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

brettbh said:

ioSafe(dead link removed)
. Their external drives (and, for that matter, internal drives) are waterproof and fireproof.

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Amazing drive.

I'm looking for a 1TB external hd that I can connect to my router via usb or ethernet (whichever is faster) so my pc (wired to router) and my mbp (wireless to router) can both be backed up. (unless there is a hd with usb for the pc and wireless connectivity for my mbp so I can skip the router altogether)
I will partition 500gb (roughly) for each machine.
I want to use time machine for the Mac to automatically backup to the hd and I'll backup the pc manually.

Where would be a good place to find something like this (online or in store) in the $75-$150 range?

hagios1972 said:

Amazing drive.

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Indeed. They are a bit more expensive than most, but not by much. But even tho' the ioSafe is fire and water resistant, I still backup online too. The key is not to put all your eggs in one basket, or all your baskets in one place!

MYmacROX said:

I'm looking for a 1TB external hd that I can connect to my router via usb or ethernet (whichever is faster) so my pc (wired to router) and my mbp (wireless to router) can both be backed up. (unless there is a hd with usb for the pc and wireless connectivity for my mbp so I can skip the router altogether)
I will partition 500gb (roughly) for each machine.
I want to use time machine for the Mac to automatically backup to the hd and I'll backup the pc manually.

Where would be a good place to find something like this (online or in store) in the $75-$150 range?

Click to expand...

Check this one, the raidon NAS enclosure is also a printer server.
: IntraTANK NAS 2 bay Gigabit LAN RAID 0, 1 Enclosure [RD-SL3620-2S-LB2] - $179.95
You can even access to it thru mobileme.

maybe not

Thanks, JCruikshank but it doesn't have any storage included. I don't want to spend more. Maybe it's not meant to be. )-:
Also, I recently discovered the LAN port on my router (dead link removed)
is only 10/100 and not Gigabit, so I think that means I'd be just as well off with something that connects via USB 2.0. Is that right? Can I buy just any external storage and connect it to my router and expect to access it with both computers? ...well, provided it is windows and Mac compatible of course... and I do all the formatting, etc.

i suggest an iomega. thats what the mac store people told me is the best.

kenz12 said:

i suggest an iomega. thats what the mac store people told me is the best.

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Not sure that I would recommend IOMega. That company has been circling the drain for quite some time now. Go with a vendor that will be in business long enough to honor their warranty.

kenz12 said:

i suggest an iomega. thats what the mac store people told me is the best.

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Probably because that's the one they have the largest mark-up on.
I'm with cwa - wouldn't buy anything from iomega unless it's your only choice.

I wouldn't take anything iomega if it was given to me after my experience with a 250mb zipdisk drive from them. Yes I know that's going back a long time but that's how memorable it was.

I bought a SATA dockable HD stand, and love it. It takes a standard SATA internal drive, in both 2.5 and 3.5 sizes and makes in an external drive. I have several Western Digital internal drives that I use with it.

CameraMike said:

I wouldn't take anything iomega if it was given to me after my experience with a 250mb zipdisk drive from them. Yes I know that's going back a long time but that's how memorable it was.

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Would that be the infamous "click of death"?

I'm going to college soon (from Asia to USA) and I need an external hard drive. Right now I'm debating between Western Digital 1TB My Book Mac Edition and LaCie 320GB Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive. The Western Digital one is only slightly more expensive but provides a lot more space - not sure whether I need that much - and it also says that it's good for those who travel a lot, but I want to know your opinions on that. Would the LaCie one be more 'travel-resistant'? (It's certainly designed to appear so). I would be doing a lot of traveling because I'll have to fly to and from college and home quite frequently, so I want to be sure the stuff wouldn't crack in my luggage or backpack. Thank you!

paperbagmonster said:

I'm going to college soon (from Asia to USA) and I need an external hard drive. Right now I'm debating between Western Digital 1TB My Book Mac Edition and LaCie 320GB Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive. The Western Digital one is only slightly more expensive but provides a lot more space - not sure whether I need that much - and it also says that it's good for those who travel a lot, but I want to know your opinions on that. Would the LaCie one be more 'travel-resistant'? (It's certainly designed to appear so). I would be doing a lot of traveling because I'll have to fly to and from college and home quite frequently, so I want to be sure the stuff wouldn't crack in my luggage or backpack. Thank you!

