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

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They've worked for me

I've been buying from OWC for many years. Their products and service have always been top notch.
 
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I bought the OWC 750GB Quad (800/400/USB/eSATA) version of the drive in your link about 3 weeks ago as a backup. No problems at all. They send some extra bits of software on the drive - be aware of that if you partition it (I have a partition for TimeMachine, another for CCC and another for SuperDuper).

I also purchased my RAM modules from OWC - they were excellent in helping me figure out an issue (used the chat support feature on their web site.
 
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500GB external drive for $187.99? Dude, you are seriously overpaying if you go with OWC. You can get this drive, which includes Firewire, for only $133.99. My brother has that drive and it works great.

You can get a 750GB drive with Firewire for a little less than a hundred dollars more. If you stick with just USB, your cost drops significantly.
 

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I bought that case in the quad interface and popped in my own Seagate 750GB drive. It has been performing flawlessly thus far.

The only draw back for me with the OWC cases - they use IDE drives instead of SATA drives in all the cases that do not have an eSATA port. It is not an issue now, but could be one down the road if you decide to put that drive into a newer computer.

The draw back with Lacie - 1) only a 1 year warranty, 2) they do not tell you what drive is inside their case, 3) they do not give you the balance of the manufacturers warranty on the drive in the case, 4) while there are quite a few Mac users that recommend them - if you start reading reviews on Lacie - they have the lowest percentage of positive (4 & 5) ratings of any hard drive reseller (except maybe Iomega)

Have heard pretty good things about the Fantom drives that Kash has pointed you to and would not be averse to one of those. If the warranty term is of issue to you, increasing the warranty to 2 yrs thru newegg will increase it's price to $174 vs the OWC drive which will still have another year on the drive plus the software they include if it is of interest to you.
 
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I've heard and read somewhere that the OWC Mercury Elite external hard drives are manufactured by Seagate. :)
 
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which external storage is best?

Hi, I want to buy an external storage. Think that NAS is going to be too slow and don't think it will work through BThomeHub, so thought about an iomega 1TB drive with firewire etc. or Buffallo, or Seagate - any ides of which is best and issues to look out for?

Thanks
 
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Looking for a good Time Machine Hard Drive

I am looking for a good External Hard Drive to use with my MBP running Time Machine. I have looked at the MyBook Studio Edition since it is quad interface. I know the Mac doesn't support eSATA but I think it will before long. I most likely will use the Firewire 400 or Firewire 800 port on my MBP and am looking for something that holds 750GB since my MBP has a 250GB HD.
I have looked at the various Western Digital My Book's such as the Pro Edition with the 3 interfaces but also am wondering if something from Seagate, Maxtor, Lacie, or OWC would be better.
 
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I have the MyBook Pro that is triple interface and it does quite well. I was thinking of getting one of those studio editions just because they are cool, not because I need the space. The MyBook you are looking at should do you very well
 
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external notebook hard drive for itunes and iphoto

Greetings,

I've posted questions previously for advice on replacing my ibook hard drive. I will not do the replacement myself b/c it's too complicated and time consuming. Instead, I've been looking for price quotes getting anywhere from 30 bucks (non-certified mac technician) to 130 bucks. Obviously I would prefer to pay less and right now i figured it would cost me at least $190 incl. taxes to get a 160 gig hard drive and the labour charges for installation. If something goes wrong with the drive I am assuming I'm also paying for it to be removed.

Now I can purchase a 160 gig WD passport for 100 bucks but what I'm wondering is if it's gonna be a pain in the butt convenience and performance wise having my iphoto and itunes library utilized off a usb 2.0 drive. I need the hard disk space b/c my drive is completely filled and would like to know if anybody is currently using the external route I have mentioned.

thanks
 
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I do what you are asking about. My iTunes and iPhoto libraries are on an external and I access them from there. I am using a Seagate FreeAgent external and really like it because it can stay plugged in and sleeps when my Macbook sleeps, then wakes when the MB wakes. So, it is always available -no mounting/unmounting, turning off, turning on.

