Which External Hard Drive should I buy/Do you suggest?

[WolfsBane]

I use a 500 GB WD My Book. It was on sale at Best Buy and a good deal at the time. Mine is a USB version that turns on and goes to sleep when my iMac does, which is very convenient. Combined with Time Machine, it's pretty much set and forget to back up my files.

 

[drgrafix]

I've been scouring around and one drive I saw looks fairly interesting. Its the iOmega 33720 UltraMax 1 TB Raid 0 setup with two 500GB drives in one housing. Raid 0 is OK, but if one of the drive fails your still SOL. But I have to admit I've had a iOmega 250GB external USB 2.0 on my pc for almost two years and it's been absolutely flawless. There's about a dozen reviews on Amazon and most are fairly positive. Fantom makes some nice drives too. I think the Fantom uses one internal drive. And then there's the OWC Mercury Elite or the kit in which you put your drive.

I don't want to bog the internal drive down with too much in the way of data (music, stills, and video) so that's why I think I'm going to need the 1TB setup. I don't plan on doing a lot of video editing but you know how that goes... and the FW 800/400 interface is more attractive than the USB.

If I went the kit route... I would definitely go with either Seagate or Samsung drives. I've used both and never had problems like I did with Deskstars (click of death) and some others.

 

[Hunter]

External Backup Options

I'm looking for an External drive to backup onto, i did consider Time Capsule (but that is too expensive, cheapest price i've seen is £177.

I need either 500GB or 1TB, but must be compatible with 10.5.2, thx

 

[cwa107]

I'm looking for an External drive to backup onto, i did consider Time Capsule (but that is too expensive, cheapest price i've seen is £177.

I need either 500GB or 1TB, but must be compatible with 10.5.2, thx

Just about any USB or Firewire drive should do the trick. It doesn't specifically need to be labeled "Mac compatible". I would stick to Seagate or Western Digital drives if the budget allows as they have the longest warranties in the industry.

 

[harryb2448]

Firewire is the go as USB2 is much slower. Suggest Seagate as WD seem to be having troubles as external HDD. Look for other posts on WD.

 

[Rambaud]

I have just bought a Seagate 750Gb (32Mb cache) drive - 5 year warranty - to go in my Firewire caddy.

 

[AlysiaJ]

Best External HD for MacBook Pro?

So I'm looking into getting an external HD to backup my Macbook Pro and store all of my pictures, songs, etc. I don't really know anything about external HDs sooo... should I be looking for one that is made for macs (as opposed to PCs)? Are there a few out there that are better for macs? Which are the best value (best quality for lowest price)?
Basically, what should I be looking at? Thanks!

 

[mac57]

A hard drive is a hard drive is a hard drive! While there are hard drives whose styling is created to mesh nicely with the look of a Mac, there are no Mac specific hard drives. A USB2.0 or Firewire hard drive will work with both Macs and PCs.

If your MacBook Pro supports Firewire 800, I would go for a Firewire 800 external hard drive. This is the fastest external drive you will be able to find.

Speaking of styling for Macs, I have two G-Tech G-Drives. This is a case of drive made specifically to fit in perfectly with the styling of a particular Mac. "G-Drive" was meant to sound like "G5" and the styling of the case is identical to the styling of a PowerMac G5 (and by extension, today's Mac Pro, which shares the same case styling as the PowerMac G5). The close style match is a big part of why I bought the drives - they just looked so darn good along side a PowerMac G5! Aside from good looks though, these drives also work very well and so I can recommend them. However, I am sure that pretty much any manufacturer's external drive would work equally well.

I would look for a fanless enclosure as well. This means that the drive will not make any noise except when you are actually accessing it. A noise free drive is a nice feature. Again, the G-Tech G-Drives are fan less, making them completely silent except when being accessed by the Mac.

Finally, look for a drive with as much cache as you can get. 8 MB or more is good. This will improve the subjective feel of the speed of the drive.

Good luck!

 

[AlysiaJ]

Thanks mac57! That helps a ton.

 

[tmorgan1689]

I have a Western Digital 500gb MyBook that works great for me. It is loud at times but for the price I paid I'm ok with it.

 

[DispatchJack]

Shopping for external backup drive

Hello, I am a new member so forgive me if this question pre-exists.

