Wahoooo! Just got myself a Maxtor Personal Storage 3100 external USB hard drive. It's not the latest and the greatest but it gives me an additional 200 GB storage space. This is a big deal for me because my PC's hard drive is only 80 GB and I'm always agonizing what to delete. It's getting tedious to burn files off to DVD-R and deleting them from the hard drive. Looking for files from stacks of discs is not fun either.

I was looking for the 3200 model which has 300 GB but they didn't have it. The Maxtor OneTouch III models are too expensive. So why not just buy another internal hard drive to add more storage at a cheaper price? I plan to use the extra space not only for storing more stuff but also for making backups. Having it external will save my files even if my PC gets fried. I hope it doesn't happen but having nearline backup is very convenient.

I look forward to the day when I can finally replace my 4 year old PC. It still works but it's getting sluggish. A clean Windows reinstall can fix that but I'm suspecting the RAM or something else on the motherboard is malfunctioning. There were some recent incidents where there were inexplicable BSODs. Anyway, when that day comes, hopefully, the replacement is a Core 2 Duo. I can simply plug in my external hard drive into the USB port of the brand spanking new PC and all my precious data are ready for the transfer.