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

newmacuser1971 said:

I know this is a stupid question, but how do I do that...format it in th enative Mac filesystem? I apologize for my ignorance in advance.

Thank you.

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Here:

Let me google that for you

cwa107. Well said / done !

Used Lacie internal hard drives for ten years, no problems. Agree, with those that think Seagate to be the best. Hitachi bought out IBM's hard drive line; had good luck with them. My firewire Maxtor has been very reliable.
This was not the case when we bought Maxtor drives back in the late 80's making the machines that sort the mail. At the time, they were the leading edge of Technology and not so reliable. Never buy the leading edge. Have no confidence in Western Digital. Heard a few horror stories. I suggest a 1TB Seagate Firewire It's like RAM, best to dig in your pocket and MAX it from the first. Just bought one from OWC for $129.95 ... Count your blessings; tonight some poor devils are fighting VISTA.

I'm a new mac user. I brought my first mac (Macbook Pro with a 500 GB 7200 rpm hard drive) this past July of 2009. I read in the book "Switching to the mac: The Missing Manual" by Pogue Press/O'Reilly that in order to use Time Machine to back up the data from my hard drive, I have to get an external hard drive that's bigger in GB's than my current mac's hard drive, and I'm looking at this hard drive (see link) Western Digital - My Book Essential 1TB External Hard Drive - WDH1U10000N
from Best Buy. This is a 1 TB hard drive, but it has several bad reviews. Honestly, it's a good price ($109) but maybe I'd prefer a 700 - 750 GB external hard drive that's mac compatible (it'll be cheaper) that has more good reviews.
Locally in my area (West Mifflin, Pa.) the only stores that sell computer hardware are Office Depot and Best Buy. Which external hard drive would you mac guys (and gals) recommend for me that's inexpensive?

K515 said:

I'm a new mac user. I brought my first mac (Macbook Pro with a 500 GB 7200 rpm hard drive) this past July of 2009. I read in the book "Switching to the mac: The Missing Manual" by Pogue Press/O'Reilly that in order to use Time Machine to back up the data from my hard drive, I have to get an external hard drive that's bigger in GB's than my current mac's hard drive, and I'm looking at this hard drive (see link) Western Digital - My Book Essential 1TB External Hard Drive - WDH1U10000N
from Best Buy. This is a 1 TB hard drive, but it has several bad reviews. Honestly, it's a good price ($109) but maybe I'd prefer a 700 - 750 GB external hard drive that's mac compatible (it'll be cheaper) that has more good reviews.
Locally in my area (West Mifflin, Pa.) the only stores that sell computer hardware are Office Depot and Best Buy. Which external hard drive would you mac guys (and gals) recommend for me that's inexpensive?

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You don't need a Mac-specific drive. Any external drive will work just fine, the distinction is whether the drive is formatted from the factory with a Mac filesystem. If it isn't, simply format it when you get the drive home.

Western Digital makes solid drives. I'd recommend them or Seagate. Take the user reviews (particularly on Best Buy's website) worth a grain of salt. Most of the people that shop at places like Best Buy for something that can be had at a fraction of the cost elsewhere are technology bottom-feeders.

Take a look at Newegg.com (where the geeks shop) or Otherworldcomputing.com (if you want Mac-oriented vendor).

Just went to Newegg and found this one (link) Newegg.com - Western Digital My Book Home 750GB USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394a / eSATA External Hard Drive WDH1CS7500N - External Hard Drives

for about $100. it's 750 GB. I have another external hard drive upstairs in my office (Iomega Mini, 500 GB) but it's already formatted for Windows XP; I'd like to keep it's 500 GB formatted for Win XP because I'm hoping to buy a new desktop gaming PC for myself for Xmas that'll have a 250 - 320 GB hard drive and my trusty Windows XP in it, either from ECollegePC or Newegg and I'm going to use Bryce 5.5 (3D modeling software that I d/l for free off the internet) in this new desktop PC since I cannot find a mac version of Bryce 5.5 Free at Daz3D's website.

Here's another 750 GB external hard drive from Newegg that's cheaper (link) Newegg.com - cirago 750GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive CST4750 - External Hard Drives

but I guess it won't be as good quality as Seagate/Western Digital since it's a different brand?

it depends how much you want to spend.

I wanted something both for storage and to use with time machine that was going to be efficient, firewire 800, lots of space and aesthetically pleasing.

I couldnt find anything that met these criteria pre-built, so I decided to put one together myself. with the help of my techie room mates, I chose to go with a 1TB western digital caviar green hard drive w/ 32mb cache and an Icy Dock MB559UEB-1SMB enclosure. Ended up with a great looking hot-swappable external, 1TB of space, PLENTY of speed, and low power consumption/heat output,

that being said, i spent about $170 on this setup. but i think it was well worth it.

is firewire 800 noticeably faster than usb 2.0?