I am a college student looking for an external hard drive to back up my projects. I am a computer animation major, currently doing traditional animation but I will eventually go digital. I will soon start working on my thesis and the task of securing my work is all on me.
To plan for this I am searching for a reliable external hard drive that can co-mingle with Mac and Windows. I primarily work on my MacBook Pro with OS X but the computers at school use Windows. I have read about MacFuse and intend to use that, unless otherwise advised.

My main question: What is an affordable, reliable, and easy-to-use external hard drive with 300-500 GB of space? I have a price range of $300 at the absolute max.

I have looked through Amazon and all I could find were products from Seagate and Western Digital, the reviews of nearly all of them sound like they have very poor products. I did find a random product I have never heard of (LaCie 301103U F.A. Porsche 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive) This seemed to have all around positive reviews and was only $150.

So what do you think?

 

[MBasile]

Western Digital MyBook Home or Essentials versions (I think the only difference is FireWire compatibility). They make a 500GB version (also 750GB, 1TB, and I think 250 or 350GB).

I was going to get one, but I'm going the buy an external HDD enclosure and then pick out a HDD to put in because the enclosure can be stacked with a USB hub/card reader from the same company (still putting in a Western Digital drive though)

Seagate is another good company. Supposedly they have horrible customer service though, but people say thats ok because you most likely will never need to call them

 

[MBasile]

oh, and check out TigerDirect.com for good prices and supposedly good customer service

 

[Kash]

Also check out the search function. There are a million threads similar to yours.

 

[drgrafix]

You can certainly search... but just for the record... I'm liking this Lacie 1TB external that I bought. It fits your budget, has double the space you asked about, and has USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and 800, and if you are doing heavy duty work the FW 800 is usually the way to go. I can't speak to how well it'll work in two different OS's, but perhaps someone else can.

This drive comes set up for the mac, so it's ready to go the minute you connect and apply power. I don't know about posting links to vendors here, so if you want to know where you can get it for under $275.00 then PM me. But you can simply do a search in Google and you should get good answers too.

 

[PSYC0TIC ONE]

Western Digital MyBook Home or Essentials versions (I think the only difference is FireWire compatibility). They make a 500GB version (also 750GB, 1TB, and I think 250 or 350GB).

I was going to get one, but I'm going the buy an external HDD enclosure and then pick out a HDD to put in because the enclosure can be stacked with a USB hub/card reader from the same company (still putting in a Western Digital drive though)

Seagate is another good company. Supposedly they have horrible customer service though, but people say thats ok because you most likely will never need to call them

Hey, searched and came across this post... I just bought a WD My Book 500gb Home Essentials, it only has a USB 2.0 connection... Do you know if I would be able to buy a new External HD Case that DOES have FireWire capabilities and swap the HD that is in my current My Book?

I'm using a MacBook Pro with OS X Leopard

thanks in advance!

 

[gTiBook]

Hello,

I am a new member too. I would second MBasile's recommendation of Western Digital MyBooks. I have four of them and they have all run flawlessly for quite awhile.

 

[fleurya]

If you can go to $300, then I could go for Western Digital My Book Studio 1TB drive. You'll eventually need more space, so you might as well get a 1TB drive, plus this one has pretty much any connection you could use, so it's versatile and very fast. Newegg.com is selling them for $299.

As for the reviews you've been reading, I wouldn't put much stock in them. Seagate and WD are about the biggest hard drive makers out there, and they didn't get that way making poor quality drives. A hard drive is something people won't waste time writing when it works as expected, but the very few times they fail, it usually means a lot of lost data, which people get furious about and then go online to crucify the company.

Any hard drive has a chance of failure because it employs moving parts. If you're that concerned about it, you should get 2 drives for a redundant backup in case one fails.

 

[EORI]

I have two of the Lacie Porsche Design 500GB. Both were originally used with a PC until I switched back to the Mac in January. I reformatted both drives to HFS+ and reinstalled all the data onto the two drives. The Lacie has been reliable thus far, with very little fan noise, and they take up very little space as I can stack them one on top of the other. Seagate is another very reliable brand. I have had mixed experience with the Western Digital.

 

[Rambaud]

You have 2 options - a "dedicated" external one (like a WD MyBook) or a DIY one using an enclosure and a hard drive. Firewire is much faster than USB, so I try to use it as much as possible. And OS X can boot from Firewire drives.

I use both, but prefer the the DIY option - I am using two IcyDocks with 1 x 750Gb + 1 x 400Gb + I x 320Gb drives.