1TB sounds good - the 500GB ones are only about £70 which is nice

There very easy to use just plug and play, there worth considering babe

they're mostly plug-n-play these days - unfortunately you can never have enough USB ports

what i's really like it a network drive tbh

Have you tried firewire USB on your Mac Ian ? or a PCI USB2 Card ?

huh?

there is either firewire or USB - two different cable/connections

i only have two usb ports on the mini - and ibook come to think of it - one firewire port. usb is faster than firewire, but with a usb external it takes up connection real estate - the hub was a solution but not ideal.

at least with a network drive the problem is solved.

i only have two usb ports on the mini - and ibook

Oh i see, NAS HDDs cost more but may be worth it in your case, oh i don't use fire-wire 400 or 800 at all USB2 is better

yep, depends how much they are really and also as to whether i can recover this one, network attached would be my backup drive

PMd you something

well then, i followed up that previous call to john lewis about the possibility of data recovery and apparently whoever i was talking to must have been talking boll*cks because they don't do data recovery and there was no new IT team coming in

so i'm p*ssed

i was thinking if it is the casing that has been damaged by the surge of the external power source on the hub, then if i get it put into a new enclosure it might solve the problem - any thoughts on that?

I would try removing the HDD from the enclosure link it to a computer and see if its the drive or the enclosure that is damaged Ian.