Does anyone have a recommendation for an external hard drive to store media?

[crambles]

I just got a Jellyfin server up and running on my home wifi using my windows laptop and I obtained a bunch of movies to test it out. I'm happy with everything so far except that my computer's hard drive is almost out of space. I'm looking for an external hard drive I can leave plugged in somewhere that I can load up with all our media. Are there any features I should look out for when purchasing a hard drive? Any recommendations?

[TheDreadPirate]

Not really? Nothing specific. USB3? Not some weird no name brand. Preferably the hard drive inside is a 3.5 inch drive and not 2.5.

[Poepaaneenstokje]

The problem is the bottleneck, which would be the USB port you would use and the one the External HDD supports.
So the brand and the drive can be anything. Just make sure to use the fastest USB port you have, and make sure that the External Hard drive also has that exact USB port.
USB3 preferable if both the laptop and the external drive support it, then make sure to use a USB3 cable also if one isn't provided with the drive.

[crambles]

The problem is the bottleneck, which would be the USB port you would use and the one the External HDD supports.
So the brand and the drive can be anything. Just make sure to use the fastest USB port you have, and make sure that the External Hard drive also has that exact USB port.
USB3 preferable if both the laptop and the external drive support it, then make sure to use a USB3 cable also if one isn't provided with the drive.

Got it. So it'd be better to use a hard drive connected via USB? I was hoping to have one just on the network wirelessly since I only have a laptop and not a desktop.

[TheDreadPirate]

If the laptop will be running Jellyfin, might as well attach it to the laptop. What else would you attach it to?

[crambles]

I move the laptop around a lot since its my main device so I was imagining a hard drive plugged in somewhere else and connected to the laptop wirelessly. If I end up ditching the streaming services and going all in on Jellyfin I'll get a separate computer to dedicate to this. For now as I'm building up a media collection it shouldn't be too bad to plug the external drive into the laptop when needed though!

[TheDreadPirate]

A lot of routers support connecting USB drives to them and then sharing via SMB. That is an option.

[crambles]

A lot of routers support connecting USB drives to them and then sharing via SMB.  That is an option.

This would be a great solution for me. My router has a USB 3.0 port. Thanks for the idea!