I've been thinking about getting an external hard drive
 

I've been thinking about getting an external hard drive for a while, but I'm not exactly sure which to get. Basically, I want to get something that's reliable, easy to use, portable and easy to carry around, doesn't require any software installation or require some kind of program just to transfer stuff to it, has a minimum of 150GB of hard drive space, and is at least $100 - $200.

Does anyone here have any suggestions?

There's two ways you can go with externals. One is you get an external that draws power off of your USB ports. These are typically smaller, both in size and in capacity. They're also considerably more expensive. You can also go the more traditional route which is an external enclosure with a normal 110V power supply you have to jam into a wall socket. That'll be cheaper for larger capacity, but you'll lose a bit of portability.

For about $125 you could probably get yourself a 750GB harddrive and a pretty nice enclosure to put it in if you choose the second way.

External hard drives that don't need an extra power source are the 2.5 inch models. I suggest you get this version since power sockets aren't always available. They go up to 500 GB although 320 GB is the most value for money, at current prices.

You could get a Western Digital Passport 320GB for about $120 or less.

I'm gonna have to keep that Western Digital Passport 320GB in mind. I'll go look up reviews on it or something. Thanks for the suggestions.

About two years ago I bought a Dynex Harddrive Enclosure Kit. I love it because I can swap out harddrives between the enclosure kit and hook them up to any computer (even a 360!) with just a simple USB plugin. I'm nto going to recommend Dynex to you for their reliability, because I've replaced it three times. However, they did replace it three times (it was knocked off the compter desk 2 of the times, yes the harddrive survived both) without much questioning. That's the way I would suggest.