Wanting a 1TB portable hard drive for my upcoming MBP

I'm buying a MBP next month and I'm wanting a 1TB portable hard drive that is small and durable. Suggestions?

I use a Lacie hard drive and have 0 complaints whatsoever about it. I had a WD 500 gb drive, went to the office one day, hooked it up to my MBP, and the drive had somehow overheated and cooked itself. Called WD and blah blah blah, and data recovery was not an option considering how expensive it can get. The link to the drive I use is ... LaCie - LaCie Rugged XL

Thanks for the link, but I think I want something simpler and not as bulky. I'm thinking like the size of the iOmega drives.

USB powered HD would be ideal although pricy. I've been using 2 WD externals for several years now. My younger brother also has one. All 3 run constantly with no issues to report. Although I would not suggest that they are all that mobile. Too many cords.

HonestIllusion said:

Thanks for the link, but I think I want something simpler and not as bulky. I'm thinking like the size of the iOmega drives.

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OWC has what you're looking for. Take a look at their "On the Go" line of small portable hard drives. Highly rated by MacWorld magazine.

Also, OWC are Mac specialists with excellent customer service.

Regards.

Hey that's not bad. They don't have a 1tb in the 7200rpm, but maybe I could settle with a 500g.

Have a look at the WD Passport Drives.
They are small portable and easy to carry around.
I use them for my "off site" backups.

DavidH

DavidHH said:

Have a look at the WD Passport Drives.
They are small portable and easy to carry around.
I use them for my "off site" backups.

DavidH

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Interesting. I've heard and read a lot of bad reports about that particular drive, so nice to hear different.
However there aren't many companies making bus powered TB drives yet, hence the cost.
There is certainly much more choice at 500GB, and you could get 2 for the price of a 1TB easily. Seagate's 1TB is £190!

Good point. I could get a 500gb for backups and another 500gb for normal files I carry around with me. I was at Best Buy (I hate that place) today and saw the passport drives. I considered one because they are small and a good price... but I couldn't help the impression that they were cheaply made and would die on me.

I have this 80g ancient portable hard drive. The thing is massive and requires a huge 3 prong cable to power it. I have had it forever and it has been very reliable. I just can't stand how big and heavy it is, and the small space it has in it. I have a feeling that anything I buy today won't be nearly as reliable.

Should I spend the extra money for a drive that can do firewire 800, or spend considerably less and settle with a USB 2.0 drive? Is there really that big of a difference in transfer speeds?

The FireWire 800 connection will easily out perform USB 2.0. If you don't mind spending the extra $, buy the "On the Go Pro" with USB 2.0, FW 400, and FW 800 connections. The WD Passport drives, at least the older series, have been troublesome. I don't know about the newer line.

Regards.

I have the 1tb passport, so far so good.

Some folk had the idea to gut them for the drive. only to find that they are native USB, no SATA connector and adapter.

chscag said:

The FireWire 800 connection will easily out perform USB 2.0. If you don't mind spending the extra $, buy the "On the Go Pro" with USB 2.0, FW 400, and FW 800 connections. The WD Passport drives, at least the older series, have been troublesome. I don't know about the newer line.

Regards.

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That's what I was thinking... but if I went with the USB, I could get two for around $220. If I get the "triple", then I can probably only buy one at first and I'm not sure that 500g will be enough to get everything off my Desktop PC that I want to keep. I guess I could try transferring the rest to my wife's laptop. Is it difficult to network a PC and a MAC for network file sharing?

both my WD HD's were from my windows computer. when i got a mac, i just plugged them in and i've had zero issues. there are a few things on there that are not compatible, but the important stuff works fine. i don't recall ever formatting either one of them. i just opened them up and plugged them in. i am unsure of what the default settings are. never really cared enough to look.

That's what I was thinking... but if I went with the USB, I could get two for around $220. If I get the "triple", then I can probably only buy one at first and I'm not sure that 500g will be enough to get everything off my Desktop PC that I want to keep. I guess I could try transferring the rest to my wife's laptop. Is it difficult to network a PC and a MAC for network file sharing?

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I understand. Budget is always a consideration. However, keep in mind that you also want reliability in a storage drive. Folks who have been in these forums for awhile can relate to the number of posts they've seen where someone has lost all their valuable music, or photos on an external hard drive that suddenly failed.

The question arises - should you backup your backup? Sounds redundant but it makes sense. What I'm saying is don't put your data at risk.

As for networking a Mac and PC for file sharing, it's not difficult.

Regards.

Also, all drives eventually fails. If it takes 1 year or 40. People should at least take that in to consideration when buying a drive.

I heard rumors that the WD drives had insufficient cooling?, but that was a few years ago and might have changed. Actually I have had two different external drives from WD and one of them failed.

I would still recommend WD though, they generally work quite good.

Well I ordered an on-the-go pro 500g 7200rpm with FW800. That puts a $160 dent in my MBP money, but I have no choice... I have to get the data off my desktop so that I can start selling the parts.

I have a 160gb WD passport (probably bought oh I dunno.. 3 years ago now) And i've never had any problems with it at all. ****, I even stood on it and it still worked.

I just got my On-The-Go 500gb 7200rpm firewire 800 drive in the mail and I have a question.

It says that it is formatted for use with a mac and that if you want to use it on a Windows computer, you have to reformat it. This is confusing because I thought Mac's use FAT32 and that Windows can recognize that. So why do I need to reformat it? I read the instructions on how to do so anyway, but then it says that if I want to be able to transfer files from a Mac to a PC, I need to get some software called Mac Drive. I don't think that I really need to buy software, right?

Those who have used this drive or maybe know the answer, can I just hook this up to my PC and it will work? The reason I got it was to get all of my data off my Desktop PC so that I can sell it and then transfer the data to my MBP that I'm getting next month. Do I need to reformat this drive as FAT or am I fine the way it is? Thanks.