External Hard Drive (?)

[oldfella]

I'm an oldie, and green at this. I am a proud owner of an iMac, with Lion OS X. I am told I should "back-up" my stuff, just in case. I have a 32GB flash drive, but I'm told that's not good enough; that I should have an 1T external hard drive, not empty - out-of-the-box ready(?). I need suggestions/recommendations as to what/which I should buy. How about helping this oldfella? Thanks in advance.

Pete (The Oldfella)

 

[harryb2448]

From one old fell to another give the external drive serious consideration.On my iMac with no photos or music, the OS uses up about 35GB of the hard drive. Flash drives would, one imagines, need 15% free space to work efficiently.

 

[oldfella]

Thanks Harry.

Does anyone else care to jump in here... how about this one: LaCie 2B d2 Quadra HDD - it has solid 5-star reviews. Please, help this old dummy. Thanks.

 

[Deckyon]

I hate to assume, but I am going to have to. I assume that "they" have been referring to Time Machine, which is the native backup software on all current Macs. If so, then yes, you will want an external hard drive that is twice the size of the drive in your Mac. This is a general rule, but one to paid attention to.

On my MBP, I have a 1 TB drive hooked up to my Airport Extreme that is used only to back the computer up with Time Machine.
On my MacMini, I have a 1 TB drive hooked up directly to the machine to use with Time Machine.

The first time you connect the drive to Time Machine, it will guide you through getting it set up properly. Then, it will run a complete backup of the system to the TM drive. After that is done, TM will only backup changes to the drive; like if you install, remove, add, delete any files of applications, including photos. What is nice about this is that you can literally go back in time for previous version of individual files or full restore after installing an errant application.

It is because of the incremental backups that you want a larger drive. At a certain point, no matter how large the drive, it will have to overwrite previous incremental backups in order to keep going. This is normal. The one on my MBP took a year before it got to that point, but it is working flawlessly and maintained the very first full backup, just removing the oldest incremental. My MacMini hasnt been online that long yet, and because most of its data is on another external, it will be a while before it will start overwriting.

TM has saved my **** a couple times when I thought I lost a Final Cut Pro project. Kept us from having to reshoot.

Lots of info, yes. But it works.

Both my computers have 500GB drives, which is why I go the 1TB drives.

 

[pmdureska]

I hate to assume, but I am going to have to. I assume that "they" have been referring to Time Machine, which is the native backup software on all current Macs. If so, then yes, you will want an external hard drive that is twice the size of the drive in your Mac. This is a general rule, but one to paid attention to.

On my MBP, I have a 1 TB drive hooked up to my Airport Extreme that is used only to back the computer up with Time Machine.
On my MacMini, I have a 1 TB drive hooked up directly to the machine to use with Time Machine.

The first time you connect the drive to Time Machine, it will guide you through getting it set up properly. Then, it will run a complete backup of the system to the TM drive. After that is done, TM will only backup changes to the drive; like if you install, remove, add, delete any files of applications, including photos. What is nice about this is that you can literally go back in time for previous version of individual files or full restore after installing an errant application.

It is because of the incremental backups that you want a larger drive. At a certain point, no matter how large the drive, it will have to overwrite previous incremental backups in order to keep going. This is normal. The one on my MBP took a year before it got to that point, but it is working flawlessly and maintained the very first full backup, just removing the oldest incremental. My MacMini hasnt been online that long yet, and because most of its data is on another external, it will be a while before it will start overwriting.

TM has saved my **** a couple times when I thought I lost a Final Cut Pro project. Kept us from having to reshoot.

Lots of info, yes. But it works.

Both my computers have 500GB drives, which is why I go the 1TB drives.

i have used LaCie external drives (four of them in fact) to back up both my windows computer and my iMac. they have worked flawlessly over the past 4 years. only problem i had was the very first one i bought i had to return it .

 

[oldfella]

Thanks for your useful input, fellers. Unless I am otherwise dissuaded, I think I will go with the LaCie 2TB HDD. I assume that particular us unit is ready to hook up right out of the box. Again, thank you, much appreciated.

Pete

 

[oldfella]

One more question, please: I am planning to buy the "LaCie" 1TB external drive #302001. Is this item ready to go out of the box, or do I have to do anything to make it work, like "partition" it (?). Thanks in advance.

Pete (The Oldfella)

 

[zannyy]

mac passport external hardrive

i bought a buffalo media player and i would like to down load videos from my mac passport external hardrive. It does not seem to be compatible, why not?

 

[Lightcraftsman]

Welcome oldfart, er, oldfella.

Before you spend the money on the LaCie drive check out OWC 2.0TB Mercury Elite Pro. The OWC drives come with excellent service/support and backup software (Carbon Copy Cloner).

I have had issues with LaCie's support in the past when my LaCie external drive failed two weeks out of warranty and LaCie said essentially, tough luck. OWC's service has always been exemplary, and their prices are quite competitive. I have seven of their external drives connected to my computer.