Which External Hard Drive should I buy/Do you suggest?

NOTE: Nothing to do with MacBook hardware. Moved to correct forum.

How will this external harddrive work with my macbook?

I got a 1st. gen. macbook about a year ago, and it only has a 60 gb harddrive, which isn't really enough for all my videos/pictures/music.

I'm looking into getting a WD Passport External 120GB Hard Drive (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=261&language=en) because it's small and USB-powered.

I read somewhere they they don't work with the powerbook G4 unless you buy some separate thing for like $20. Do these work well with macbooks? How slow are USB-powered external harddrives? And are you able to sync all your files onto there, errr how does that work?

I want to use it to store music/photos that won't fit on my macbook, as well as to back-up everything.

Would a WD Passport External 120GB Hard Drive work well with my macbook?

What else do you want to do with this external drive?
Do you want a small one that you're going to carry around with you or will it be one that just sits on your desk for backups and additional storage?

I'm buying a WD My Book Pro edition for my MBP, i found it at www.bhphotovideo.com for $154, which is good compared to Office Depot with $319. I liked this one over the rest because it has the firewire 800 at 800mb/s, which is 2X as fast as USB.

external sortage?

hi

which external desktop hard drive you recommend for mac(leopard) please for mbp?
after that problems that apear with mb and seagate i dont know which will be realible

External HD

I have an IMAC and I was thinking of adding an external HD fro my websitess and graphics, I was looking at this one G-Tech G-DRIVE 500GB does anyone have any input?

And also once i plug in the Firewire will my mac put a HD icon on my desktop?

Thanks

I have two Firewire 250 GB G-Drives. I absolutely love them. They are the fastest external drives I have ever used, and since they are fanless enclosures, also the quietest. Excellent drives, strongly recommended.

Yes, once you plug them in they show up, AND with a very nice customized volume icon. A little eye candy to make your day!

There's not such thing as which hard drive is more reliable (well, except that Maxtor is not ). You could very well have a seagate hard drive for years on end, while a new one will go bust in 2 weeks. It also doesn't matter how much data grinding you do on a hard drive. I've had problems with Seagate drives, but none with WD. But then again, some of my friends have had problems with WD and none with Seagate. It's only a matter of which one fits your budget and what interface you want.

If you are getting a desktop hard drive, then definitely go in for a Firewire one, cause it's much faster than USB.
Also get the largest one you can afford cause space is never enough.

There's no compatibility problems with any of the drives and macs so it's all good there.

Thanks, I was hoping it wasent going to have a fan, i always heard the fans annoying... and I look forward to the eye candy LOL

mknabster said:

I'm buying a WD My Book Pro edition for my MBP, i found it at www.bhphotovideo.com for $154, which is good compared to Office Depot with $319. I liked this one over the rest because it has the firewire 800 at 800mb/s, which is 2X as fast as USB.

Click to expand...

just make sure your computer is compatible with firewire 800! i know my macbook will only work with firewire 400...

bobtomay said:

What else do you want to do with this external drive?
Do you want a small one that you're going to carry around with you or will it be one that just sits on your desk for backups and additional storage?

Click to expand...

Well I can't decide if I need it to be portable or not. Right now, I wouldn't really need it to be. I'll just be using it to back-up my harddrive and store music/movies that won't fit on my tiny 60 gb hard drive. But, I'm running low on plug-ins in my room, and running out of space on my desk! I would spend extra money on a portable one IF it works just as well. How slow would the USB be? And if I'm having battery problems with my macbook right now would it be a bad idea to get a portable one that will be sucking power from my macbook all day?

OK I may have just found a good one: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=371&language=en

what do you think?

deathtolife04 said:

OK I may have just found a good one: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=371&language=en

what do you think?

Click to expand...

Yep, would say that is a good drive, and a quad interface so you're ready for any future expansion. I am a fan of WD drives, although I usually buy their enterprise edition drives. You'll know them by their 5 yr warranty. That's the only thing I don't really like about the WD MyBook editions is the 1 yr warranty. A lot of folks are using them with their Mac's.

