Storage: What kind of hard drive should I get?

(NT) No, unfortunately it does not have a dvd burner...

Personally. . .

I prefer to build my own. I have two USB-2 external cases that will hold a hard drive or a burner. And, in fact, I have one case with a Maxtor 80 Gig drive and another with a Sony DVD burner. My cases are AC powered and have a small cooling fan. I have created a folder on the hard drive for each of my 4 PCs to save all my "stuff". I prefer AC powered rather than USB powered because I don't want to put too much load on the PCs USB ports, especially the laptop.

Drive preference? Ford or Chevy. Size? How much do you need? Only you can answer this.

Wayne

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AC Powered External Case Question

I was reading your reply and have a few questions. I have a Dell laptop that does not have a DVD Burner. I have a desktop in our home office that does have a Ieomago DVD Burner that we don't really use. I need an external hard drive that both of these computers can use to back up data, pictures, music, etc. I understand how an external hard drive works, but what is the USB-2 external case? Where do I get one or how do I build? Can both computers access the external hard drive? How much does this type of set up cost with the drive?

I also have a big project that I have not started because I'm not sure where to start. I have many VHS Home movies that I want to convert to DVD. I don't want to be stuck in the office doing endless converting if I can do this from the laptop, however, it doesn't have a burner. Is it possible for me to have this external case with a burner and do my converting from my family room on my laptop. I want the best quality I can get out of these VHS tapes. I think I can figure out how to get the analog to digital file but once on my laptop, I would need to burn the file to dvd. Do I then burn this file to the external dvd burner? I have the same questions here as I did above for the external hard drive, ie., where to get case, how to build, cost, etc.

Why....

Some devices (small- like external drives, thumb drives, some scanners, ...) can be powered from the USB port (which is designed so as can be used as a power source.). This power source is limited, especially in a laptop (obviously ?). When a device takes more power than can be supplied via a USB port, it stops working - or worse.