<p>I've been wondering lately whether or not I should get this western digital external hard drive of 320 gigs for $80. It looks like a deal but I'm wondering if I'll really have any really important data in college I'll need to back up. So should I get one if all I will probably have is music, pictures, and lots of word documents?</p>
<p>When your harddrive starts clicking,and is on the verge of failing, you're gonna wish you had one :p</p>
<p>it's a good deal, and also a good idea.</p>
<p>DEFINITELY have one. in the middle of spring semester my hard disk died and the information in it was not recovered, so i've lost all my music, photos, and more importantly, 6 weeks worth of lecture notes from 2 of my most important classes, as well as all my past papers and other personal stuff. you should not only buy one, but back your hard drive often, because laptop hard drives are bound to fail sometime.</p>
<p>Dude 320 Gigs for $80 is a great deal. The same amount of money is only worth 160 gigs at Bestbuy, and their 320 gig models are $130.</p>
<p>And yes, backing up your HD is very important, I wish I had the money to do so.</p>
<p>Absolutely, no question -- you need it. It may be just a "Word document" but if your hard disk dies the night before your big research paper (which counts as 50% of your grade) is due, you'll really be glad you have the back up!</p>
<p>Do it. No question. If you don't need that much space get a smaller, cheaper one. I lost three semesters of school work thanks to my decision not to get one as a freshman (and as a transfer student, that really hurt me when they want to see your old school work when evaluating credit).</p>
<p>320 gigs for $80 is technically only a great deal if it's one of the 2.5" portable harddrives that can be powered via USB. You should be able to get a regular 500 gig external for that much if you're willing to wait/search for the right deal.</p>
<p>Another option might be to get a large flash drive (you should be able to get 8 gb for less than $30) for documents and pictures, and then use a mp3/video player with a 30-60gb harddrive in it for music and videos. It depends on how large your music/movie collection is, and how much you'd use the portable music player.</p>
<p>If you have a laptop with an nVidia 8X00 series video card, like the MBP's or Dell XPS's, I would DEFINITELY take a portable hard-drive, since apparently those cards are failing a lot lately... Backing up your data is a good idea anyway, and in my opinion hard drives are more convenient than bi-monthly DVD backups, etc...</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you have a laptop with an nVidia 8X00 series video card, like the MBP's or Dell XPS's, I would DEFINITELY take a portable hard-drive, since apparently those cards are failing a lot lately... Backing up your data is a good idea anyway, and in my opinion hard drives are more convenient than bi-monthly DVD backups, etc...
[/quote]
A graphics card failure isn't going to cause data loss...</p>
<p>S is a CS guy and an external hard drive is the first thing on his list. Found a terra external HD for $170.</p>
<p>Of course there's always the internet for cheap people like myself. Msn gives you free online storage, for example. It may be only 5 gigs but I'll only fill it up with important text/presentation files, and you could always create a multi account... or five...</p>
<p>Online storage and USB drives is all you need.</p>
<p>if you've got a flash drive with 1gb +, then you don't really need an external unless you just wanna backup your hd. you'll use a flash drive or external hdd most for transporting files between classroom/computer lab/friend's computers, so in most cases a flash drive is more practical.</p>
<p>No, a GPU won't hurt your hard drive, but the failure the nVidia cards have been having, to my understanding, damages part of the motherboard, meaning it could be a few weeks before you can get to your data unless you know what you're doing (enough to transfer data without a display). IMO, that few weeks can make a difference right before a deadline.</p>
<p>Don_Quixote, unless you have a printer in your room (why? The avg. cost per page for most personal inkjet printers like 10 cents, the same as most computer labs), you'll have all your important school files on a USB drive anyway. Really no need for an external hard drive.</p>
<p>My MacBook Pro (Penryn) has had no issues with heat even though it has an 8600 GT. Though with my applications, integrated graphics works just fine. I'm pretty curious as to what is going to happen with nVidia cards. There are some rumors that Dell and HP are going to deal with the problem. Not sure if they will just repair laptops that fail or if they are going to do a recall. But my guess is the former. They have to do something or there will probably a class action lawsuit and these guys (and Apple) can't afford a hit to their reputation.</p>
<p>I'm looking forward to Intel's Larrabee Graphics Chips in 2010.</p>
<p>I hope they do a recall - I'd like a free new laptop :D</p>
<p>That would be pretty cool but I really wonder if they'd take that approach. I don't think that chips in laptops are socketed so that means that they are machine-soldered straight into a PC board. Which means that you need a machine to heat all of the connections and then something to grab the chip out. I don't think that the Geek Squad could handle this type of repair. Replacing motherboards would be a nightmare due to compatibility and testing issues.</p>
<p>It certainly bears watching this story. My guess is that the computer manufacturers would rather run the clock out on warranties for this problem.</p>
<p>Dude(tte), for just $20 more ($100) Best Buy is selling Western Digital drives with 500 GB. I think you should probably get that instead.</p>