External hard drives?

[donutsweeper]

Appealing to my flist for information here :)

I know next to nothing about computers. I would like to get an external hard drive or a zip drive or something that I can back up my files with. I would be backing up word docs, photos and a bunch of .avi files (tv shows and movies). Anyone have any suggestions as to what device would work best for this? Any info- like what brands are good or which ones should be avoided or what storage size is ideal would be appreciated.

Comments

[pointytilly.livejournal.com]

I'd check reviews for any individual drive you're looking at, every so often a good brand will have a batch of total lemons. I can vouch for Western Digital's RMA service, though, when the first MyPassport I got turned out to be screwy they replaced it quickly.

If you like Newegg, they're always flinging coupon codes at me in their sale e-mails. Might be good to watch those?

I also back up my really important stuff on USB sticks separately, juuust in case. They're prone to dying, but weirdly enough I've managed to not kill any of mine. Kingston seems to have some good ones!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's a good plan. I will be looking online further once I've narrowed things down, I just wanted to get a sense of opinions of real people's experiences and thoughts on the matter first.

I will look into newegg. At the moment I've a bunch of rewards at Staples from back to school shopping I that was thinking of using, but it can't hurt to compare to Newegg's sale/coupons too