07-14-2011, 11:58 PM

I have a new MacBook Pro and I am inquiring about an external hard drive. I don't need a lot of storage, just enough for photos, email and documents - nothing fancy. I will appreciate any recommendations you may send my way. Thanks in advance, Cyndi

07-15-2011, 01:00 AM

Hi and welcome to the forum. Just get any hard drive from one of the major brands such as Seagate, Western Digital, etc. You want to get enough free space to plan ahead for the future. I don't know how quickly you acquire new data files so you will be the best judge to how large the drive should be but buying larger than you need isn't as bad as not getting a large enough drive. You don't want to be buying a new drive in only a few months.

07-15-2011, 08:35 AM

Originally Posted by EndlessMac

Hi and welcome to the forum. Just get any hard drive from one of the major brands such as Seagate, Western Digital, etc. You want to get enough free space to plan ahead for the future. I don't know how quickly you acquire new data files so you will be the best judge to how large the drive should be but buying larger than you need isn't as bad as not getting a large enough drive. You don't want to be buying a new drive in only a few months.

I agree completely. Right now, 1 TB may seem sufficient, but I'd be willing to bet that in a year's time you'll want something bigger. That's what happened to me when I bought my first iPhone. At the time I purchased it the 8 GB model was PLENTY big. But by the time the second year of the contract rolled around, I had so many songs and apps on it that everything was painfully slow. I learned my lesson and when I got the iPhone 4, even though at the time I only needed the 16 GB model, I got the 32 GB model. It was a smart move, because now I have only like 14 GB free space.

When I have the money here's what I'm going to do: Buy at least a 2 TB external hard drive. Partition it into two parts - on at 700 GB and the other at 1300 GB. Use the 700 GB to maintain a bootable backup of my hard drive (with either time machine or carbon copy cloner). Use the other 1300 GB to simply copy and paste old files (pictures, movies, and documents) for safe keeping so I can delete them from the internal hard drive to free up space.

07-15-2011, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by AUZambo

I agree completely. Right now, 1 TB may seem sufficient, but I'd be willing to bet that in a year's time you'll want something bigger. That's what happened to me when I bought my first iPhone. At the time I purchased it the 8 GB model was PLENTY big. But by the time the second year of the contract rolled around, I had so many songs and apps on it that everything was painfully slow. I learned my lesson and when I got the iPhone 4, even though at the time I only needed the 16 GB model, I got the 32 GB model. It was a smart move, because now I have only like 14 GB free space.

Unlike you I learned that experience the hard way with my iPhone. I only got the 16 GB version and wish I got the larger one since my iPhone is filling up fast. The main difference is the larger iPhone is much more expensive than a 1 TB external hard drive so if I had to do it all over again I probably still couldn't afford the larger iPhone. I'm hoping the next iPhone will increase storage space without increasing its price since storage drives will hopefully be cheaper than last year. 16 GB really isn't that large anymore.

07-15-2011, 02:49 PM

That's true. Invest in a 1TB HD. I got my Western Digital with 2TB storage 2 years ago because I do a lot of graphics, photography, video and music. Now it's nearly almost half the original price.

1TB should last you a long time if you're only going to use it for documents, photos etc.

07-15-2011, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by jaskaeyes

Now it's nearly almost half the original price.

You remind me of one thing to keep in mind. Unless a person needs the largest available hard drive there is no need to buy the largest because next year the price for the same size should go down in price. You always pay more for the most recent technology. I have a feeling 1 TB will be good enough for Cyndi for awhile.

07-15-2011, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by EndlessMac

You remind me of one thing to keep in mind. Unless a person needs the largest available hard drive there is no need to buy the largest because next year the price for the same size should go down in price. You always pay more for the most recent technology. I have a feeling 1 TB will be good enough for Cyndi for awhile.

Definitely mate, the price I paid for 2TB is nearly the price now of 4TB, maybe add £100 more I can't remember exactly how much. Unfortunately for me with hundreds of RAW photos, around 500mb individual files etc, the 2TB HD has now only got less than 40GB of space.

Yes 1TB should be enough for you csimon for documents etc.

07-15-2011, 06:32 PM

Originally Posted by jaskaeyes

Definitely mate, the price I paid for 2TB is nearly the price now of 4TB, maybe add £100 more I can't remember exactly how much. Unfortunately for me with hundreds of RAW photos, around 500mb individual files etc, the 2TB HD has now only got less than 40GB of space.

Yes 1TB should be enough for you csimon for documents etc.

Do you keep all your RAW files? I shoot in RAW+JPEG and only keep the RAW files for my very best shots where I'll want to do more post processing. A lot of my shots are simply snapshots saving memories from a vacation or something like that...no need to keep those RAW files.

07-16-2011, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by AUZambo

Do you keep all your RAW files? I shoot in RAW+JPEG and only keep the RAW files for my very best shots where I'll want to do more post processing. A lot of my shots are simply snapshots saving memories from a vacation or something like that...no need to keep those RAW files.

Yes I do keep some of the RAW files mate.
If I have a folder with 10 good photos I'd like to keep for example, each photos has got 3 RAW files so 30 in all in one folder.
Comes in handy in the future