There are a large number of external drives you can purchase for adding extra storage or for data backup. But what should you buy? What factors should you look for in a good drive? In most cases speed isn't an issue since the majority of the time the drive maxes out the USB2 interface anyway. Don't worry about the included software, since all of it is terrible and usually requires you to pay extra for the full version. You're better off getting Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost, or free software solutions available online. So the most important factors you should weigh in your purchase are capacity (every brand has a wide range of sizes so this doesn't really matter either), reliability and.....LOOKS! That's right...you might as well have a nice looking box on your desk compared to a cheap plastic looking, or over-the-top looking with flashing lights everywhere external drive.

I will not talk about reliability since every other site will talk about the reliability of different hard drive brands. I want to point out the "looks" of the external drive and give you a list of the top looking external drives.

As you can tell from my other posts, I am somewhat vain. I paid extra for a fancied-up Asus netbook, and am a big fan of the over-priced Dell Adamo. So what external drive do I have? A Lacie Golden Disk. That's right, an external hard drive that is solid gold........well at least it looks like it. These pretty drives will cost a little more, but not terribly more, and at least in my case with the golden disk, perform just as well as other external drives. So here is my list of the best looking external drives.

1. Lacie Golden Disk- What can I say. I own it, its gold, and has a curvy top to it. Its definitely eye catching. Its a fingerprint magnet, but comes with a microfiber cloth so you can buff it up every day for that extra shine. Lacie makes a bunch of "artful" drives, devised by several designers. One of which resembles a Lego block. Its pretty cool stuff.

2. Lacie Design by Neil Poulton- Another Lacie Drive! A more subtle look than the golden disk. Here you have a nice black case.

3. Maxtor BlackArmor- Similar in looks to the Poulton, but seems to be smaller, more portable.

4. Seagate FreeAgent Go- Small and portable, with a nice brushed metal case that comes in a variety of colors.

5. Seagate FreeAgent Desk- Just a larger version of the Go, but no colors.

6. Western Digital My Passport Elite- Had to have this here. It is "elite" and they use "luxurious" in the product description.

7. Drives that match your system. These are good if you want a drive that is designed to look like your laptop. But sometimes they are nice enough to get even if you don't own that particular laptop
Matching drive for Dell Adamo
Matching drive for Thinkpads

So there you have it. My picks for the neatest looking external drives. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to see them. Once you get one of these, you're only part of the way there to backing up your data. Check back later for some tips/hints for backing up your data.