Ladybow,

Evidently I like the hard drive best since that is what I use, but it is largely a matter of cost and your goals. The hard drive is several times as expensive but still you can now buy a 250 gig external hard drive that plugs into a USB port for about $100.00 so it is a lot cheaper than when I bought mine. The jump drive can be picked up for $15.00.

The difference is that the jump drive will probably only hold your data while you can back up your whole main hard drive on the external hard drive. If your computer crashes you have all your programs saved that way--everything. So you get more protection and save a lot of time setting up your computer again. I have never had a hard drive fail, but a lot of people do.

It is like insurance. You have to decide for yourself how much you want and how much you want to spend. I have more money than time (as most people do, they just don't know it) so for me the decision is easy. But if someone doesn't have the extra $100.00 dollars the jump drive will certainly save the data just as well as another hard drive. You will be just as safe with one as the other. And the jump drive is really handy anyway for taking data with you from one place to another. I have and use a couple of them.

Good Success!

James