SATA HDs and enclosures

I had a couple quick questions about HDs.

I want to purchase a 1 TB HD for backing up my stuff. There are some really great deals on Seagate and Western Digital SATA drives--

1) will just about any external SATA controller with USB 2.0 work on these drives? (in other words, are there any known incompatibility issues with external SATA HDs?

2)Assuming the answer to Q1 is (positive), anyone have suggestions about which brand i whould go with? the Seagate barracuda is consistently cheaper, but I've always had Western Digitals...is there really a difference in brand or is it a "Ford vs Chevy" kind of debate?


Thanks!

Check the Sticky thread about which HD to buy. That should also answer your questions about SATA compatibility.

To the OP:

You're probably going to need this to use either one of those SATA drives.

Regards.

hughvane said:

Check the Sticky thread about which HD to buy. That should also answer your questions about SATA compatibility.

Click to expand...

I did see the sticky--but it is 29 pages long and there are so many different drive types listed that it is kind of a pain to navigate through.

I just want to know if a standard usb 2.0 drive enclosure for SATA drives will be plug and play on my Macbook Pro...

I was hoping someone might answer this quickly, so i can go and buy one...Sorry if this seems lazy

kingmob66 said:

I did see the sticky--but it is 29 pages long and there are so many different drive types listed that it is kind of a pain to navigate through.
I just want to know if a standard usb 2.0 drive enclosure for SATA drives will be plug and play on my Macbook Pro.

Click to expand...

Hey, I sympathise, sifting is time consuming, but the Sticky has some good advice. chsaq's suggestion is a good one if you don't want to put the 1 Tb drive in an enclosure, but that seems to be your intention. Incidentally, there are cheaper USB adaptors available if you're interested.

One extra factor not asked in your OP is about powering the drive. Do not depend on bus power from the MBP.

Here's a comparative review of 4 different 1 Tb drives Four 1TB hard drives on test | Register Hardware

Next topic - enclosures. If you need to, ask away!