400GB Maxtor External Hard Drive

[luckystrike]

Maplin currently have a sale on a 400GB Maxtor External Hard Drive for �89.99.

I'm really not into IT, but I want somewhere safe to store my photos, personal files and downloaded music rather just on my laptop.

Is this the type of thing that I should buy?

Can I use it to transfer files to a friend's laptop? What I mean is, can I use it to swap music files, etc?

Is Maxtor a reliable make that won't breakdown and result in me loosing the lot?

Thanks very much.

[Ethel]

That seems excellent to me - it will do what you want very easily, and you can swap between pcs with it.

It plugs in to your USB and shows as removable storage - like a flash drive.

Maxtor is a recognised name in hard drives and are reliable.

[vehelpfulguy]

While hard disks are fairly reliable they can go wrong and you can lose all the data on them. They can also of course be stolen.

The only true safe backup is to put it on CD or DVD (two copies just in case).

You ought to think to yourself, what if my laptop / hard disk got stolen, or it crashed or whatever (worst case scenario).

In an ideal world all your important files should be backed up on to a series of CDs or DVDs, if they are not then you leave yourself open to losing the lot.

I read a story about a chinese man in the UK who had about 9,000 digital photos on his laptop from loads of family holidays. None were backed up anywhere else.

His laptop was stolen and he lost the lot. He was offering a reward, not for the return of the laptop, but of the photos.

Often the data on the PC or laptop is more valuable than the PC or laptop itself.

[mrknowall]

For another �5.96 you could buy another 100 gig and have a 500 gig

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=266731&CatId=0

[stevie21]

To all of your questions, yes. Anyone reading this who has a PC rather than laptop can also backup to a DVD disc : the DVD drive should be less than �30 and discs are pretty cheap too : each holding 4-5GB

[rhamish]

Keep away from Maxtor, their personal storage has the habit of breaking down about 18th after purchase. I had the 500gb version and saved all my family tree and precious photos on it as a back up and then the fault developed. Maxtors response - You should have backed up your backup!!