Here are the instructions to move your libraries:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93603

Good luck!
 
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Mac does support eSATA

FYI, the Mac does support eSATA. You just need an eSATA Express Card, such as the one from Sonnett - works great with MBP although a little bulky. FW800 is probably the most convenient way to go though for just a backup drive.

I've seen one report on Pricegrabber.com regarding the MyBook Studio Drive working properly with Mac OS X Leopard. Apparently it doesn't spin up/down properly. Only found one report of this so far.

Ref: http://reviews.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/m/50639599/
 
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I currently have a G-Drive and LaCie's. Both are great. I would avoid the MyBooks, there have been lots of reports of issues between them and OS X.
 
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I have two relatively new drives - a WD My Book Premium and a Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus. I wouldn't recommend the WD drive because (1) WD has a poor reputation, (2) the FW connection in the drive does seem to be a bit quirky (i.e., it doesn't always work well with other peripherals) and (3) it makes an annoying throbbing sound.

I've only had the Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus for a few weeks, but, so far, I like it. It's extremely quiet, works well with Time Machine, and never heats up. The only thing I don't like is that you have to unplug it from the power source every time you turn off the computer. If you can live with that inconvenience, it seems to be a good, low-priced drive. Maxtor/Seagate has a good reputation and their technical support (via email) was helpful. Here's the info on the 750 GB model:

http://www.maxtorsolutions.com/en/catalog/OT4_Plus/


Claire
 
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Need External HD input before buying

We just bought a macbook 2.2 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo and are upgrading memory to 4GB, today we're buying a imac 24" and 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo, 320 GB hard drive.....

I do a lot of photography so we know we want a 1TB external HD but I have read, and read and not sure which brand to buy....

Input please,

Thank you!!!
 
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You might want to look into a WD Mybook Studio. Just bought one recently, even wrote a thread about it. I'm quite pleased with it so far.
Before that, I had a Lacie d2 320GB drive. That worked really well while video editing, so I'm sure that drive would suit you with no problem.
 
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If it's only for Time Machine backup, you don't really need to spend extra on firewire connectivity. After the initial backup, Time Machine only does incremental backups of changes you make, so USB will plenty to handle that. Everyone gets so worked up over firewire and having huge speed for their backups, but unless you're regularly transferring huge amounts of data to and from your external drive, it's like buying a Mac Pro just to surf the web and send/receive email; complete overkill for what you need.
 
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From what I've heard go with several medium sized HDs rather than one huge one (1TB for example). My brother does a lot of photo work and he has 3 LaCies of different sizes from 100 to 400 GB. That way if a drive fails you don't loose all your data.

If you still want to go with a bigger drive, read as many reviews and do a lot of research. I recently bought a 500GB OWC Firewire drive for 200 bucks with 2 day shipping. So far I am very very satisfied.

Everyone usually suggests buying from newegg.
 
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Well I have 3 of these MyBooks and plenty of other WD drives and none have ever had problems. I have used it on 4 OS X Macs and they all have worked. I am also using mine as a "hub" for other peripherals and that works fine for me every time. Maybe you guys just have bad luck.
 
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Glad to hear of good experiences with the WD My Book. I've owned mine for only a few months and it seems to work fine except for the annoying hum. All the negative reports on the drive had me worried. Thanks for the positive feedback.

Claire
 
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LaCie external hard drives for Mac minis

According to my rep at Insight.com, LaCie discontinued the line of external hard drives that are built so they stack neatly with the Mac minis (matching both in size and appearance) "because Apple is discontinuing the current Mac mini line this month".

Hmmm... So I'm guessing either no more Mac minis or a redesign.

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Nothing too new or shocking, the rumor mill's been pretty clear about this (the Mac Nano), but I thought maybe someone would find it interesting to hear it from a VAR and distributor.
 
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