What storage size should I get for an external hard drive?

[joaquinanp]

I'm planning on buying a My Passport Essential, I'm not sure which to get. It comes in 250 gb, 320 gb, 500 gb, 640 gb, and 1 tb. I'm planning on using one for picture, music storage, file storage, software storage, no movies.

Which one should I get? I want it to hold 1000+ pictures, and 300-500+ songs.

Bellaplex

 

[FordGT90Concept]

1000 pictures and 500 songs, way over estimating their size (10 MiB each when both average about 5 MiB)), would be 15 GiB of capcity. From what you said, any should be able to hold them all.

I would buy whichever offers the best price/capacity ratio. For instance, if if the 500 GB model is only a few dollars more than 250 GB model, it makes sense to get the 500 GB model because a few extra dollars now is less than a whole new hard drive down the road.

 

[95Viper]

Personally, if you intend on getting one; then, IMO purchase the largest you can manage to afford.
I have to many times experienced the dreaded... "Sh*t should of gotten the larger one syndrome".

 

[de.das.dude]

get the transcend 500gb.

it has the ability of transferring data through two usb ports, no power reqd, and speeds are >80MB/s
For a price of around 45USD, its cheap too.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

If you can afford the 1tb - Id go for it, Itb is incredibly useful for backing up and archiving stuff

 

[jsfitz54]

I only buy the 640mb models for myself based on price per GB: Own 2 Samsung S2 black (love) USB2.0, 1 LaCie Rikki USB2.0(so-so, mini cord is useless see pic http://img.techpowerup.org/110124/Capture261.jpg ...uses Samsung drive, and home built Azio USB3.0 case with Samsung 640mb 7200rpm 16cache(love). My stepmother who is retired from HP only buys the 500GB HP USB2.0 size due to that being max size. I'm not in love with HP but drives seem ok. These are just my portable drives.

 

[happita]

I would say get at least a 750GB if not a 1TB. Just like 95Viper said, when you get close to filling 1 up, you will kick yourself in the ass telling yourself that you should have gotten the one with a larger capacity.
However, if there are going to be NO movies at all on this thing, I would say either a 500GB or 640GB would be fine even though you probably won't use it all, but thats the point, you don't want to use it all and eventually run out

 

[scaminatrix]

IMO you're better off buying an external case separately and also buying a 2TB Spinpoint F4. Altogether should work out about the same price as a My Passport 1TB.
Or you could get the external caddy and the 1TB Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ (these drives are excellent, and surprisingly cheap at the moment) for much less than the 1TB My Passport...

 

[Melvis]

Since 1TB are at a all time low, and is PLENTY of room for what you need now and the future, id get one of those

 

[MohawkAngel]

If speed is not a big business for you I would go with the biggest 2.5 you could afford since it's powered by the usb port itself. Fully transportable!