Portable External Hard Drive

December 28, 2010 8:02 AM

Can someone recommend a good, fast, robust 1TB Portable External Hard Drive.

I've just got a new Macbook Air (256GB), I've got far too much media and would like a portable hard drive to back up/store my large amounts of media. The new Macbook Air only has a USB 2.0 connection.

I'd like it to be (i)very portable (ii) fast (USB2.0 is painfully slow as it is), (iii) aesthetically pleasing (sorry).

I'd like to spend no more than £100 or $150.

Thanks for your help Hive!

posted by freud to Technology (4 answers total)

Not sure how you feel about blue, but here's one that fits your specs. Unless you hate blue, in which case it fails (iii).
posted by Grither at 8:15 AM on December 28, 2010

And I can't read.... I saw (ii) as USB 2.0 is too slow. Maybe this one? It's white instead of blue, and below your budget.
posted by Grither at 8:20 AM on December 28, 2010

I'm not sure how you're going to get faster than USB 2.0 when the Air only has a USB 2.0 port...

That said, you can get 1 TB portable 2.5" drives for 129 or so.
posted by wongcorgi at 8:27 AM on December 28, 2010

Your limiting factor will always be USB 2.0 in this situation.

This is what you want:
Seagate Free Agent GoFlex Pro

A couple of key elements:
1. The GoFlex Pro (versus the regular GoFlex line) has a faster 7200 RPM drive
2. The interchangeable cables - you can purchase USB 2.0, USB 3.0, FireWire 800, and eSATA (fastest) connections all for this one drive.

That way you have a fast external drive, with many connection options for other computers.
posted by shinynewnick at 8:42 AM on December 28, 2010 [2 favorites]