External HD Recommendation for MBP???

Hey everyone,

I've got a MBP with a 120gb internal hard drive and I am running low on disk space. I was wondering if anyone could recommend the best quality external hard drive for me? I'm looking for a reasonable price (university student, low funds ) anywhere between 120gb-160gb is fine, but more space is welcome. If it's got lower space but is quicker and more reliable then I'll go with that one. I'd really prefer it to be firewire compatible because I'm using the 2 usb ports right now, but if it is usb 2.0 that's fine, I'll just have to manage. Any tips guys/girls? Thanks a lot in advance. Oh and i live in Canada so it needs to be available here somewhere..

-AJ

Stretch said:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/search.php

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Thank you, but I was well aware of the forums Search function before I posted my question. I was unable to find what I was looking for, which is why I started a new thread. I guess my requirements are a little to specific for the search, I'm just looking for some input if that's possible?

best idea for you and many other "budget challenged" folk is to build your own.

get a drive from newegg, internal, and buy an enclosure. i love my macally 250ac.

simply wonderful..all in all, depending on the drive size your talking under 100.

kgeier82 said:

best idea for you and many other "budget challenged" folk is to build your own.

get a drive from newegg, internal, and buy an enclosure. i love my macally 250ac.

simply wonderful..all in all, depending on the drive size your talking under 100.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your input, but I'm not sure I really trust myself building my own out of an internal one. I know I said reasonably priced, but I'm willing to spend $100-$130 bucks on an external HD, I've seen quite a few 120gb-160gb around for that price, i just want to know what one is the most reliable:S and would hopefully be firewire enabled.

I would recommend anything from the Western Digital MyBook range. I live in Australia, so I can't really tell you much about prices, but I paid $200 AUD for a 320 gig model. Ive found Western Digital drives to be very reliable. Get a 3.5inch drive if you don't need it to be portable because it needs its own powersouce, and 3.5's tend to be more reliable than the 2.5 inch drives.

It seems like the most cost-effective drive size is 500GB ($120). A 1TB drive ($289) cost more than double 2 of the 500GB drives ($240) and a 250GB drive ($99) cost more than half the cost of a 500GB drive. Go to www.newegg.com and do a search for "My Book Essential" and you'll se what I'm talking about.

I know it's a lot more space than you're looking for, but I'm sure it'll come in handy someday.
I picked up my 500GB My Book Essential, USB connection, drive from Newegg for $120: a good deal IMHO. I first bought a 250GB drive thinking I'd never use that much space. A few months later I ordered the 500GB one and I may be ordering a second 500GB pretty soon!

Thanks for the input guys. So the Western Digital products are quality? Because there is a 160gb Western Digital passport at Costco for like $100-110 bucks. I kept reading that laptops won't power it though. Will my Macbook pro power it or will I need the extra power thing? What is the extra power thing? Link perhaps?

I also read that if you get a thicker USB cord then it is able to power the HD without using the power source. Is that true? Thanks again.

I'd recommend the EZQuest Monsoon:

http://ezq.com/product_info.php?products_id=74

EZQuest makes great drives. I have a portable one that is over 5 years old and still running and I had another one that was used constantly as my boot drive for over four years before it finally had a quiet death. Another good thing about EZQuest's Monsoon drive is that it comes preformatted for Mac OS X.

I have a WD My Book and it's working fine but I wouldn't recommend WD. They have a terrible reputation. I bought the drive because I needed one in a hurry and I don't live in a country where I have many options for FW drives. One thing I do like about the WD, however, is that it runs cool.

I also have a Maxtor and I'd stay away from them. The one I have, One Touch II, gets very hot very quickly.

Claire

That is an outrageously over priced drive. EZquest does not make drives. They only make the case the drive is put in. They are then buying drives from whichever actual drive manufacturer will give them the best deal. Their 500 GB drive with only an 8 MB buffer for $230 and a 1 yr warranty. You have to be kidding right? That right there tells you how over priced everything else in their line is. Even OWC with only FW 400 and USB has a 16MB, 500 GB drive for $190. And a 2 year warranty on the enclosure, and tells you who's drive they're giving you and passes the drive manufacturers warranty on to you, in this case, 3 years.

My main advice is do not buy an external drive from anyone that does not disclose who the manufacturer of the drive inside the case is. There is only one reason for this, because if we all knew, they wouldn't sell 'em.

If you're up for some reading - here is some research I did and posted a while back. Mostly still valid even as to pricing.

A few items for your consideration in looking for a drive:

Will you be wanting to carry it with you and your MBP or will it stay at home?
If carrying around in your pack, you'll want to look at 2.5" drives and enclosures - they are a little more expensive. If it will stay on the desk at home go for a 3.5" drive.

Warranty - particularly with 3.5" drives, OWC, Seagate and WD all offer more than a 1 year warranty that is the standard for pretty much everyone else.

Connection: Definitely recommend at least FW400. You can see some transfer times in the last post of the link above. However, if you will only use the drive as a backup and not much else, the USB will suffice and probably save you a little bit of cash also.

Drive specs: At 120 - 160GB drives, they should have at minimum 8MB cache. Anything above that size should have 16MB cache. If you go USB only, a 5400 rpm drive is good enough. Have not done extensive testing myself, but if you go with a FW and a 3.5" drive would personally recommend a 7200rpm drive.

(And all this after telling schweb I was getting over my "need for speed" and specs.)

this is great info bobtomay

thanks