Hey! Can any one recommend a good quality and user friendly external hard drive?

Most reliable/highly recommended are those from Other World Computing (OWC):

http://eshop.macsales.com/

I'll second the OWC recommendation and I like mine; as a second choice: LaCie (although I have two and they are fine, their current lineup doesn't have as many choices as previously).

I third the OWC recomendation.

Good luck and thanks for the feedback!