In general, who makes good external drives?

[Motherland]

I'm looking for a good reliable external drive. Doesn't need to be massive, anything over 200GB is good, and not too far over $100 would be preferable (that's flexible though). I really don't know where to start for this.

[TilDeath]

What interface are you seeking... USB, Firewire or E-sata.  Will you be using this for travel or just as an extra home storage being moved from system to system.

TD

[Motherland]

I think USB would probably be the most convenient for me.

I mainly want to use it to store my music, to keep it off of my main drive and so that I can plug it into other computers if I need to (I'm going to Germany this summer and I think I'll probably buy a netbook to take with me (and just to have, that's the excuse ) and it would be convenient to have everything on an external drive).
So size isn't a huge deal since it generally won't be going places, however portability is a consideration (of course since that's one of the major upsides to an external drive in the first place).

[TilDeath]

In this case I would suggest any Western Digital My Passport.  I have 2 and use them both.  Another alternative would be something along the lines of a BlacX (ThermalTake), it can take any internal SATA drive of any size.  This is a handy tool and more cost efficient to me when I need to store lots of info.  Since you size limitation is only limited by the SATA drive you have.

TD

This is a BlacX
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?S=1268&ID=1642

[BaldEagl]

Just buy a good internal drive and an enclosure for it.  I've got two; a 2.5" for my laptop and a 3.5" for my desktop.  Both work great.  The nice thing about the laptop external is that it's powered by the USB port so there's no external power plug-in and, while technically it's slightly slower, I don't notice a big difference between it and my internal drive.

[Motherland]

Thanks a lot, I'll probably go for the WD 

[gyrene81]

When travelling abroad these days...especially with something like a portable hard drive...please be aware that this could happen anywhere:

eh...poop...can't find the stand alone image again, here is the breaking news:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1135243.html

Sure you wouldn't rather have something like an iPod?

[Motherland]

Red X?
 

[Spikes]

Or just don't go to Israel

[Motherland]

When travelling abroad these days...especially with something like a portable hard drive...please be aware that this could happen anywhere:

eh...poop...can't find the stand alone image again, here is the breaking news:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1135243.html

Sure you wouldn't rather have something like an iPod?

Sounds like appropriate punishment for owning a Macbook

[gyrene81]

Sounds like appropriate punishment for owning a Macbook

ROFLMAO!!! That was my first thought when I saw the article... 

[Reschke]

An American student entering Israel from Egypt via the border crossing at Taba two weeks ago stood stunned as Israeli Border Police officers determined her laptop computer was a security threat and shot it three times.

Stupid American student....and I used to be one! hahahaha