External hard drive

[dcanham001]

Hi guys,

My PC is on its last legs so I would like to back up all my music/films/tv programmes and store them on an external hard drive/USB.

I'm looking for 2tb storage (hence why I think an external hard drive is more likely than a USB stick) and the ability to plug the hard drive into my xbox360 and PS3. Preferably a small, compact design too.

My budget is around £100-£150 max (all it needs to do is store the files, it doesnt need to be wireless compatible or have any other bells and whistles)

Any recommendations would be much appreciated

Thanks all

 

[John Duncan]

Example

Anything from that site by Freecom, Seagate, Western Digital or Toshiba that suits your purpose and pocket, I'd say.

 

[Gozaradio]

As JD says, any of those drives should do the job but something to be aware if you have large video files is that the PS3 and Xbox can only read FAT32 formatted drives which doesn't support files over 4Gb in size in which case, you might want to look at either a NAS which supports UPNP or using an external USB drive formatted to NTFS plugged into a PC running something like TVersity or Twonkymedia. Then the PS3 and Xbox could access large files over the network.

Of course, if you don't have files over 4Gb and have no intention of dreating any, stick with FAT32! Just be aware of the risk involved with putting all your data on one big, fragile Hard Disk with no back up.

 

[dcanham001]

Hi JD,

Thanks for the link - had a quick look and I think the Western Digital hard drive that you've indicated might be the best for me in terms of spec and reviews (and price!) so thanks for that

Hi Gozaradio,

Thanks for your reply. I dont think any of my files are over 4gb but I will double check. Can you tell me whether it is difficult to format the hard drive for FAT32? I had a quick look through google and it seems quite straight forward

 

[John Duncan]

Totally straightforward. Attach to your PC, right click and 'Format'. It may be formatted as FAT32 already (though NTFS is more likely, even though that won't work with a Mac).

 

[chebby]

JohnDuncan:Totally straightforward. Attach to your PC, right click and 'Format'. It may be formatted as FAT32 already (though NTFS is more likely, even though that won't work with a Mac).

Formatting also gets rid of all the nuisance-ware that manufacturers stuff onto HDs.

I assumed everyone formatted new external drives to NTFS (or Mac OS Extended journaled) as the very first action after plugging them in.

 

[John Duncan]

I do mine to FAT32 so that both my PCs and Macs can access them (since either of the above options precludes one operating system or the other). Don't think I've created a 4GB file on any of them yet...

 

[scene]

chebby:
JohnDuncan:Totally straightforward. Attach to your PC, right click and 'Format'. It may be formatted as FAT32 already (though NTFS is more likely, even though that won't work with a Mac).

Formatting also gets rid of all the nuisance-ware that manufacturers stuff onto HDs.

I assumed everyone formatted new external drives to NTFS (or Mac OS Extended journaled) as the very first action after plugging them in.

If I had the correctly patched version of MAC O/S or an openSolaris machine, I'd go ZFS...

 

[dcanham001]

Thanks for all the replies and thanks to JD for the instructions - most helpful

Think I will place an order for the Western Digital drive this weekend

 

[pwiles1968]

I Just bought a 1TB version it is formatted NTFS so I assume the 2TB will also be.