I'm considering purchasing a Samsung 250GB 8MB cache 7200rpm HDD to use as a second internal drive. My main drive occassionally make an unusual noise, and I want to use the new hdd as a backup.

I am considering partitioning it, and using one half for the back up, and the other for storage of photos, video, music etc.

Seems like a good deal from one of the worldly pc stores, but ......

It's on special offer at the moment in the region of €100, an apparent reduction of €50.

Has anybody an opinion as to the quality of this drive?

I have never had a samsung hard drive but samsung are a good brand. I have several dvd-roms that are excellent. The price on your drive is $150 australian in my area. always check several retailers to get the best deal and make sure it is a genuine special price. Some retailers will make things sound like a good deal but it is the normal everyday price. Checking manufacturers website can also be helpful.
John

Yep, go for it. Samsung are a very respected HD manufacturer.

My 160GB Maxtor cost me about the same 7 or so months ago.

Thanks folks for the info.

Have installed it and partitioned it using XP.

I've used Norton Ghost to back up everything to one 'partition', while I've created a complete copy of my original drive to the second 'partition'.

I'm not sure if it's totally necessary. However, as well as having all my data backed up, I figured having all the settings etc saved as an image would be useful should the 'worst' occur.

In theory, I can schedule a backup which I think then simply updates the files without starting from scratch each time.

I guess I'll know in the next few days or so!

Cheers

HJ