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

Apple's Time Capsule might be a good product and all.... But, a WD My Book World Edition II 2TB was ~$480 and it's connected via the RJ-45 port on it... The Time Capsule 1TB model is $499 and plays the role of a wireless router...

ok...totally stupid question I know, BUT--i just bought a Maxtor 500GB external hard drive and got it all backed up with my files and such--used superduper and pretty sure i did it right...no scary moments or anything and I printed all the instructions and followed them etc...

my ? is this---how should I go about deleting the files on my Macintosh HD drive within my iMac?? and is that ok to do? my goal was to clean off my internal hard drive and free up memory and increase speed etc but I want to make sure i didn't mistake the purpose of the external hard drive! lol--

TIA!

irwjc said:

ok...totally stupid question I know, BUT--i just bought a Maxtor 500GB external hard drive and got it all backed up with my files and such--used superduper and pretty sure i did it right...no scary moments or anything and I printed all the instructions and followed them etc...

my ? is this---how should I go about deleting the files on my Macintosh HD drive within my iMac?? and is that ok to do? my goal was to clean off my internal hard drive and free up memory and increase speed etc but I want to make sure i didn't mistake the purpose of the external hard drive! lol--

TIA!

Click to expand...

If your goal is to have a backup and also move files off your internal to save space, you should have partitioned the external before you started. As you have it now, if you delete files (say, your iTunes or iPhoto files -- they take up a lot of room) from your internal, you will lose them next time you back up because they will no longer be on your internal. SuperDuper makes an exact copy of your source drive onto your target drive.

You should go back and use disk utility to create two partitions on your new external. One approx. the size of your internal, and the other one will be whatever is left. I named mine "Clone" and "Media" -- you decide what works for you. Then, once that is done, use SuperDuper again to clone your internal to the "Clone" partition. THEN you can move your files to the "Media" partition, delete them from your internal and work with them from there. Remember, though, that those files on the "Media"drive will not be backed up since they will be removed from your internal. You may want to make a copy of those files on a DVD or other media so that they ARE backed up. I keep a second external HD that is the exact clone of my main external (in other words, both partitions) at my work for an offsite backup in case something happens to my home or in case my first backup drive punks out on me.

Hope this helps!

Can somebody help me .
I have 2 laptops. 1 is Windows and 1 is Mac. I also have lots of music...

I want a system whereby I can store all my music in 1 place, that can be accessed by both machines. So im thinking of getting a NAS, or is there a better option?

As well; I would possibly like to be able to set up Time Machine for the mac, (and use the drive as general backup for the windows laptop and all files) - would this be possible?

--
I guess the other option would be for me to get one big one for Time Machine and to store all my music and movies {and then a small one for my Windows backups}.
Would my Windows laptop be able to read/use the music from the mac-orientated NAS? and copy over files.


What's my best option/drive to get?
All help really so appreciated
Thanks

P.S. not getting Time Capsule - too expensive.

Sure, NAS products act as file servers. It's the communication protocol (SMB or samba) that deals with read/writes, so formatting isn't an issue. Same reason you can share directories on Macs with PC's and vice versa.

skybolt said:

If your goal is to have a backup and also move files off your internal to save space, you should have partitioned the external before you started.

You should go back and use disk utility to create two partitions on your new external. One approx. the size of your internal, and the other one will be whatever is left. I named mine "Clone" and "Media" -- you decide what works for you. Then, once that is done, use SuperDuper again to clone your internal to the "Clone" partition.

Click to expand...

PHEW! thanks Mary--so glad I asked! something was telling me I had missed one tiny thing and sure enough! lol

SO...since I've already put all the data on the external, should I erase it all before I partition it??

Thanks again--
Jen

Hi, my Macbooks's 60GB hard drive is now full. I'm a bit worried about getting an external hard drive since I know they have a tenedency for breaking unexpectantly and since I plan to transfer my iTunes library onto it I'm rather nervous.

Can anyoe recommend me one that's very reliable and about 120-160 GB?

dinhster said:

Lacie drives are cursed! I have 3-5 more home that are also jacked up!

Click to expand...

