04-25-2009, 11:19 PM

I just bought a MB Pro 15", and a 1 TB LaCie HD. A friend of mine saves all his docs (text, video, photos, etc.) to his external drive and only keeps apps and his itunes library on his HD. Is this something I should be doing to preserve the life of my hard drive?


Thanks.

04-26-2009, 12:02 AM

That's a strange way to things. I have 3 externals;
1 time machine
1 videos
1 software disc backups and will add photos soon.

I use my mac hdd for everything, all HDDs fail just forget it and l back everything up.

04-26-2009, 12:03 AM

Especially large files like movie files. This is what I do but I keep my documents local since I often need them on the road.

04-26-2009, 03:50 AM

Externals can fail too. There really isn't a way to preserve HDDs or to prolong their life. I've had HDD that lasted me 10 years and is still going. I've also had some that have only lasted 3 years.

If you have really important files then you need to be OCD about it and save it in multiple places and on multiple devices. IE, external, HDD, USB thumb drive etc. It's a pain in the butt but I would rather be safe than sorry, especially when you have a 20 page research paper due and it vanishes right before your eyes the night before it's due is not cool.

04-26-2009, 04:32 AM

keep whatever you need on the internal, so you can get it whenever you might need it and backup important data to the external as well

basically what you use on a regular basis, just keep on the internal, everything else just copy to the external along with important data

laptop drives can have a limited life, but that depends on how you use it, if you throw it around a lot then backup everything, but if you are carefull and don't it every corder of a table with your computer, then you're fine

04-26-2009, 05:24 AM

Yep, I must admit to the saving in various places and media. I use DVDs, HDD and sometimes old USB sticks too.

I even keep them in different places too. Odd view of HDD 'safe-guarding' in my opinion. The HDD is doing what it's supposed too, however backing up is the key.

Still, each to their own.

04-26-2009, 05:29 AM

Originally Posted by matteleven

I just bought a MB Pro 15", and a 1 TB LaCie HD. A friend of mine saves all his docs (text, video, photos, etc.) to his external drive and only keeps apps and his itunes library on his HD. Is this something I should be doing to preserve the life of my hard drive?

That's pretty stupid unless he backs up the external drive.

04-26-2009, 05:52 AM

Every week or so when i go to Sister in laws, i use Super Duper to do a bootable backup of MBP to a Firewire 800 drive that i keep there. Off site backup covers for Fire and theft - my son had his laptop and Ext HD stolen, lost all his music etc. And i have a Time Capsule here set to back up once every 24 hours. Had my Logic board replaced after 18 months from new - 2 weeks without MBP and did not loose any data as i booted of FW 800 in the interim.

04-27-2009, 02:12 PM

Thanks for your advice. The consensus seems to be that backing up is essential, but burning to the HD won't affect its functionality.




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