Hi everyone. I have Just started year 12 and I am doing a multimedia course at school. We are dealing with bigger files now as we are editing video, Photoshop files etc and heaps of flash animation. I have a 512Mb MP3 player which is enough for now but we havent got into the video yet. I was concidering buying a 2Gb memory stick but it is much cheaper to build an external HDD myself. I would build it with an Aluminim external hdd enclosure and a Western Digital 80G 2M HDD. I ends up around $133(AU). One thing though, will a standard 3.5" HDD cope being carted around in my school bag? I dont think it will ever get hit or suffer a large jolt but it will go back and forth in my bag to school and back and may get a few scrapes and bumps. Will the HDD handle it while it is off? Or should I go for a Laptop hard drive which is designed to withsatnd bumps? The thing that puts me off a 2.5" hdd is that is it turns out a little bit more expensive if I get a 40Gb drive. Thanks for opinions. Mattwizz3 : ) A7N8X-E Deluxe Sempron 2600+ OC 2.2GHz 1Gb DDR400 Dual Channel Maxtor SATA 200Gb/7200/8m WDC IDE 80Gb/7200/8m Damn Microsoft... DIE STEAM DIE!

I would honestly go with a USB flash memory drive. The price per gigabyte is outrageous, but it can handle treatment that would kill a traditional hard disk drive. I have a Corsair Flash Voyager 4GB (~$170) that has been through hell and still works like a charm. "If it ain't broke, upgrade anyway."

Most external HDDs have a "drop spec" of only 1. They don't tolerate banging at all. I use a small camera bag for mine. It has balistic nylon on the outside, foam on the inside, a velcro divider that I can use to make the inside fit just right, and an outer compartment for the power supply and USB cable. They come in many sizes, are cheap, and protect my external HDD.

Hard drives (even laptop drives) will handle small bumps and jars, but they will not handle being dropped or thrown into a back pack and banged around. The read/write head floats above the disk at a couple of thousandths of an inch. If you bang the HDD too hard, then the head bangs into the disk causing a physical scratch. It is true that if a HDD is properly turned off, the heads are parked over a blank part of the disk so a scratch on this part of the drive won't make a difference.... but if you damage a read/write head..... I have an ext. laptop drive that has served me well for 2 years now with no problems.... carry it around in my back pocket most of the time. Bottom line... If you handle an external hard drive with respect, it will live a good life. But if you use it for a football....

Heh yeah, I will probably get some padding for it then and be carefull how I carry it. Although... it is dissapointing that I cant use it as a football as I was looking forward to kiking it around ; ) Badboy I'm glad you mentioned the power supply, I forgot about that... I was just thinking plug it in the usb and off I go! I guess I will have to check how easy it is to get to a power point in the computer rooms. I have three choices for brands of HDD. WD, Maxtor and Seagate. Would any of them be tuffer than another? They are all the same price. Thanks guys for the fast replys. Mattwizz3 : ) A7N8X-E Deluxe Sempron 2600+ OC 2.2GHz 1Gb DDR400 Dual Channel Maxtor SATA 200Gb/7200/8m WDC IDE 80Gb/7200/8m Damn Microsoft... DIE STEAM DIE!

I've got Seagate and Maxtor external HDDs. They seem equally durable but the Seagates come with a 5 year warranty. The HDD in the camera case is pretty small. It would fit in your bag or could be carried seperately with its shoulder starp.

Thanks Badboy, I guess I will go for seagate then. I havent baught a seagate before so I am looking forward to testing it out. Thanks alot for the help guys. Mattwizz3 : ) A7N8X-E Deluxe Sempron 2600+ OC 2.2GHz 1Gb DDR400 Dual Channel Maxtor SATA 200Gb/7200/8m WDC IDE 80Gb/7200/8m Damn Microsoft... DIE STEAM DIE!