Recently I bought a external hard disk for less then a 100€ with a 500gb capacity.
Now RW Dvd's can contain 4,7GB and cost me 17€ for 5 if you do the math that's more then 360€ on dvd's to get to the capacity of my external.
And yust wondering is there any catch on this?

And yust wondering is there any catch on this?

DVDs are more easily transportable and are easier to play in other devices without having to lug your external hard drive around plugging it into less devices, etc.

But yeah, I don't even mess with recordable DVDs. I write one about once every 1 or 2 years, lol, and that's only to back-up important files which can easily just be put onto an SD card or similar device.

- N

is it unsafe to move a external hard disk?

Just don't drop it and don't sweep around big magnets.
I have my external 60gb 2,5"hd with me almost all the time in order to share with my friends.
It's faster and easier to use than any dvd, you don't need any burning software, etc.

DVDs are more easily transportable
Not if it's an external laptop hdd.

Hard drive is the way to go. The newer (philips) DVD players have USB connections that can be used to play the movies. Besides, we have converted our collections to Divx mode with is 700MB to 1000MB long that fits a lot in the HD or even in the DVDRs.

DVDs are more easily transportable and are easier to play in other devices without having to lug your external hard drive around plugging it into less devices, etc.

- N

When transporting data, what's easier to carry? ~62 dual layer DVD discs (~106 of the cheap ones), or 1 portable hard drive?

It's safe to move an external hard drive. I have one that I carry around in my backpack all the time (Maxtor one touch III mini - 120 gig). Mine is slightly bigger than the video iPod. It's also powered by the USB cord as opposed to needing a separate power adapter.

I think the only drawback to portable drives (if the concern is compatibility with the largest variety of things it's plugged into) is the format used. I would suggest FAT32 over NTFS.

Mine is FAT32 too. I am thinking to convert it to NTFS as no one uses Win98 anymore. Mine, I bought a case and used my laptops old HD. Bought a 7200 80GB for the Dell laptop.

Man, I need to get me one of these, I learnt the hard way..

Mine is FAT32 too. I am thinking to convert it to NTFS as no one uses Win98 anymore. Mine, I bought a case and used my laptops old HD. Bought a 7200 80GB for the Dell laptop.

FAT32 will have you covered when using the same drive with Windows/Linux/Mac.
NTFS is readable, but gets moody whenever attempting to write to it.

Mine is FAT32 too. I am thinking to convert it to NTFS as no one uses Win98 anymore. Mine, I bought a case and used my laptops old HD. Bought a 7200 80GB for the Dell laptop.

I did the same thing - bought a 120gb samsung hdd for my laptop and put the old laptop 60gb hdd in a usb case.