Due to the recent flooding in certain Asian countries hard drive prices are going to be skyrocketing because the flooding has shut down production quite a bit. The situation isn't likely to return to normal until maybe next year. A Samsung F3 1TB that would have cost £50 over here before is now going for just shy of £100. I expect the cost of external hard drives will also have been affected. A quick look on Newegg shows your choices could be limited. If you want products with plenty of reviews and a good rating there's only THIS and THIS, and the latter is out of stock at the moment.

Would you be content to use an internal drive, and if so, what speed would you want, 7200rpm or 5400rpm? The 5400rpm drives are obviously slower, but they also use less power and are generally quieter.

Nothing wrong per se with an internal hdd, just make sure of your power supply (in externals it's independent). As for speed? Up to you. I would think it depends on what you plan to put on it... games faster, data, etc. slower.

ummm... did the serial keys ever get sent out?... 

Sure did, Syd. Did you not receive yours?

  nup...

better email them I suppose...

Syd - I feel awful this has gone somehow awry. 

Did you check the "spam" folder of the email you used to order?

When you purchased, you must have gotten an order confirmation. Please don't forget to include that number when you write.

Please give me some follow up on this.... Ok?

not your fault doc... easily fixed up...  

was appreciative you bought it to our attention... 

was just paying cc and the purchase reminded me..... had checked spam, not there...

got the ref number so I'll get onto them... 

But please, Syd. Let me know if there's a snag or not.

will do... 

Just about any HD would be fine these days....last time I can recall a disaster of a HD was IBM's 'BigFoot' .... the size of a CD drive [but half height] ... they fell over in droves, killing IBM's HD reputation with them.

For backup-storage external is ideal as it can be 'locked away' and [more] protected from theft...

Did anyone get the sync thing to run ? It just does nothing for me.