Extenal hard drive

Hi, Forgive my ignorance please, I need some help.
I've been living in 3rd world Belize for 8 years where there are no Mac dealers, repairs, accessories.
I badly need a reliable external hard drive for back up and space for many large photo files.
I've been looking at Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive for Mac (1TB).
This is where I need help, do I need anything else, cables, etc, of any kind?
Once I get it here if i don't have everything I need I'll be right back where I started.
Many thanks for any help.

From the customer reviews I read here it looks like the drive comes with everything that you need. One of the comments there suggests it is best not to install the bundled software that comes with it. Not that I have anything against this drive but if all you need is an external drive for backup any external hard drive should work. You would simply have to reformt the drive to HFS+ which can be done with Disk Utility which is included with your Mac.

Slowdude to Slydude, you've already lost me!
I bought my first Mac here and what little I know was self-taught.
I like this drive because it is solid state, I live on an island where the salt air corrodes all things metal and moving.
Also it is 1 TB, so I can store a lot of pictures without worrying for quite a while.
When you live in the 3rd world, you really have to plan ahead.
So if any of that stuff you said is important, I kindly ask for a layman's translation.
Thanks again!
P.S. I should have explained my need for this.
I have 2 old Mac hard drives now with 20,000 images on them, some mine, some came with used Macs.
I need the capacity to sort out and dump stuff I don't need and put the rest on new Macbook pro, only 500 gig

The drive should work fine for what you want to do. From what I read it should be all set to work with the Mac. I wouldn't bother installing the software that is on it.

If you will be using the drive with any Windows machines let us know before you start copying data. we can tell you what to do about it.

bzguy said:

Slowdude to Slydude, you've already lost me!
I like this drive because it is solid state, I live on an island where the salt air corrodes all things metal and moving.
Also it is 1 TB, so I can store a lot of pictures without worrying for quite a while.
When you live in the 3rd world, you really have to plan ahead.......

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Hi Bzguy - I've recently transitioned over to Apple, a new r-MBP & iMac (both running Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.4) - bought 2 of the Seagate 1TB external hard drives - one was formatted as FAT & the other HFS+ (Apple's file system) - I reformatted the first w/ Disk Utility and did not install any of the Seagate software - each is used on my new computers w/ Time Machine; for more information of disk file formats, please see the second post HERE.

Now, my Seagates are not SSDs but standard HDs - the price is one of the clues - mine were about $80 each; I did buy a smaller (120GB) La Cie SSD for a 'secondary' backup of my personal files on the laptop - that drive cost twice as much as the Seagate product; now hybrid 1TB drives are available which might be an option for you - so depending on what you want to spend, SSDs are still relatively expensive. Good luck in your selection(s) - Dave

Thanks guys.
Dave you've clued me in to a Google marketing deceptive practice.
I specifically typed in SOLID STATE external hard drive for Mac!
Thanks, now I have to reconsider.

Well now I'm really confused, bombarded with TMI I don't understand.
Many external HD's pop up in searches for solid state that aren't solid.
I remember the good old days when Google highlighted your search words in colors and prioritized them in the order that you typed them in.
It's all about the Benjamins now, sad!

bzguy said:

Well now I'm really confused, bombarded with TMI I don't understand.
Many external HD's pop up in searches for solid state that aren't solid.
I remember the good old days when Google highlighted your search words in colors and prioritized them in the order that you typed them in.
It's all about the Benjamins now, sad!

Click to expand...

Hi again Bzguy - well, google 'external SSD drive' - you'll get plenty of hits (and reviews) - if the drive indeed is solid state, then that term or SSD will be prominent in the description, otherwise think standard HD. My other recent observation on buying the LaCie SSD and a number of USB 3.0 thumb drives, is that SSD technology costs about $1 (or more) per GB, e.g. the LaCie 1TB SSD drive is about $1000! Let us know you decision and good luck! Dave

So Dave, you're right, now that I've looked, they are cost-prohibitive.
Can I expect the first one to last a few years?
I am on my third mac here in 7 years, keyboard and track-pad issues.
It's not just macs, everything gets corroded in the salt air and constant trade winds.

bzguy said:

So Dave, you're right, now that I've looked, they are cost-prohibitive.
Can I expect the first one to last a few years?
I am on my third mac here in 7 years, keyboard and track-pad issues.
It's not just macs, everything gets corroded in the salt air and constant trade winds.

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Boy, I can understand your issues w/ the humidity & salt -

I've used external HDs on my home & office computers for a dozen years or so and have had 2 or 3 'die' on me (usually after 3-4 yrs of use), so these mechanical mechanisms are obviously not full proof - that's why I do a 'secondary' backup of my personal stuff (i.e. music, photos, & docs) - like I said a small SSD for the laptop & Carbonite online for our iMac - probably a recommended idea for you if you plan to use standard external HDs - a RAID system would be another option, e.g. RAID 1 consists of two HDs that mirror each other - check HERE for further information, if interested.

You might look at the LaCie 1TB Rugged USB 3.0 HD - just $120 on Amazon and claims to be 'rain resistant', so assume that the drive is sealed quite well? I'm sure there are other options for you to consider.

Now, I'm not sure 'how much' storage you need for the photos (of course, number & format, e.g. RAW, TIFF, JPEG, etc. would make a huge difference) and how much $$ you have to invest, but if this is your 'job' then redundant backup of some kind would seem to be a must for you? Good luck! Dave

Photography is a hobby, 40 years now.
I shoot usually in JPEG, would like to keep perhaps 5-10,000 files, average 6-8 meg.
Is this possible and how much space?
The math never adds up right to me, I had 20,000 images transferred to my last mac, how is this possible with 500 gigs?
99 out of 100 opened, a few didn't or were thumbnails, i was told if I Ihad updated Iphoto they would all open?
I'm in the dark and the only help I get is this forum or the occasional passing mac savvy tourist.
I have had used macs up to now, hence the unwanted files from other people.
Now i have a new macbook pro and don't want to mess it up!

@bzguy

This entire thread was posted in "Community Suggestions and Feedback". What does the subject of your post have to do with that forum?

It's been moved here to the proper forum. Please observe our forum descriptions before you post a question. Thanks.

Bzguy - guess that the thread is in the right forum now - thanks Chscag - I should have noticed that earlier -

Well, the math is easy - see quote below; 20K images @ 8 MB will require just over a 150 GB of storage (not sure that is your limit and glad that you are not keeping the pics as RAW or TIFF). The 1 TB external HD would certainly be plenty to handle that amount along w/ running Time Machine, if desired.

Again, redundant backup would be a recommendation from me if these are important photos to you. Options: 1) Couple of external HDs or a RAID 1 setup; 2) Large external HD (for Time Machine) + much smaller SSD choice (external solid state or even large USB flash drives, which cost less per GB); or 3) External HD + off premises storage in the cloud, e.g. Carbonite, which is $59/yr (i.e. if you have a relatively fast broadband connection?). Probably about as far as I can go - good luck, again - Dave

1 TB = 1,024 GB = 1,048,576 MB

8 MB pics into 1 TB = 130,000+ images

20,000 x 8 = 160,000 MB or about 156 GB

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Thanks a million Dave and Sly, apologize about wrong thread, was looking for suggestions?
I was doing the math wrong, now I have more options than I thought!
All the best, Dennis

bzguy said:

Thanks a million Dave and Sly, apologize about wrong thread, was looking for suggestions?
I was doing the math wrong, now I have more options than I thought!
All the best, Dennis

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OK - Dennis - hope all goes well & let us know - Dave