Building one seems to be the prevailing idea.
I'm going to look into it.

Mike

"Jan Alter" wrote in message
news:7wnKf.9019$qa2.6359@trndny07...
I've been using one of those Maxtor One Touch 160 gb drives for almost two
years now on a firewire connection and have had no trouble. We got my
father in law a WD external USB 120 gb drive a couple of years ago and
that's also going strong. I do recommend the usb.fw combination. One other
thing you could consider is simply buying your own enclosure and adding a
hdd. It'll be cheaper in the long run and you can choose the kind of back
up software to use rather than have it packaged for you with something
like Retrospect, which is not the most user friendly in comparison to some
other programs from what I've read in Magazines such as Smart Computing.

--
Jan Alter

or

"Mike" wrote in message
news:3gnKf.2538$0z.1024@trnddc01...
Hi, I'm looking for an external HDD that's quiet, ,fast & dependable.
I just ordered a combo usb2 & firewire card, now I 'm looking for an
external hdd.
Previously I had read FireWire is marginally superior to USB2.

Any recommendations for an appx 160g (or greater) external HDD that
meets
the described critera?

PC Mag reviews like the Maxtor OneTouch II External USB Drive, but
several users
report problems with this drive. otoh, maybe it's just a few of thousands
rep[orting problems
as I'm sure most happily using the drive won't report this.

Mike