I'd say it's probably the make of the drive itself and not necessarily that of the enclosure. Lacie doesn't actually make hard drives, they only make (usually pretty nice) enclosures. Stick with manufacturers that use Seagate drives as they have the longest warranty at 5 years. All hard drives fail, so you might as well have one that has warranty coverage for the duration of its usable life.

I've had a Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 GB for 7 months now for use with my MacBook and it has been perfect. It is very fast with FireWire 400, its much quiter than I expected, I just love it. But...

Two weeks ago, I was moving my laptop around on my desk, the cables got tangled, and it fell of my desk onto the floor. The HD was on, and it fell a whole 3.5 ft onto the carpeted floor and started making this horrendous noise.

So...I have a few questions: Is this the end of this drive? I called SeaGate's data recovery service, and they said it would cost anywhere from $700-$2200! Needless to say, this is not an option. I had nothing of real value on there, but are there any options for under $100 to get my data back?

Thanks

I am looking to get a new HD to run time machine on and its about time to get one since my 250gb Western Digital is just about fill. Would it be better to get Time Capsule or go out and get the 500gb WD made for Macs? Also can I partition just some of the 500gb to run Time Machine and then use the rest of it as a regular HD?

hi

is LaCie d2 Quadra 320GB Hard Drive safe and reliable for backups?or I should consider sth else....
thanks

I edit on FCP and have a bunch of External's. I have had 2 LaCie's fail on me and ever since I use all Western Digital. Alot of the Western Digitals also have mirror drives as a fail safe. Also you should look into grabbing the Western Digital 500GB with Firewire 800. Transferring videos at almost a gb per second is amazing.



This one is not mirrored but it has Firewire 800 and is a reliable HDD.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8478756&type=product&id=1185267958970

hi

could you please tell me what is "mirror drives " and for whats used?

thanks for the answers!!!

I have a 250GB WD My Passport HD on the way, my question is, will it be sufficient to use it as my Time Machine backup and also use it to carry file to and from school?

External HDD Question

I'm looking at buying a Seagate 750GB SATA 7200RPM drive and putting it into a Firewire 800 case. It will be used for editing video from a 17" Powerbook G4 1.5GHz notebook through my Firewire 800 port. I currently have an ATA150 250gb external hdd I use for backups. It is in a Firewire 400/USB 2.0 external case with no fan. I like the fact that it is quiet and I've had the drive for over a year with no problems.

My question is with the newer 750GB drive running though Firewire 800, this thing is going to be spinning and reading lots of data. Would a case without a fan be a big detriment? Would it fry my drive from excess heat prematurely? I'm thinking I need to get a case with a fan this time, but not sure. Thanks!

daveingland said:

I'm looking at buying a Seagate 750GB SATA 7200RPM drive and putting it into a Firewire 800 case. It will be used for editing video from a 17" Powerbook G4 1.5GHz notebook through my Firewire 800 port. I currently have an ATA150 250gb external hdd I use for backups. It is in a Firewire 400/USB 2.0 external case with no fan. I like the fact that it is quiet and I've had the drive for over a year with no problems.

My question is with the newer 750GB drive running though Firewire 800, this thing is going to be spinning and reading lots of data. Would a case without a fan be a big detriment? Would it fry my drive from excess heat prematurely? I'm thinking I need to get a case with a fan this time, but not sure. Thanks!

Click to expand...

I would definitely recommend a case with a fan if you intend to use it heavily for prolonged amounts of time.

I just got a WD mybook 320 GB external... so far so good it's great.

Harddisk help please

I have just bought a 120G Freecom my docs seem to transfer across Ok although it doesn't like folders. When I transer pix as jpegs though from iphoto although i can see the icon i cant; open it and see the photo!

Any thoughts?


Thanks

1 word, drobo. Sure, it's pricey, but the redundancy and peace of mind are worth the price tag. Hard-drives are getting more and more dense, and the chance of failure is quite big regardless of anything. For any kind of data you consider important, spend the money and get a drobo.

I bought a LaCie d2 quadra awhile ago and it has performed perfectly. At least so far. I use it with TimeMachine and all is smooth. It offers eSata, FW 400 & 800 and USB2. Of course, with the new MacBook, there's no FW which is still makes no sense to me, however, that's a different conversation (and thread). I got it from Amazon which was the best price at the time. Good luck!