text: what should i consider when buying an external hard drive? i want an external hard drive to back up my music, photos, and documents. what kinds of things should i look for?   i'm not super techie so i'd love something that i can just plug in with a usb or something, then transfer over a few folders.   are there any brands that are especially good? consider a drive that uses usb in order to keep installation easy. it will also allow you to daisy-chain the devices as your needs increase. since you mention back up of photos and music i wouldn't start with anything less than 250 gb (gigabytes). that should give you plenty of room to get started and monitor things as your storage increases. i have western digital drives which have served me well and ship with retrospect back up software. look for them at places like compusa and tigerdirect.