Good external HD for my movie collection?

I have seen alot of external hard drives lately from 90 dollars up to 200. I know I want 500 GB becasue I do not want to run out of space down the road.



Could someone tell me some good HD's that would not crash much and keep my movies nice for years.



My buddy mentioned some names I did not know like Simpletech and Apricorn but all I know are Western Digital and a few others.

If you already know WD the question is answered. The WD My Book line has a 500gb external waiting. Sounds like a sales pitch there I.m sure! But I was taking a good look at one of those prior to seeing the initial news on the new WD Green Power 1tb sata drives for even larger capacity there.

Having a pair of WD 500gb models in use already with XP on the first and still seeing Vista on the single ide model the 1tb size would free up the second 500gb sata for Vista or the next version in time seeing the 1tb for video captures and other types of data backups and storage. Larger 750gb and higher are also now being seen for lower prices on some models.

EGADS! Maybe I will go external afterall after seeing the 2tb My Book Pro II seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136146 when that price finally comes down a bit however.

Thanks for the help. So how long can I expect my movies to last on a WD HD?

Amazon has this, does it look like a good deal?





Western Digital WDG1U5000 My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive



It is 124.99 regular 300 and some.

Hard drives were never intended to be permanent storage devices. This is why you will hear the expression "the need for frequent backups" quite often. A drive can go bad or be hit with a virus where everything could be lost.

Here I burn data dvds in order to use the larger capacity on that format over cd-rs. That beeing a 700mb to 4gb comparison there. Video files from captures and camera feeds are burned to disk rather then being able to keep videos from becoming fragmented and degraded over a long period of time.

That's another thing there too. Most files see little fragmentation at all on drives in good shape while vides seem to almost time stamped and lose information after lengthy periods. Not having used an external drive still I can't sompare things directly but can only go by mixed reports by others currently using the usb type.

They should maintain any files as well as any WD internal model since the differences there are how the drive is powered as well as how it connects to the system for data transfer. The main concern about any make or model usb type drive is reports by some when the drive suddenly isn't seen in Windows pointing at a software problem.

You can catch quite a few good deals browsing there surprisingly. When MS discontinued the Trackball Explorer optical model used here I found a good price and ordered some when spotted at amazon. Price shopping around like that may also see a 750 or larger found at a bargain as well.