I'm looking to buy a 20GB+ external usb2 hard drive.

But I really don't want it to be big. I'm looking for something really small in dimensions but with some decent ish storage to it. USB 2 is needed, because my lab sucks for transfers. Budget is about £80, preferably a UK based company for a quick delivery.

Any suggestions or reviews of things you've got? I've looked around a bit in the shops here but everything seems like bricks to carry about. I'm sure there's something out there (laptop harddrives?) that fits my criteria but I can't find it.

USB sticks are starting to suck when my coursework keeps getting bigger.

Have you considered buying an mp3 player of that capacity? I have a 20GB player that cost me £90 a year and a half ago, I'm sure there's similar cheaper models about.

i've got a 120gb wd passport that's pretty good. not sure what it cost though.

Get a laptop hard drive and an external enclosure. They're as small as you'll get, and most don't require a power supply.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-250GB-Passport-External/dp/B000RG11E6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1209392167&sr=8-1

bingo bango

Yes. This is actually what the WD Passport that NoESC mentioned uses. I was fixing a guy's laptop and he had one of these, they're slightly larger than an iPod. You could easily keep it in your pocket. And the fact that no external power supply is required is awesome.

eek, have you read the reviews on that? So much malfunctioning, but essentially what I'm looking for.

What should I look into when getting laptop+case combos? I'm really not up to date on my hard drive lingo/techy.

we have 2 in the shop that we've been using for about a year with no problems...

if you do get a hard drive and a case separately, get a seagate sata drive and a sata 2.5 enclosure that will work with only 1 usb port. some of the cheap ones won't provide enough power to spin up the drive unless it's plugged into 2 usb ports.

Actually it's more complicated than that. The reason that sometimes you need to use 2 USB ports is all dependent on the hard drive's voltage. There are ones that are slightly more power hungry than others, and thus require 2 ports. And yes, it can even be 5200RPM and still use too much power. It typically has nothing to do with the enclosure.

i have used 2 enclosures with the same 2.5" drive and it happens

Seeing as how USB only puts out so much power, unless the enclosure is absolute crap and doesn't request the full 500ma that the USB spec provides, it won't matter.

that's what i'm saying, some of them are **** and won't put out enough power. our nicer enclosures and adaptors here have powered 200gb 7200rpm 2.5 drives on 1 usb just fine.

So the vote is on the WD passport so far? The reviews are really putting me off so far though.

Doesn't have to be the passport, it's just the only 2.5" drive I've seen in person, and I can vouch for the fact that it's really small.

If you've ever seen a laptop then you've seen a 2.5" HD :p

I, of course, meant the only external 2.5" drive, Mr. Literal

My mom and I both have WD Passports, and neither of us have had problems with them.