External Hard Drives

By Joshua Erdman
Digital Foundation, inc.

Connecting an External Hard Drives were limited to either USB 2.0 or FireWire (1394) until now. Both Maxtor and Western Digital have came out with large capacity external hard drives that support both USB 2.0 and FireWire and are compatible with the Mac and PC. They both have drives with capacities up to 250GB. This amount of removable storage can make a great Backup solution for someone's personal computer.

Unlike the USB memory chips (pocketable Hard Drives), these drives require that software drivers be installed before connecting them to your computer. The portability is great but if you need flexibility keep the install CD.

Cost

Although the Western Digital Hard Drives cost about the same, they unfortunately only support USB. Since the performance is so similar, it only makes sense to recommend the Maxtor External Drives.

Capacity	Price
7000DV - 250GB	$280
7000DV - 200GB	$230

Click the link above to buy one of these drives.

Tom's Hardware has a great article on the capabilities and performance of the newest External Hard Drives.

Article last reviewed: 02/13/2005

Created by: Digital Foundation, inc.

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