tnm said:
Lady Fitzgerald said:
tnm said:
Hi,

I should have been clearer from the outset:

I have a laptop, and look to purchase a back up device for a system image and files.

Portable external HDD or usb flash? I need you experts to make this an easy purchase for me :)
Oopsie! Sorry about that!

Get a USB powered external HDD (those have a 2.5" HDD in them). You will die of old age doing images to a USB flash stick. I was going to do a test to see if a USB stick would work to receive an image and restore it to the computer but aborted the image when Macrium Reflect said it was going to take over an hour and a half to make an image that normally takes around 20-30 minutes using a USB external HDD (actually an internal type HDD in a USB dock but it's all the same to the computer). Also, you can get more capacity with an external HDD.

To answer an earlier question, we see a lot of reports here from people having trouble getting Win 7's imaging function to work reliably. Most here, including me, recommend the free version of Macrium Reflect instead.

re: our being experts. Keep in mind "ex" is a has been and "spurt" is a drip under pressure.
Thanks!

Can you recommend any under £100?
I've owned only one external HDD in my life, a Western digital 160GB I got around 12 years ago and permanently retired earlier this year (it was too small for my needs anymore so I wasn't using it much and I needed to clean house), so I can't really recommend anything other than to say go to a reliable online vendor and check the user reviews on external HDDs in your price range to see which ones get the best reviews and are the most popular. As already mentioned, I use internal HDDs in docks, internal and external, but you would probably find a USB powered external drive to be far more convenient.