External hard drive help

I want to buy an external hard drive for my iMac, and
I'm lost on which to buy since I don't know much.
I have the newest iMac. I use it for photoshop, iMovie, Final cut, and stuff like that.
Any advice, links, reviews, or information on the best external hard drive will help me a lot.

Thank you in advance.

There's no best. Get something USB 3.0 that is in your budget.

S.SubZero said:

There's no best. Get something USB 3.0 that is in your budget.

Click to expand...

In the spring, I bought 2 Seagate 1 TB USB 3.0 external drives for our new iMac & MBPro to run Time Machine - reformatted both to Mac OS Extended; needed to do a minor firmware update from the Seagate web site (may not be needed now after 6 monte?).

Of course, there are numerous other options and I'm sure that others will 'chime in' w/ their choices.

P.S. the Seagate (1 TB) is available from Amazon for $70.

You do not say which model Mac, year, or OS you have. There is currently an issue with WD drives and Mavericks IF you use the WD software. If you do not use the WD software and just partition and format OS extended journaled, you will be fine with a WD ext hard drive.

Which ever one you buy, don't bother installing any software that comes with it. There's no need. If it's not already formatted foe Mac, then just use Disk Utility.

Thanks for the replies I guess I am leaning towards the Seagate, and I know now that I shouldn't install the software. I am going to wait till a little after Thanksgiving if there is any input I'd appreciate it.
I have a 21.5 Inch Late 2012 running on Mountain Lion

+1 for Seagate.

I have a few drives I bought from OWC (Other World Computing (OWC) - Performance Upgrades For Your Mac).

Take a look at this one:

OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini - Bus-Powered Portable USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 / FireWire 800 / eSATA

and this one:

OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 & 2.0 / FireWire 800, and 2.5" SATA Portable External Hard Drive & SSD

Joster

joster.macedo said:

I have a few drives I bought from OWC (Other World Computing (OWC) - Performance Upgrades For Your Mac).

OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 & 2.0 / FireWire 800, and 2.5" SATA Portable External Hard Drive & SSD

Click to expand...

Just ordered the 1 TB version of the drive above - 50% more expensive than the 1 TB Seagate external HDs that I bought in the spring for Time Machine backups, but like the description on the website and the warranty - will arrive next week. Plan to put two partitions on the drive then using CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner), clone my MBPro & iMac and hope that I can boot each machine - talked to their tech staff who was 'pretty' confident (apparently a problem w/ some of the other brands of HHDs?). Dave

What's time machine and why is it important?

JonSalcedo83 said:

What's time machine and why is it important?

Click to expand...

Hi Jon... - Time Machine is Apple's OS X built-in backup program - check HERE for more information - the app's icon (pic below) should be in your Applications folder in Finder and also shown in Lauchpad (or in an Other folder) - assumed that was the reason you wanted an external hard drive. For myself, my 1 TB Seagate drives are dedicated just to that purpose, which is the usual recommendation but not a necessity. Dave

RadDave said:

Hi Jon... - Time Machine is Apple's OS X built-in backup program - check HERE for more information - the app's icon (pic below) should be in your Applications folder in Finder and also shown in Lauchpad (or in an Other folder) - assumed that was the reason you wanted an external hard drive. For myself, my 1 TB Seagate drives are dedicated just to that purpose, which is the usual recommendation but not a necessity. Dave

Click to expand...

ohh okay that Link explains a lot. I was just going to use the external drive to save all my movies, pictures, songs, and stuff to keep my Mac clean, but backing it up sounds like a better alternative.

JonSalcedo83 said:

ohh okay that Link explains a lot. I was just going to use the external drive to save all my movies, pictures, songs, and stuff to keep my Mac clean, but backing it up sounds like a better alternative.

Click to expand...

Hi again - actually, I believe that one should have multiple backups - I've had 3 external 'mechanical' HDs crash on me over the years, so relying on just one backup of your important data is overly optimistic in my experience. For my MBPro (which has my photos & music), I'm not only using the Seagate 1 TB HHD w/ Time Machine (TM), but I also periodically backup my Docs/Pics/Music to a La Cie 120 GB SSD - not cheap but I do trust it more and these are the files that I've invested the most time in making and would miss the most. I'm about to also 'clone' the laptop using CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner).

For our iMac, also TM running on another Seagate HD, plus the Docs/Pics/Music etc. being backed up online using Carbonite; in addition will also clone the computer w/ CCC. Now I'm retired but if these files or others were related to my business, I would keep a backup 'off site', like in a bank vault or in an office in case of a natural disaster. Overly careful - don't know? Good luck! Dave

RadDave said:

Overly careful - don't know?

Click to expand...

I agree, can't ever be too careful with data!

I recently replaced my 6 yr old Seagate 250 GB with a new Seagate 2T.
Works great.