I am buying an external hard drive for a present, but don't know too much about them. She has a macbook air and is going to use it for general photo and music storage nothing too high tech. I was thinking about 1 TB for the size and something portable. Thanks

You need to decide between USB powered and external power. The USB powered are smaller, lighter, and about 2x the price for the same capacity.

1 TB is really really large if you are using it for photos and music only. <BR>I would grab a USB powered 500GB. You could find one for $100 at Best Buy. <BR>So she must be the one person who bought the MacBook Air.

Go USB powered! I bought one for my son (all USB) and complain every time I have to plug my old external power supply type in the wall! <BR> <BR>(Message edited by wakeboardingdad on January 31, 2010)

Thanks. Talked to some tech type guys at work and they said 500mb usb was more then enough. I just didn't know if brands made much difference. I am sure I am opening up for plenty of comments but what's wrong with the macbook air? Granted I use a 1999 Gateway that has never been upgraded so everything is better then my pc. Just waiting until I can justify a macbook pro 17inch

Screw the USD drive if you can eat the extra money get a has drive. All of your computers will be able to access it over your network. No finding the drive, no plugging in anything at all.