I just bought a 160 GB Iomega USB Hard Drive from Amazon.com. I love it because it's so slim and portable and doesn't need a power cord plugged in, just 2 USB ports.

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“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”

—Coco Chanel

so, one of the first questions is going to be for some more information on computer specs. would it be safe to assume that your are running some variant of windows for an operating system? I take it 120 gigs is around what you think you will need for all your musics?

I'm with mewilliamson. Give us some computer specs.

I was considering the Iomega USD Hard Drive that glam sugar talked about, but finally decided on the WD Passport from Western Digital. The reason I choose this one was from the experience I had while using my sisters. I'd also like to note my sister is a PC and I'm a Mac user and works well on both.

Regarding brands, I have an 80 gig LaCie mobile hard drive that I have been using for the past few years, and I'm happy with it.

To save money, find one or two that you like first, and then search online for the best prices. I really despise Best Buy, Circuit City, etc - they just want to take your money. Amazon.com is usually a good place to start for good deals. Newegg.com is also a good place to look for deals, and there is a website called Tech4LEss.com that has good prices. I bought my iPod from there for about $70 cheaper ($330 instead of $400), just because it was a returned item (no problems with it whatsoever).

Regarding your music files, just open the folder than contains your files, then (with the hard drive plugged in to your computer) open the folder for the hard drive and drag the files over from the music folder to the hard drive folder.

I'm a Western Digital girl. I have a 180 GB Passport for music and pics and a 500 GB MyBook that I use for backing up everything.

Try Amazon, they usually have really great deals.

Keep in mind that to free up the space on your computers hard drive you will have to totally remove the music from it. This means the music will only be on the external. Since you have an iPod, you're using iTunes. In the iTunes preferences you can have it play the music off on the external hard drive. This way you can still sync the iPod, you just have to have the external drive connected to sync or listen to the music.

What are the tech specs of your computer? I'm guessing it's the one you've had all thru college. I would encourage you not to skimp on the hard drive size and back everything up. A friend of mine just replaced her Dell computer she's had all thru college b/c it just quit working. Luckily we were able to recover everything off the hard drive for her at no cost, but taking it to Geek Squad (hate it) would have cost quite a bit.

If you aren't looking to buy a new computer any time soon, you might also want to look into getting rid of some of the programs you don't use. Most computers come with lots of programs the average user won't need. Hello, that damn chess game that comes on every Mac. They don't take up a huge about of space, but if you only have 1 GB left, every little bit will help.

Hope this helps a little.

- "It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care." - Ferris Bueller

This is not an answer to your question, but did you know you can still get all your music back if it's on your ipod? . . . next time . . .

Thanks for the help guys!! As for computer specs, i have a gateway laptop (bought in january of 06) with windows xp. It is the comp I had for the last two years of college (my first one pooped out on me halfway through lol) but I have all of my documents backed up to a flash drive already, it's just my music I still need to worry about. I'm thinking 120 gigs of space would be as much as I would need, but three years ago I also though my 20 gig ipod would hold everything and it really doesn't lol. I definitely know that I don't want to go any lower than 120 gigs. I would also prefer something that works well both macs and pcs, since I'd like to switch to a mac within the next year or so.

JenBrett - I would just have to enable disc use in itunes in order to sync my ipod from the external hard drive right? But I'd have to move all of itunes over, not just the itunes library correct? Again, no idea what I'm doing haha. And I take my laptop to the Geek Squad because when I bought the one I have currently I was so distraught about the demise of my old one (happened at a horrible time school-wise) my dad sprung for the three year service contract. I've definitely gotten my money out of it though, they're pretty much replaced everything in it except the battery and the hard drive lmao. They love me there.

Kmwerts - haha yeah I actually did know that and I attempted to do it but I think what happened was that when I plugged my ipod in it took all the music off before I could figure it out. It really wasn't too bad though, I've already gotten pretty much all of my stuff back.

I guess I'll be doing some shopping this weekend! Gotta love pay days!!!

I've only done it once as a test and on a Mac so here goes. It should be basically the same.

Copy the iTunes folder from you music folder and paste it to the external hard drive. Don't delete the folder from the computer just yet. In the iTunes preferences under Advanced there will be a "iTunes Music Folder Location", click change. Then select to folder that is on the external drive. Test to make sure iTunes works and then try syncing you iPod. Remember that if you sync all, it will replace your iPod tracks with the iTunes tracks, you may loose any tracks that are on your iPod but not in your iTunes. You can always change the iPod to manual sync, that's how I do mine cause it's 4 years old and tiny 20 GB.

If the Geek Squad is eating the cost, good for you! I'm not really familiar w/ Gateway but the friend I mentioned earlier, that's what my beau helped her pick out so, can't be too bad.

A note about using the external w/ PC and Mac. This is probably something that my beau did for some weird computer dork reason, but don't partition the external for PC. If you have no idea what that means, don't worry, that just means you won't be doing it. When I got his old WD Passport he had to wipe it and re-partition it for the Mac. He did the same thing w/ his new external and my Mac won't read it. Best for you to just keep the basic settings.

- "It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care." - Ferris Bueller

I have no idea why you would need to "partition an external hd for mac". The only time you ever partition a hard drive is to run two different operating systems from the same harddrive. Since she is not installing an operating system on this external hard drive, she does not need to worry about partitioning a single thing!

Your "iTunes Library" is just a bunch of mp3 files stored in a folder on your computer.

Links:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/1/153714.html

You can use external hard drives on any operating system.

You can also look for external hard drives on techbargains.com. I would not buy one at a store as it is much more expensive and their selection is shoddy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136060
Western Digital 160G Cavalry for $85.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822101045
Cavalry 320G for $95

Clearly I said not to partition the hard drive. Most people won't, which is why I said to keep the basic settings.

The drive was partitioned to NTFS which at the time my Mac could not read. As far as the reasons for partitioning the drive, it was not to run 2 separate operating systems. We need to transfer files greater than 4GB, do the switch was made from FAT32 to NTFS.

- "It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care." - Ferris Bueller

Does anyone know if http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822111017 is a good product? I tried to get to the one geeksugar posted about, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136173, but it seems the product is no longer available[?] and the hammer has more than double the space available.
HELP

That makes a lot more sense. I didn't realize that Mac's couldn't write to NTFS formatted drives and could only read to them. Of course, there are hacks out there:
http://lifehacker.com/software/how-to/readwrite-to-ntfs-drives-on-your-m...

I'm a huge fan of Western Digital (its actually all I own) and so far I've had no crashes or anything (*crosses fingers*). You can get a 160 GB external from them for under $100. I have a 500GB Western Digital drive that I threw in a separately purchased external enclosure (sometimes its cheaper that way). I agree that you shouldn't buy it at a retail store - Newegg.com has great prices and amazing customer service.