived today so I can't personally swear to anything other than easy set up and it's been fine in the last 4 hours! But the reviews made it seem good value for money. That said I didn't need it to be as robust as you do so it may be worth the extra for the Lacie rugged.

Have a 400gb Freecom, never had a problem with it but if I forget to switch it off it slows down the virus scan no end so I only scan it about once a week as I find it is a pain waiting for AVG to chew through all the files stored on there.

The best I have found is the Western Digital Passport 320GB, this gives you a 300GB USB powered drive (so no extra power adapters or cables) in a small package. It runs fast enough to to photo work directly off it.

I'd also recommend the WD Passport - it's small, portable, you don't need any external power adapters - just usb cable. I have 40GB and it is reliable. Not sure about Lacie, however I read some good reviews too. For shops - I'd check ebuyer, dabs and savastore, ie WD 250GB

There's also Seagate harddrive, 500GB with 5 years warranty for less than 110 quid which looks interesting (look also at the software included) - but I never used portable Seagate so cannot tell much more than the specification says. But if it was be me buying I'd consider this one seriously.
As far as I remember ebuyer offers free delivery if you spend more than £50 - but check that.
Hmmm, choosing hardware is quite difficult nowadays