As above, second hand, third hand whatever just dont want to pay PC World prices.

try aria.co.uk

or

microdirect.co.uk


both are cheap. If you have a credit card, theres an even cheaper company in Liverpool called CMS. It's mainly for business sales, but I'm pretty sure you can buy stuff really cheap using credit card without an account

other than that, I don;t have a spare external one sorry

uhm if you can wait till sunday then goto the comp fair.. or even better go on wednesday to the one at aintree race-course I can guarantee that you will get a good one for about £50.. Good Luck...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Don't bother with computer fairs mate. www.aria.co.uk www.scan.co.uk www.ebuyer.co.uk www.dabs.com !@@!!@

computer fairs are good, nice an cheap 'n' all, but I wouldn't go buying anything like a hard drive from one as there is no warranty and unlike the sites listed, you can't send em back if it becomes faulty

I would never buy from a computer fair again.

Full of rogue traders, you buy a faulty product and never hear from them again.

What do you want it external for? As there are two types of external drive, both with different pricing.

The first type is when you only want it for backing up data and is therefore not compact enough to travel with easily. The second type is mobile drives, that are usually slimline enough to fit in a pocket.

Although at the moment, the Freecom slimline ones are getting to around the same price as standard ones.

Try ebuyer - I have used them for thousands of pounds worth or computer stuff and have never had much of a problem.

I need one to store media files that my laptop cant handle. I have about ten data sticks lying around but it is too inconvenient. I need to categorise them and onto a hard drive seems the easiest way.

I dont mind the price as long as it's reasonable but eBay is too dodgy in my opinion.

Thanks anyway

if you have ever expanding amounts of data like me, don't ever go near DAT Tapes unless you have top notch software designed to go with the tape drive. Instead, like I did, you might want to opt for a DVD-R(W)? dual layer perhaps too?

You can also buy USB to IDE cables and buy a standing 3.5" computer or 2.5" laptop harddrive. I have 3 which I'm currently using. Quite quick too as it's 2.0.

Believe me Joe, I think Marty has chosen the correct option already in going for an external hard drive.

The talk of DAT's is rediculous nowadays, even for corporates, given the low cost and ease of use compared to hard drives and reliability of SCSI.

Using a DVD to back up is all well and good, but its tedious, DVD's can be unreliable at the best of times and they are easily scratched and damaged. Also, you can end up with loads of DVD's (even DL) when it could all be catered for by one HDD.

The kits to convert internal HDD's to external ones are good, but given the cost of external HDD's nowadays, there isnt that much need for them. Also, its simpler and safer to transport/carry an external drive then an internal drive.

Only before I was looking at internal drives in Bidston Tesco, and they have a decent range in stock for a Tesco lol. Noticed a 250GB Freecom for £99, which to be fair, considering Tesco arnt really a PC retailer or anything, I though was very competitive even with online retailers.

I am even thinking of getting one myself at that price!

And of course it has the added beauty of being able to be returned if its broken. A lot simpler then any type of RMA service.

I bet the girls love it when guys talk technical!

BTW, looking at Joes post above, if you need anything from CMS, I am pretty sure they are a distributor only and you therefore need an account with them.

When I was a computer engineer used to use them as our main supplier and we always had use our account, even if we were paying for the item there and then. If you need to get anything, my old boss still uses CMS, so I can get the latest price list (updated daily, avialble as PDF) from them and can get him to get anything you need.

Not the best way though, but as I say they are usually only a distributor (and i seem to remember they were rated as the UK's number 1 distributor in 2004 by Computer Trade Only magazine - who only review the PC dist industry, we used to get them all the time, not that they ever got red lmao).

poor guy.. I hope he got his hard drive in the end.. sooo much info just for a Hard Drive

above comment is wrong

whats wrong about it? Unless its a known company with a stall who are at local fairs often, you probably wont ever see the trader again once he;s sold you something dodgy. Doesnt happen all the time, but it can if your not on your tippy toes

I paid 80quid for a 250GB External last month from PC world. Packard Bell. works great and backs up your files for you.

Im eagerly awaiting the new range of Freecom toughdrives with perpendicular recording... 250GB external drives in the size of a 2.5" drive, and they are shock proof to hell!

Should be with us in early 2007, I gunna get one for me lappy, may even get an internal one as well!

Just noticed this post Joe, you do actually protection at most organized and regular computer fairs. And products that are being sold as new have to comply with the trades description act and include a full warranty.

Most, if not all sellers nowadays, at regular and organized computer fairs, have a regular slot and are easily contactable in the evnt of a problem. And the operators usually help you if you have a problem and the dealer isnt helping you with it.

Still gotta be careful like, I personally dont like a lot of the cheap and tacky crap ya get at computer fairs, so I dont go to them, would rather just buy from eBuyer like hehe!