[lagerstarfish]

I'm after a new removeable hard drive for my laptop (to use at home, so it doesn't have to rely on the usb for power).

I use my drives for storing video footage and the various stages of editing as well as the usual pr0n pics, film downloads, backups, music etc.
500G min, 1T would be better. Also, it would be very useful if I could play stuff (xvid downloads etc) straight to the tv.

Seen plenty out there and wondered if anyone had any particular recommendations or knew of any horrors to avoid. Cost per G is important, but so is reliability and TV connection.

Thanks for your time

[lagerstarfish]

[GCW]

USB or FireWire/IEEE 1394 or S-ATA?

1TB, 7200rpm WD drive.  Not bad at 130 quid.

Also, I've got a Maxtor 500GB 7200 drive, now 65quid.  Never had a problem with it.

I've got 3 off board drives, 250+250+500GB.  Used to use them for double back up before building the new PC (which has 3x750GB drives).

I'd personally go for a NTFS format.
What are you using it for?  If you are using it to manipulate your vids, FireWire would be an idea (or S-ATA if you have it).

Jim, Unc?  Any other offers?

[Bubba]

I want to get one of these and a couple of large sata drives. It seems like a nice, future proof solution. As bigger hard drives get cheaper, just pop them in instead of your current ones. It's fully network aware too, so you'll be able to access it from anywhere as long as your router is on.

[GCW]

The D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure enables users at home or in the office to share documents such as music, photos and videos across the network and on the Internet, so family members, friends, or employees can gain access to them. In the office, this enclosure also provides a central network point to back up valuable files and protect them from drive failure by using the built-in RAID 1 mirroring technology. At home, this device can be used to stream music, photos and videos to UPnP AV compatible network media players

So it's basically a RAID-1 external drive.  So you'd have to be sure both HDDs you put in it are identical etc etc, and you'd only have the storage of one drive. 
It does sound neat as an offboard solution though, but at 150 quid plus the cost of 2 decent drives it ain't a cheap option for LSF.

[Bubba]

The RAID-1 setting is optional

Have a look at the product page here

Personally I don't think i'd use RAID 1, i'd just make sure i replaced/upgraded the discs every couple of years instead.

There are much cheaper NAS solutions than this available, but they don't seem to get very good reviews.

[GCW]

Ah, right Bubbs.  Missed that.
Looking better already 

[unclesomebody]

For your modest needs, perhaps something like this is appropriate.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=784617

Buy a large drive, stick it in, and you're good to go. I think that's the general thing you're after. There are cheaper solutions if you don't want to be able to put it straight into a TV, but then all you need is a HDD and an enclosure. For £100 you can probably get a 1TB solution.

[Jim]

I've got the pata version of that with 100gig HD in it, I don't use it anymore now I have HTPC, I might get the network enabled version for the bedroom but will wait till they support h264.

I'd recomend the NAS solution that bubba suggested. It'll cost a bit more but is more future proof, just plug it into your wireless router and it'll be all on tap available over your wireless network, no messing about plugging in cables, lugging it about etc...

[Jim]

also the spinpoint drives are supposed to be the quietest around and are a good price

[lagerstarfish]

GCW, Bubba, Jim, Uncle, Thanks

I'll follow up those links