Thinkplus Portable USB Drive - opinions wanted

[gator]

I am looking to buy a portable USB drive. I was looking at the Thinkplus Portable USB HDD - it doesnt seem to be cheap at ~$250 for a 5400 rpm 80 GB drive. Do any of you guys own this?
IBM Thinkplus drive: 80 GB, 5400 RPM
Part #: 40Y8726
Link: Click here

I found some info on this thread - http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ht=40y8726 ... I am tired of getting cheap drives from deals2buy.com and seeing them not working after a while. I am specifically seeking opinions on
1. Is the Thinkplus drive really good and worth the price?
2. Am I better off investing in a ultrabay adapter + a SATA driv and getting an USB enclosure that I can use whenver I need to transfer data?

[kano]

1. Is the Thinkplus drive really good and worth the price?

In my opinion no, you can find better deal on LaCie web:
http://www.lacie.com/products/range.htm?id=10036
From years I'm using few of them without a single problem.
Regards,
KaNo

[agarza]

I bought one of those cheap USB enclosures made in China, like this:
USB 2.0/2.5" HDD Enclosure Aluminum Case (VAIO-logo-S)

And inside of it I've operating a E7K100 60GB HDD which serves me pretty well. I only did an investment of about 80USD.

[kulivontot]

Buy.com offers the Iomega Silver Series 320GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for just $89.95 with free shipping after a $30 rebate and $10 Google Checkout discount.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?s ... adid=17662

[ambientscape]

I bought one of those cheap USB enclosures made in China, like this:
USB 2.0/2.5" HDD Enclosure Aluminum Case (VAIO-logo-S)

And inside of it I've operating a E7K100 60GB HDD which serves me pretty well. I only did an investment of about 80USD.

Another supporter for this kind of enclosure. You can customized your HDD capacity......and still looks good.

[tomh009]

I bought one of those cheap USB enclosures made in China, like this:
USB 2.0/2.5" HDD Enclosure Aluminum Case (VAIO-logo-S)

And inside of it I've operating a E7K100 60GB HDD which serves me pretty well. I only did an investment of about 80USD.

Does your E7K100 run off the USB power? My 7K60 refused to spin up unless using an external power supply.