External hard drives what to get?

Okay im not really looking for brands or models im asking about desktop vs. Portable,
At my local best buy they have both in my price range they are 1TB drives, im looking to have something that i can plug into multiple computers and access the files and backup multiple computers to it, i am also wanting to have a section of it for my school programs which is why im considering a portable so i can easily take it to school, im wondering what are the pros and cons of each one?

Thanks guys

get a hard drive by itself then buy a enclosure. make sure it has the connectors you need. and all good.

Personally I have two of each of these connected to my desktop. They have worked great on any PC I've connected them to so far,..

Vantec NexStar CX NST-300S2-BK Hard Drive Enclosure - 3.5 SATA to USB 2.0 at TigerDirect.com
Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green Hard Drive - 2TB, 3.5, SATA-3G at TigerDirect.com

I'd rather buy an enclosure i can easily change drives in than buy something prepackaged and have to replace it later,..

Wow wasnt expecting those kinds of replys, okay well portability wise, is that something i could easily pack up and not woryy about it getting broke vs something like the portable externals? i guess what im saying is on a day to day basis could i unplug it put it in a laptop backpack and plug it up at college without a huge hassle? also how loud are these things?

Lurch said:

Wow wasnt expecting those kinds of replys, okay well portability wise, is that something i could easily pack up and not woryy about it getting broke vs something like the portable externals? i guess what im saying is on a day to day basis could i unplug it put it in a laptop backpack and plug it up at college without a huge hassle? also how loud are these things?

As far as portability, I just unplug mine and wrap the cords around the enclosure, put it in the back pack and off I go,... in all fairness I don't need to move mine very often, but their portable enough when I need to.

Id like to get one that powers soley off of usb, but then the problem is in my price range the max i could get would be about a TB were as i go with the internal hardrive in an enclosure for the same price i could get 2tb... which i doubt i ever need but im really not sure.. my laptop has 500gigs so i have plenty of extra here i want to use the external for backup for 2 computers as well has storage for virtual pc programs for my classes and anything else i need some extra space for...

Anybody else have opinions on this? id love to hear some more

Thanks

for school, wouldn't it be easier with usb?
i have a western digital 2.5 portable drive and it's been useful at time such as backup but the write speed imo is kind of slow (5400 rpm)

Well for school usb would be easier but ive been thinking alot about it and in reality i may not have to use it all that much AT school i mean with the 500 gigs i have on my laptop i should be good, mainly it will be used for a Backup for 2 maybe 3 computers at home, maybe partitioning a section off for a windows server 2008 to use with my old desktop, but there is a chance that if my HD gets filled up then i would have to take it to school, and in that case it doesnt seem like its a huge hassle to unplug and wrap up the enclosure, im pretty sure IF i go with the enclosure and internal harddrive option then this is the enclosure i will use. Ultra ULT40273 3.5 Aluminus Hard Drive Enclosure - SATA to USB 2.0, eSATA, Brushed Aluminum at TigerDirect.com

so im really leaning towards this option, since i would have the ESATA capability's with my laptop for faster writing, also if a drive goes bad u just have to buy another drive rather than spend another 140 bucks on the external hard drive, u just spend 80 or 100 on the drive alone,

I do love to hear everyone's opinions though.
Thanks