Best External hard drive

Just about any hard drive will be compatible, that's really not an issue. You only have USB 2 ports though, but even a USB 3 drive will be backwards compatible.

Look at OtherWorld Computing's drives - very good products from an excellent company - http://www.macsales.com/

I would personally suggest NOT combining a backup drive with a working volume. If your working volume gets corrupted, you risk loosing your backup as well. A backup drive really should be a dedicated drive for nothing but backups.

OWC is the goto shop for many of us - their enclosures are very good and support is also good. I like 'rolling my own' because that gives me control over the enclosure and drive mechanism. I also have several iOmega portable drives and I'm pretty happy with them. Like Michael, I strong recommend against using a backup drive for anything but backups.

That's Ripley - from a purely biased Dad, she was the best dog in the world. <grin>. I do know several people in the UK and Canada who have bought from OWC so it might be worth emailing and asking about delivery rates and customs.

In Switzerland OWC has an internet shop that sells their stuff (also) at about the same price (ex Customs and Vat), so why not asking OWC who sells their products in the UK.

And in Belgium and Holland too.