Janie Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 If my laptop crashes, I will lose great amounts of work. So, I've been advised to get an external hard drive and save everything to it--to just run it when I run the laptop. Someone tell me what to get--what to look for, what size, etc. My laptop is a Dell Latitude. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMA Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 You can get a drive that plugs into your USB drive. Something like this: http://www.superwarehouse.com/Smartdisk~FireLite_USB_2%252e0-series.htm 60 - 75 GB is more than enough for Word docs. If you are saving pictures or doing anything with graphics, I would get something bigger. Have two copies of everything - one on your computer and one on the external drive. I always back up my stuff, esp. my documents for my work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SherryTX Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I purchases this one several months ago: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-3-5-Inch-Drive-ST305004FDA1E1-RK/dp/B000ND75C0 FreeAgent is very easy to use - now it is 500 Gigs - which may or not be more than you need. It was less than $100 when I bought it on sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texascamps Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I use a laptop exclusively as well. I bought a Maxtor One Touch. Once you plug it in it will automatically set up a backup for you and ask you if you want to backup every time you plug it in. I bought a 2 GB for about $60 at OfficeMax on sale. Its very small and can fit into my husbands back pocket (if he were so inclined to do so.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy in Indy Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 First, you need to know what kind of ports your computer has. Do you have firewire or usb2? (Firewire is faster.) Once you know what kind to look for...well, you can find them anywhere that sells anything computer. I bought mine at Sam's several years ago. Unless you have massive amounts of stuff to store, I wouldn't worry about getting the biggest one around. Mine's only 120 gig and I can get LOTS of files on it. Periodically you're going to want to back all that stuff up to CD or DVD. I learned the hard way that it's not enough to have it on the computer and a hard drive. I lost everything when a virus ate through both in less than 5 minutes.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsingscrapper Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Before dh lost his job, we bought this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8908621&type=product&id=1216424110187 Well worth it IMHO. It might work for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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