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The enclosure would likely be more sturdy, but the mechanism itself will be just as susceptible to forces exerted upon it.

The problem with LaCie is that they just make enclosures. The drive mechanisms themselves could be made by anybody - and that's where reliability comes into play. At least with WD, you know who makes the drive mechanism itself (the most important part).

cwa107 said:

The enclosure would likely be more sturdy, but the mechanism itself will be just as susceptible to forces exerted upon it.

The problem with LaCie is that they just make enclosures. The drive mechanisms themselves could be made by anybody - and that's where reliability comes into play. At least with WD, you know who makes the drive mechanism itself (the most important part).

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Is there a particular brand or model you would particularly recommend?

paperbagmonster said:

Is there a particular brand or model you would particularly recommend?

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My preference is to pick up my own do-it-yourself enclosure kit and then get a bare drive to install in it. This way I can pick the brand of hard drive. I like Western Digital and Seagate. I tend to steer clear of Samsung, Toshiba and Fujitsu.

Which external hard drive?

Ok I just joined, so I hope this is in the right spot, so I'm sorry if it's not. Anyway, I am debating between:

Newegg.com - Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1TB 3.5" USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394a / 1394b Mac Storage Model ST310005FJA105-RK

or

Newegg.com - LACIE d2 Quadra 1TB 7200 RPM 3.5" USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394a / IEEE 1394b / eSATA Mac Storage Model 301442U

I just found these two, so that is what I'm looking at right now. If anyone else has a different 1 TB external that they really enjoy and works well with their MBP please do tell me about it. I'm looking for 1TB that can be used for media files such as ones from Final Cut, and for back up using Time Machine.

Another question I have is about partitioning the hard drive. I'm planning to back up data to the external drive, but if I were to run boot camp would I want to partition the internal HD on my macbook pro? I don't even know if I could run windows on the external. So if anybody could clear that up it would help a lot!

For me, hands down Seagate's the best bet. Had 2 Seagates that have not died on me, while I had 3 externals by LaCie died in the past 3 years I had em. The LaCie drives just conked out, no magnetic disruptions, and plus I didn't have it on at all times.

No doubt the Seagate, I'm pretty sure LaCie uses samsung drives or maybe that is only some of them... Correct me if im wrong ? But no doubt for a 5 dollar difference I would go with a company that is making the hard drive and the case not just the case and using another company's hard drive.

Well, I finally ordered the WD My Book Studio Edition 500 gb external drive.
Looks pretty solid, good reviews, meets my firewire 800 requirements.

I will be partitioning it to use with my windows desktop and my mbp. I think I have the process correctly in mind, if I remember what the helpful Apple genius told me at the store last month.
I'll reformat the entire drive to Windows, then partition what I want to use for my Mac and format that section to Mac OS extended journaled.

I'll backup the Mac probably once a week when I carry it into my office and plug it into the WD. So there's probably not really much to set up in TM.

MYmacROX said:

Well, I finally ordered the WD My Book Studio Edition 500 gb external drive.
Looks pretty solid, good reviews, meets my firewire 800 requirements.

I will be partitioning it to use with my windows desktop and my mbp. I think I have the process correctly in mind, if I remember what the helpful Apple genius told me at the store last month.
I'll reformat the entire drive to Windows, then partition what I want to use for my Mac and format that section to Mac OS extended journaled.

I'll backup the Mac probably once a week when I carry it into my office and plug it into the WD. So there's probably not really much to set up in TM.

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That process probably isn't going to work. Once you partition it in Windows (using NTFS, because Windows won't allow you to create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB), it will be read-only as far as Mac OS is concerned, unless you remove the partition completely.

Now, if you can get away with FAT32 for the Windows partition, you should be able to just use Disk Utility to create a Mac partition and an "MS-DOS" partition for Windows.

FAT32 does have some limitations, most notably that it can not store single files that are 4GB in size or greater. If you need to do that, you'll want to format it as NTFS. Of course, OS X can only read NTFS without 3rd party tools. If you want it in NTFS, I would purchase Paragon Software's NTFS for Mac. That will allow you to create an NTFS partition and a Mac partition all within Disk Utility.