Need suggestions for a NAS

After my MBP suffered an unresolved kernel panic I did a clean reinstall ( based on apple's own tech phone call because I had used FireWire target mode to make a copy of that volume onto my mac mini) instead on doing an archive and reinstall. I have been waiting for prices to drop on TC's before I got one, this incident motivated me to go on and pull the trigger, however the reviews were aweful and the 18th month lifetime is totaly unacceptable. What I need is at least a 1 TB NAS that can support TM from the MBP and the mac mini. I looked at the WD MBWE NAS on newegg but the reviews were mainly that it was very slow, however none of them were using OS X but MS OS's. What I needed to know has any one ran a WD NAS or do they have a NAS that has worked for them?

I have a D-Link DNS-323 that has been wonderful. But it's not set up for Time Machine. As I understand it, just about any network drive can be used for Time Machine with the right hacks.

TWM said:

is firewire 800 noticeably faster than usb 2.0?

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Absolutely!

Comparison chart (bottom of page).

Google Firewire 800 vs. USB 2.0

cwa107 said:

I have a D-Link DNS-323 that has been wonderful. But it's not set up for Time Machine. As I understand it, just about any network drive can be used for Time Machine with the right hacks.

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That's why I wanted a TC (something with TM support built in) but they have a problem with heat. Has anyone heard that new TC just released has fixed this problem?

I have a 1TB Buffalo Link Station (NAS). It's currently acting as a wireless back up for both my mbp via time machine and the wife's win7 laptop. So far, absolutely no issues. Had it for a bout 2 months.

It says on the box that it's time machine compatible. I assume it somehow emulates whatever the time machine does. I did NOT have to enable unsupported devices to use it. I did have to make my own sparsebundle though. I've even had to do a restore from the TM backup and it worked fine. For half the money of the TC I'm very happy with it.

Edit to add: I should mention too that since I'm doing everything via wireless, the first back up was slow, as well as the restore. However, I understand wifi is not the fastest transfer protocol. Personally, I accept the slower speeds for the convenience of not having to connect every time i put my computer on my desk. I already have too many wires going.

MYmacROX said:

Absolutely!

Comparison chart (bottom of page).

Google Firewire 800 vs. USB 2.0

Click to expand...

Whoa! didn't think it would be that much! I better look into getting a firewire external hard drive!!! Thanks for that!

Went to the apple store today and picked up an external hard drive that uses fire wire 800... and wow! the speed is so much faster than USB 2.0. Just want to give anyone who is looking to get ine to really look for one that uses firewire 800!

Greetings!

Questions about:
Seagate Computers - FreeAgent Desk External 1TB Hard Drive - Mac - ST310005FJA105RK

Seagate FreeAgent Desk External 1TB Hard Drive - Mac
(USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800, 7,200 RPM, 32MB - for $118.99 +shipping.


I'm on a Dual 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4
2 MB L3 cashe per processor
768 MB DDR SDRAM
Tiger
I have one USB PCI which I think is a USB 1
two - ieee1394 PCI 400 Mb/sec

It's been a LONG time since I went shopping for an external HD, and I know I am WAY behind in what is current. If you please, some advice please. Is this a good choice?

My last purchase was in 2000 and it was a Firewire external 80GB, 7200 RPM. The external packaging finally gave out, but I installed the HD into my Mac and so far it is still working.

Just looking for expert advice? I can see I need to buy either a USB#2 or a Firewire 800 Mb/sec.

Thanks, Patt

TenderSurrender said:

Hey there

Id also recommend the "Mybook" series as a good choice!

As for formatting, you have nothing to worry about, just plug it in, and your good to go ^_^

If you want more flexibility AND you are only going to be using your external HDD on Mac OSX then feel free to format it to the HFS+ file system. (Formatting a hard drive to HFS+ on MacOSX can be found using google )

~~ TS ~~

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I just asked this in a different forum, but it may be the wrong forum. Anyway, I switched to Mac recently and I am trying to get things off of a My Book external drive that were made with my previous computer (PC). I got it to install and open, but the backups do not open. At all. Any ideas?

How was your drive formatted? If it was formatted on a PC chances are that it is not readable on your Mac.

Needs to be Mac formatted or formatted Fat32 if done on a PC. Also the backups will be in a Windows format and able to be opened on a Mac (unless in a Windows environment on the Mac)

I'm in the process of setting up my backup/recovery system, which I've never done. Thru the recommendations and reviews I read on here I downloaded a copy of "Carbon Copy Cloner", but haven't installed it yet. I also ordered a "500GB LaCie D2 Quadra Hard Disk - 3.5" 7200RPM FireWire 800/400, eSATA & USB 2.0 Interface Storage Solution. D2 Design by Neil Poulton" from OWC. I have two questions.
First are these good selections for building a bootable backup/recovery system?

Second, what should I do first to make sure I do this right?

I don't claim to be the most computer savvy operator. I switched to Mac in 2004 after 20 years in the PC ranks and have never regretted it. However, since my G4 PPC has been so reliable I haven't had to work on it or do anything other than use it and keep my software updated, so I'm a little rusty. Any insight or suggestions to make sure I do this right would be awesome.

Chip