Good External Hard Drive

When I copy my movies, I would like to use an external hard drive. What are the suggestions for the best one at the best price? And do I need other items to make the recording to the external DVD and copying from the external DVD easy (or easier)?

 

For portable externals, I like the WD drives...but for full-size externals, I have never found an OEM setup that works well; only the setups where you buy case and drive(s) seperate seem to last.

 

Totally agree with killers comment of buy parts seperately & for the same reason,can't go wrong with black cyclone housings if you can get em i have 7 of em ranging from 1 y/o to 3 so far so good,only other housing would be a st lab it's the same as the cyclones except smaller & like the cyclones all panels can be removed & just leaving the base & that one is like 8 y/o now it's the reason i bought the cyclones apart from making a good hdd tester

 

I was concerned about the external drive. So is the advice that I should beef up my internal hard drive to a TB and stay completely internal?

 

I agree with all answers so far. Buy enclosure and drive separate. Place drive into enclosure instead of buying one pre-built. Burn DVD to internal drive. Transfer to external after you are happy with final product.
Original poster didn't mention this or ask for an opinion but I like to reencode to xvid the DVD's I store not only to compress file size by roughly 50-75% but also the PS3 i stream to and a dvd player i own read that format.

[EDIT-I was typing this while original poster responded] You can stay internal if you want. If for some reason you want/need an external one, follow the advice everyone else gave which I consolidated.

 

Thanks so much for the great advice. I will look at buying the enclosure and drive seperate and then following your advice of burning to internal drive and storing on external.

Thanks for all the great ideas.

 

You are welcome. Please post back if you have any problems with this method.

 

Sometimes internal laptop burner drives are junk, and they often run very hot. In this case, you might be better off buying an external 5.25" drive enclosure and a LG or Pioneer DVD burner.

As for upgrading the internal hard drive, 1TB is your limit...this is a tiny size, so it is rather pointless.

 

I am clearing as much as possible from my internal drive. My wife has filled it with pictures and craft blah-blah-blah. I am going to burn all that to CD and create a large space on my internal drive for movies. I had not thought about the burner. I have not had problems with it but as I increase activity, I will keep an eye on it if quality begins to degrade.

I am new at this so can someone give me a specific recommendation for the case and external hard drive. That way a newbie like me can go on line and get what I need based on your recommendations.

I appreciate all the help here.