Hello. My first posting on any forum, so apologies for the lack of knowledge I'm about to reveal.

I have a sony pc, and am reaching capacity on my c drive for MP3 files and certain music-related applications.

So I think I need an external hard drive, and I'm looking for guidance on a) the kind of things I should be aware of before buying one b) advice on the best brands/products for me.

Thanks in advance.

Hey notdog,

Well, first off, you should check to see if your Sony PC has Firewire or USB 2.0. As far as I know, all Sony computers have Firewire, but they use a 4-pin port, which is slightly different then the standard Firewire. Nevertheless, that is not a problem. As long as you have Firewire or USB 2.0, you should be OK.

Assuming you wish to use Firewire, you should take a look at some of our external hard drive reviews. Just last month we reviews the Maxtor OneTouch external drive, and it got a great score, if my memory serves me, a 9.5 out of 10. The drive I reviewed was a 300GB size, but they come anywhere from 80GB to 300GB, of course, the bigger, the more expensive.

As long as you have Firewire, you can get any hard drive really, that has Firewire. But, since you have a Sony, and they use a 4-pin port, you will need to buy a special cable, called a Firewire 4-pin to 6-pin cable. If you have USB 2.0, you can get any USB 2.0 based hard drive. If you have both, the choice is up to you.

If you are truly unsure, just give me your model # of your Sony and I'd be glad to help you.

Let me know if you are confused about anything else .

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--Daniel--

Hey notdog, do you have a single internal hdd? If so, you most likely fit 1 or two more INTERNAL hdd's in there. Cheaper than getting an external one for sure.