I’m looking for a cheap external hard drive, about 1TB. My PC is a Dell Dimension E521 (desktop) with 32 bit operating system, running Vista Home Premium). I believe my only connection option for this sort of thing is USB 2.0. I’ve seen a number of drives at Amazon and for about $80, but about half the customer reviews say they fail in a few months to a year. I have nothing vital, but stuff that would be very inconvenient to have to replace. They’re mostly audio and video files that I’d like to be able to play while they’re on the external drive, rather than having to copy them to the PC’s internal hard drive first. Another thing I’ve noticed is some don’t have an on/off switch. Is this something that can be left on all the time (like my DSL modem), or would that make it fail faster? Is there any product you can recommend? Thanks in advance.

Continuous use of anything will shorten its life, even a DSL modem, but with a hard disc, where it has spinning plates, it's a good idea to cut-power to the drive when your not using it because if the read-write head touches a spinning plate, it can ruin your day.

External discs are pretty expensive, you're better off buying an internal hard disc and an external enclosure. Three years ago, I bought a 500GB Seagate SATAII internal hard disc with a Thermaltake external enclosure that supports eSATA, which much faster than USB 2.0, from newegg.com--go here any time you need anything computer related, their prices are usually unbeatable. That ran me about $80. Today, I'm certain you will be able to find 1TB disc for the same price.