I'm hoping to find a few recommendations for external hard drives. I run XP and have a free USB 2.0 port.

I've narrowed my search to Western Digital, Seagate and Maxtor.

From what I've read, it seems like a good idea to go with 7200rpm.

I'll probably get 160gb.

As far as cache size, are there major performance differences between 2 or 8mb? I don't think I need 16mb.

Does anyone have any other specs they think are important? Does anyone have manufacturer preferences or ones to avoid?

i've heard avoid maxtor, although that was from before they were bought by seagate...


although, i suggest you just look through the sunday ads every week. sometimes you can get external drives for under 50 cents a gig.

usually every few weeks.

i have a 160 gig western digital. works fine.

Seagate = King. Try to avoid Western Digital unless you're getting a Raptor (but they don't make external raptors, so avoid Western Digital. Hitachi is also another good choice. Try to get a firewire HD over a USB HD if you can. Or network storage if you want to share between computers.

i use seagate got a good deal on one now if the feds come to my house for my music i can just take the external and run

Yeah, I'd love to use firewire, but I need my pcmcia slot for my network antenna. My laptop isn't upgradable - no extra room for more ports. I think I'm pretty much stuck w/ usb 2.0. I haven't heard of a card that serves both functions at the same time.