Best External HDD to support iMac

Hi there,

I am sure there have been a ton of these posts so apologise for another one!

I am soon to be getting a new iMac to replace my Mac Pro and trying to decide on the best external HDD to run along side it.

This is what I am after:

- Reliability - the most important thing, so seagate, WD etc
- Speed - I will be putting my RAW photography, design work, videos on the external HDD, so would need Firewire if possible.
- Size - I wont want a massive drive, something I can put in my laptop bag or photography bag would be idea
- Prize - dont really want to pay any more than £100 ish
- Space - looking for around 1.5TB

How does USB 3 work? does a 2010 iMac support USB 3?Whats the speed?

Thanks all

Many, many possibilities...to each his own...my simple suggestion is OWC computing...pick your size and go with the firewire connection. All their drives are preformatted for Mac and ready to go..they have great customer service and reputation...imo..

you wont get any small externals that are 1tb. if youve ever seen a 3.5" drive, they go up to 2tb. they are heavier but you can still carry them around.

i like seagate, other people like WD, or iomega. some people hate them all. its all personl preference. ive had bad experiences with WD, but you know.

This thing will fit in a shirt pocket...if you had to...

1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW... (MS8U5T1GB8) at OWC

You pays your money and takes your chances Joe.

All leading brands are much of a muchness. Look for the longest warranty from a leading manufacturer such as WD, Seagate, Hitachi, Fujitsi etc etc.

What about the LaCie Hard Disk Quadra 2TB?

Three years ago they were the greatest but...


Apple - Support - Discussions - LaCie External Disk Suddenly not on ...

Interesting - but I think there is a post similar for just about every HDD out there no?

Also, having read about Raid 1 - i think I might go with a drive that can offer this. As I will be putting all my photography and work on the external HDD - so would like to have a good way of backing all this data up.

codda said:

This thing will fit in a shirt pocket...if you had to...

1.0TB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro Portable FW... (MS8U5T1GB8) at OWC

Click to expand...

Forgot about this company. Also forgot they were Mac-centric. Cheaper than paying for a Time Capsule even if TC offers other features OWC ext drives don't offer like WiFi.

Can their drives be used without needing their supplied software to run Time Machine? Asking them now...waiting for 24/7 chat.

Also want to find out if they ship to Canada (Toronto).

OWC drives are ready to go right out of the box...set up Time Machine and thats it...They do have some software preloaded and a disc shipped...It isn't necessary to use any of it.

Thanks codda. Found that out when I got one of OWC's techies to chat with. And they do ship to Toronto.

Do you know of any other manufacturers (I'm only aware of OWC and DROBO) selling drives that also don't require u to use their built-in software? OWC seems to be one of the best choices. No fuss, reliable and good performance (or so I've read).

if you wanted to do raid one you would need two drives. so thats two to carry around. no drives "offer it". you have to set up two drives as raid one. this is a brilliant video for setting up RAID 0 & 1.

YouTube - RAID 0 & RAID 1 Setup Guide (NCIX Tech Tips #77)

i dont understand what you mean by inbuilt software. you just format a drive to HFS+ and the mac will see it, like any other hard drive. then you access it normally.

robduckyworth,

You can't simply format a drive with pre-installed software. I tried that with my new 2TB WD Essential for Mac ext drive. The WD SmartWare software stays on the drive. But there is a way to remove it BEFORE formatting the drive. I've found 2 articles detailing it online. Tried one. Ended up putting the drive in a "locked" sleep mode. Might have to return the drive tomorrow.

You don't understand what I meant by "built-in software"? I meant software that was "pre-installed"...heh...so that every time you boot up it creates a "virtual CD" on your desktop (e.g. new WD drives). Seagate also has pre-installed software on their drives though I think theirs is less intrusive. But you are still forced to use it unless you format the drive (after removing their software).

i have never used a drive with any of them stupid things on it. in fact i never buy WD, so thats probably why i have never come across "Smartware." i have used a booting memory stick once, but i managed to get rid of that, cant remember how.

btw, i format them with disk utility, not the pre installed software. every drive, WD included, I completely erase them, kind of like deleting all the trial software that you get with a windows machine. but that wont work with those stupid virtual Disc things.

just buy Seagate internal drives, stick them in a caddy and be done with it.

Don't know why most manufacturers one day decided to put pre-installed software on their drives and the dreaded VCD (e.g. WD). PITA to remove. Or at least I haven't found a fool proof way. The suggested list of steps supposedly from WD themselves ended up leaving a new 2TB Essential for Mac in a "sleep mode". No idea how to fix. So I'm returning it tomorrow.

Then I'm looking at probably a OWC drive that is pre-formatted to work with Macs. Which do not require you to use any of their software to use their ext drive.

Even my old WD 500GB drive didn't have any VCD creating program or pre-installed software on the ext drive. Using it now with my new iMac. Flawless to this day. Why change what works??

I just picked up a Seagate Go Flex 1TB from Best Buy for $80. They also had 2 and 3 TB models on sale as well. The 3TB model does go over your budget by about $10.

Apple4life,

Have you formatted it? Or are you using it as is? Any issues with t he pre-loaded software on the ext drive? I was going to get one too. But ended up buying a HDD Dock and ordering an internal drive. More flexible by far.

BDD888 said:

Apple4life,

Have you formatted it? Or are you using it as is? Any issues with t he pre-loaded software on the ext drive? I was going to get one too. But ended up buying a HDD Dock and ordering an internal drive. More flexible by far.

Click to expand...

Formatted it first thing, didn't take very long. Haven't had any issues yet.

I guess the Seagate software is easy to remove from the ext drive with a simple format. WD are a royal PITA. You need to remove it BEFORE you format your ext drive or it remains. I should be getting my Thermatake Dock and Seagate 2TB Barracuda XT internal drive sometime today. Some one told me about "HDD enclosures" (new to me). So I ended up ordering a "dock" instead. This way I can remove/drop in HDD when I need to. And can choose the quality/size of the HDD. And no more annoying proprietary software.

Update: Got the Thermatake Dock/Seagate Barracuda 2TB XT HDD this afternoon. HDD came unformatted but Disk Utility did see it. Formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I think it only took a few seconds. And now Time Machine is doing it's first full backup of my Hitachi 2TB HDD in my iMac. Only 51GB...