Don't know where you're located, but if you're in the US (and I think they may ship to Canada also), is this one from OWC right at your price point. 400GB, with USB and FW400 which is all you've got with your MacBook. Has a 2 yr warranty on the case and 5 yrs on the hard drive.

I am using one of those cases with the quad interface. I bought the case and then put a Seagate 750GB drive in it. Their chipset in the case is up to date and is a fanless design. Here is a link to my post running some timed tests with it. Once in that post, you can click the link at the top right hand corner for the entire thread for an overview of multiple external drives and how I arrived with this one.

bobtomay said:

Yep, would say that is a good drive, and a quad interface so you're ready for any future expansion. I am a fan of WD drives, although I usually buy their enterprise edition drives. You'll know them by their 5 yr warranty. That's the only thing I don't really like about the WD MyBook editions is the 1 yr warranty. A lot of folks are using them with their Mac's.

Don't know where you're located, but if you're in the US (and I think they may ship to Canada also), is this one from OWC right at your price point. 400GB, with USB and FW400 which is all you've got with your MacBook. Has a 2 yr warranty on the case and 5 yrs on the hard drive.

I am using one of those cases with the quad interface. I bought the case and then put a Seagate 750GB drive in it. Their chipset in the case is up to date and is a fanless design. Here is a link to my post running some timed tests with it. Once in that post, you can click the link at the top right hand corner for the entire thread for an overview of multiple external drives and how I arrived with this one.

Click to expand...

ok thanks ;-)

Off subject a bit

I am now currently a windows user and am probably going to be switching over to a mac book, My GF has a power book with OS X on there and i love the interface. I have a question about hooking up an external drive to my pc and then plugging it into a Mac Book, will there be any issues? Just mostly to move over itunes and pics

external sata for mac pro

Does anyone know if there is an external sata device for the mac pro?
I added one to my windows machine and I think it is a can't live without item on a desktop. Or can I just take the one off my windows machine and install it in the mac pro?
Hopefully the new macs will have them on there.

BobTomay,
I have a regular 2006 IMAC . will the EX HD you recommended above work good on my machine. Im not to familiar with Firewire so I want to make sure my machine will support it. Im pretty sure it will but want to make sure.

My other question is : Can I save all of my pics and Music on the Ex. HD and then erase it from my computers hard drive? But still be able to pull it up for attachments and what not from the ex HD.

It'll work. My kid is using one on his 20" '06 iMac. Both the 17" and 20" have 2 FW400 ports. The 24" adds a FW800 port.

I use the external with 2 partitions.

On one partition I keep my iTunes library with all my music and movies on it. You have to realize, that using this method of external storage for your music, pics, etc.; and erasing them from your internal drive - you're still in a position of having no back up. If the drive fails, you lose everything on it.

The 2nd partition, I keep a full bootable back up of the internal drive. If it fails, all you do is reboot from the external and keep going until you have the time to replace it.

Thanks

I have to play devil's advocate on the firewire suggestion.

Unless you plan to move mass amounts of data often, not just initially and smaller stuff you accumulate here and there, I fail to see why firewire is so necessary. I have 2 USB MY Book drives and accessing info and files on it is instantaneous. I even watch full DVD rips on my MBP that I keep stored on my 500GB drive, and don't have any problems. If I had sprung for the extra speed of firewire, it would be totally wasted capability.

Unless someone can explain what the real advantages to the OP'er would be to have firewire in his situation, I say save some money and get a USB connected drive. You can get a 500 GB My Book for Newegg for $124 here.

But if you're bent on getting firewire. There's a cheaper option with more capacity here.

Oh, and if you decide to head back to a portable option, you can get a 160GB version of the same drive you were looking for, for $5 less here.

No disrespect, but despite what one person says and WD drives, many, many people use them and are quite happy with their performance, myself included.