External Storage

I was thinking of semi-permanant online storage, meaning it has to be able to be edited occasionally, but not every day. Thus, in other words, CD-RW and DVD-RW are kinda out of the question unless you want to spend 2 hours rewriting it all the time. Uses can be for anything from porn storage to computer backups.

External Hard drive
Pros: Lots and lots (and lots) of space, and cheap per gig. I'd say less than $1 per gig. Best deal.
Cons: The cheapest ones probably start over $100. Also, it's not exactly what I'd call portable.

Flash USB
Pros: Portable, small, can get for under $100.
Cons: Expensive per Mb (you're looking at $1-2 per Mb?), and they only come in small sizes 2 gigs and smaller, not good if you want to store large files.

Zip Drive
Pros: Extremely cheap per Mb (5-10 cents per Mb), extremely cheap to buy (less than $20 for one), extremely portable.
Cons: Drive costs $100, needs a special drive you have to lug around or the other computer has to have one too.
Also, from personal experience, I've noticed they tend to wear out easily. I have had Zip disks eat my data, or freeze up the computer.

I would say Zip drives are the best when it comes to cost, but I just don't like the fact they fail all the time.

What would you say is the best? Debate.

USB flash for transferring small to medium filse between computers, especially useful if you need your hands for carrying other things.

USB hard disk, if you want to bring huge files or an entire distro's worth of data around.  You can save a bit of money and open up a world of flexibility if you get just a USB hard disk carriage and get the drive separately.  If physical size is the driving force, get a 2.5" carriage and a notebook hard disk.  Otherwise, get a 3.5" or 5.25" carriage and a desktop hard disk.

buy a 300 gig internal harddrive for $70

My analysis:

Removable HD:
++ Lots of space
++ Very cheap per MB
+ Can use any HD
-- Don't like to move hard disks, much less these
--- Slot required to read or write

USB HD:
++ No drives required to read or write
++ Lots of space
+ Cheap per MB (although high initial cost)
- Large (and I don't like to move hard disks)

USB Flash:
++ No drives required to read or write
++ Small
- Expensive (though not $1-$2 per MB)

Zip drive:
+ Cheap if you can still find it
- Less reliable
--- Need a special drive and nobody has any

DVD±RW: ('+' strongly recommended for RW)
+ Most people have a drive that will at least read it
+ Lots of space
- Slow
--- Must be written in sessions unless you use Mount Rainier or similar stuff

DVD-RAM:
+ Lots of space
-- Few drives will read it, let alone write it
--- Slow


My recommendation, if what >>3 said is unacceptable: a Flash stick to carry files around. Use Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs for archival and moving gigs of files. Since they are large, you probably wanted a permanent copy for archival too, and you don't want to keep them in your HD all the time.

I'd say go for everything but the zip-drive. External HDD for the huge files and collections (animu, music and film - and don't forget porn), DVD+RW for the semi-huge stuff and USB-sticks for small stuff.

Zip drives are slow as hell, require special software to be installed (requires reboot too, iirc), don't have a lot of space and tend to wind up in the basement/wardrobe for EVER.

Buy an internal IDE drive of your choosing and pair it with an internal/external IDE swap box.
Seagate 300gb IDE HDD: $70
Most External HDD enclosures (discounted for holidays) $30-$40
$100 for 300gb of portable file storage isn't something to shake a stick at!