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

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I use one partition for a bootable backup with Superduper and the other for keeping all myiTunes and video stored.

Thanks MacHeadCase and bobtomay for that quick reply. One more thing bobtomay, how do you back up iTunes and iMovie files into the external hard drive - drag and drop? Thanks in advance.
 
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I also am doing exactly that. When you get your external drive - just connect it, open up Disc Utility - then partition and format the new drive.

I use one partition for a bootable backup with Superduper and the other for keeping all myiTunes and video stored.

One more thing, how much HD space do you recommend for the bootable backup partition? Thanks
 

bobtomay

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Well, for iTunes go into Preferences - Advanced and change the location of the iTunes Library - I created a Music folder on my external for this. One thing you need to know when doing this - if you open iTunes while your external drive is not connected, and add anything - or it starts auto downloading any subscribed podcasts, iTunes will change this location back to your internal drive and you'll end up having to move these and go back and change this location again.

Space size for the bootable backup partition is going to be an individual thing.
for myself - looked at the amount of space I was using on my internal not including my music and movies - was about 35 GB at the time - made a judgement call and decided that I would probably never have more than 65GB used on my OS X partition, so, created a 75GB partition for my backups. Need to take into consideration any large apps you intend on installing in the future.

One note to realize about my particular setup. The way I use it, I have no backup of my iTunes library, nor any of the movies I have moved to the external drive. So, until I get a second external, if the one I have goes down, all of that stuff goes bye-bye. My music can be recovered from my iPod, but the movies will be history.

My movies are recordings I have made from TV or back ups of my DVD's (of which, I am probably in the 600 range right now). My intention is to eventually have all my movies available for streaming from a media center rather than going and getting the DVD from the place I store them.
 
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Thanks heaps, bobtomay. This Mac Forum has always been alive with the willingness to provide help from you, MacHeadCase and the others.
 
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data storage solution

i have a 60 gig hd filled to the brim and i could collect a LOT more as a dj and producer. i need at least a couple hundred gigs dedicated to sound files. does it makes sense to have a raid terabyte and keep ALL soundfiles on that, using the leftover room for scheduled backups of my system (applications, etc.)? is there anyway i could do imaging of my 60 gig internal as well somehow? also does anyone know of a good terabyte on the market right now?
 
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For imaging/cloning of your internal, I'd suggest SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Either one will make an exact copy of your internal onto an external.
 
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Hard Drive recommendations = Please help

My Daughter has a Apple Mac note book and she wants to be able to connect an external drive

Reasons

To store old files
To backup her existing university work (something she is not doing at the moment
and if possible to do a disk coppy of her current disk so if something should happen she can restore to quickly without loading all the various applications

So I would be greatful for recommnedations say for either LaCie or Imega drives - 500GB and advantages over USB2 vs Firewire and what software is best to use for the above reasons


As I am new to Macs and to this forum can someone please point me in the right direction

Thanks in advance
 
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I got (dead link removed) series and its great! Many size options to choose from too I chose ITB that way I know I wont run out of space in a while I like having all my media in one place, not multiple places.
 
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For what you need you probably don't need firewire, so you can save money by getting a USB connected drive. Western Digital is one of the major hard drive manufacturers and they have some good low priced options. I have their 250GB and 500GB My Book drives.

This one is very good for the money

This one is a little more, but a nice style

Newegg is about the best site to find anything hardware you need with the best prices anywhere.
 
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Seeing as you're in the UK, I think this is the best deal going right now.

It can connect via USB, FireWire 400/800 and eSATA so you have plenty of options (FiireWire 400 is faster than USB, FireWire 800 is faster again and eSATA even faster; it's not that common now but may be in the future), it comes with Mac specific software (cheaper drives will contain Windows only software, if at all) and it's fairly low cost for a 500GB drive.

You can pick up 500GB drives for around £90 but they will be USB only. It might not be a problem if the drive's only being used for backups, but FireWire is twice as fast when transferring a lot of data. Also, your daughter probably has a lot of USB devices (mouse, keyboard, iPod, printer etc) and no FireWire devices, so it makes sense to me to free up USB ports for other devices and utilize the FireWire port (especially since it's more suitable for large data transfers like working off an external hard drive).
 
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Hi,

I just got myself a firewire external HD 500GB (Western Digital). Its not too expensive and like the rest says, frees up your USB ports. Since my firewire is almost never used, I decided to use it.

Rgds,
D
 
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External Hard Drive

I'm looking to get an external hardrive for my 80GB MacBook Pro. Where can I get the best deal on one?
 
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You should check out other threads. Not only are there tons of them on this topic you can find by searching, but there's already a current one going under this very subforum.
 
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This is not a commercial endorsement (I am just a satisfied customer) but I have consistently found really good prices, top quality and fast shipping from Tiger Direct (https://www.tigerdirect.com/). I have bought numerous hard drives and other bits of computer equipment from them. They do an excellent job and almost always have the best prices.

Of course if you want a REALLY good deal, troll around eBay for a while. Lots of NEW hard drives there, still in shrink wrap, for outstanding prices. I have bought one or two of these over the years too.
 
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I wouldn't recommend a Western Digital. I bought a 400gb Mybook from them and had lots of problems with it, I sent it in for a replacement which worked without a problem and the new drive works fine so far. However several of my friends have had issues with WD's products in the past.

I recently purchased a Seagate 500gb free agent drive and I've found it to be a great drive. It runs great, standard transfer rate, smaller than most external drives. The only downside is that it isn't formatted for mac out of the box but a few minutes with disk utility and it's good to go for use on both PC and Mac.


Yay first post! hehe
 
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Where did you get the Seagate 500 GB? How much was it? With all the stories I've heard about WD, I'm thinking about returning it and getting a Seagate.
 
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