I've been comparing prices on Best Buy and Newegg. Newegg definitely has the better value even with the shipping costs. So rate these potential purchases:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822111017

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822216035

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/se...5&body=MAIN
(I added that after visiting Tigerdirect.com)

Also if you have any recommendations on other external hard drives or online stores please post them.

out of the two -- acomdata

but watch out for the value brands with external hdd's
they have a tendency to fail (all brands), and acomdata only offers a very limited short warrenty (1 year i believe) and doesn't have available tech support

if you could spare some more time and a few more dollars- do some research if you think this is going to be a long term thing. i can't exactly recommend any drive in particular because all the more popular more trusted brands have their share of failures and bad reviews on newegg, like maxtor, seagate, and WD - but most of these do offer long term warrenties.

the only reason those two don't have the bad reviews is because those are day-one reviews or just promotional reviews.

but for the price that's a good deal

i didn't recommend hammer because i've never actually heard of them.
if they're good look into them

and also don't buy from bestbuy - everything is severely overpriced with them
i get most my computer parts from newegg or tigerdirect.com

Thanks for the advice. I would never have thought about the value of warranties.

Do you have an ext hard drive yourself?

I plan on using mine to store all the media I have and will have in the future.

i dont quite like externals, i keep most my stuff on internals in this machine or network drives

but ive had a 250gb seagate freeagent since october that hasn't broke yet. but i have heard some horror stories about em