I'm not sure if I should just get a bigger flash drive--I've seen up 64 GB--or if I should go ahead and get an external hard drive with hundreds of gigs that will take longer to fill up and that I can also use for backing-up my computer in addition to transporting files to and from school. The external is tempting me since I could do more with it in the long-run, but it would be less portable and it would also be slower, yes? I really need a plug & play type device.
Important Features that I Want/Need:
1. Portability
2. Fast Read/Write
3. USB-Powered
4. Ability to simply drag & drop files to save them to the drive
5. Ability to efficiently run portable applications from the drive--Most importantly a desktop email client and a browser other than internet explorer, which is the only web browser installed on my college's library computers >.>
Encryption/password protection would be awesome too, but I could live without.
A flash drive seems like it would be better for what I'm mostly wanting to do, but I want to know if a full external drive could work as well. The dual functionality it could have is attractive, but only if it works equally well for both purposes. I'm not sure how different the performance would be for running portable apps from a flash drive vs an external hard drive.
Sooo, yeah, hardware isn't my forté

Thanks, guys
