# External Hard Drive **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 29, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115 "2008-12-29T20:39:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/1 "2008-12-29T20:39:54Z")
Santa brought me an external hard drive for Christmas. It’s quite a bit bigger than I need (1 terabyte!), and uses an external power source. Any recommendations for a relatively small (in size), USB powered external hard drive that I can “exchange” it for? Exchange is in quotes because it doesn’t have to be done at the same store, and I can spring for a few extra bucks if the smaller one is nicer and more reliable and therefore costs a bit more. Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Influential\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Influential\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Influential_Panda)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/2 "2008-12-29T20:54:47Z")
WesternDigital’s “My Passport” line is great. I got one for Christmas, and love it to death. My music is too large for my laptop’s hard disk, so I was constantly tethered to this behemoth external drive. This little buddy is great, and you can even get it in a whole bunch of colors. No buttons, no mess: just a little drive a bit bigger than an iphone. Plug it in, and it’s on. Unplug it, and it’s off. Not particularly fast, but very quiet. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/3 "2008-12-29T20:57:18Z")
I saw some of those at Best Buy, and two of my buddies have them. I may be wrong, but I think the colors denote the size (i.e. all the 500 gigs are black). Glad to hear you like yours, I’ll start by doing a bit more research on the line. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/4 "2008-12-29T22:12:00Z")
Looks like the “colors denote size” was just the selection they had at Best Buy. The 500GB and 400GB come in 4 colors, while it looks like the 320GB and 250GB come in eight to ten. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/5 "2008-12-29T22:14:47Z")
I second the Western Digital (or will, or would have, depending on how many database error messages I get when I try to post). ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/6 "2008-12-29T22:23:28Z")
Third the WD external. No power supply, its USB bus powered! ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/7 "2008-12-29T22:56:48Z")
I recently purchased a 320G ‘My Passport Essential’ (Elite has the Anodized case, Essential has the colored cases, among other small differences), and it’s working fine, but before I purchased it I read a lot of reviews that warn about power consumption - since I use an externally powered hub (and the included short USB cable) I’ve had no problems, but some user complained about problems with their laptops or when using a long USB cable (basically the drive has problems mounting, or sometimes dismounts during operations). But if you are using the short cable or an externally powered USB hub, it works very well. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/8 "2008-12-30T00:50:48Z")
Good point on the power - a lot of laptops and external USB hubs don’t deliver the juice. It’s generally not a problem with desktop PCs or hubs that have their own power supply. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/9 "2008-12-30T00:56:49Z")
How do I determine if my laptop has enough juice to power them? I found a Passport Elite 500 GB for $145, which seems like a pretty good deal to me, if my laptop will power it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/10 "2008-12-30T03:22:03Z")
Seagate has the FreeAgent Go portable drives—and they are tossing in the external cradle right now for free on the 500Gb drives. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/11 "2008-12-30T04:20:00Z")
I have a Seagate Black Armor that charges fine if its plugged into USB direct off my laptop or dock - but not through the USB hub. The Black Armors have hardware based drive encryption. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/12 "2008-12-30T04:44:32Z")
I prefer the Toshiba 2.5" external drives because they work fine off one USB plug. The less well engineered more power hungry 2.5 external drives require two USB connections. One for power and one for data. As USB slots are at a premium on many machines given all the USB devices out there a single USB port requirement is much less hassle. Not sure how the Western Digitals are configured re one or two plug requirement. Some 2.5 drives are noiser than others the Toshibas are virtually silent. With any USB 2.5" drive you should not be using anything but the short cable that comes with the drive if you want it to operate properly. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/13 "2008-12-30T05:25:36Z")
Stay **far** away from i/o magic gigabanks. Like many other folks, the power supply on mine croaked a few months post-warranty, and they won’t sell you a replacement; I expected it to function for more than a year and a half, silly me. My new one (western digital) has a power source too, but it’s designed to shut itself off when the computer isn’t on, which is an improvement. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/external-hard-drive/479115/14 "2008-12-30T14:32:46Z")
Don’t replace it; complement it! Why do you need a portable HDD? There are two basic contenders: a USB thumb drive (up to 16 GB these days) and an external 2.5" HDD (SSDs are too expensive). Keep the 1 TB drive as a permanently attached backup unit - if there’s an emergency, just grab the drive.