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

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cwa107


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This thread seems to be a great place to ask a question or two:
I have been a PC owner and happily now am a MAC.

Point of clarification, Mac is short for "Macintosh", it's not an acronym. So, there's no need to type it in all caps. Additionally, your Mac is indeed a PC. It just runs a different operating system.

1. Why do I want to backup a mac?

To maintain the integrity of your software and data. A backup protects you against hardware failure and/or accidental deletions and bad revisions to your data.

2. If I do what do I want to back up?

Everything stored on your hard disk. Fortunately, Time Machine does this for you automatically. All you have to do is hook up an external hard drive and enable Time Machine.

3. How often do I backup?

It depends on the degree of protection you want and how sensitive your data is.

4. I have Snow Leopard, should I back up before going to Mountain Lion?

Lion is the most current version of OS X. Mountain Lion, announced this week, is not currently available to ordinary users, nor do we know how worthy of an upgrade it will be. But yes, in general, you want to ALWAYS make sure you have a current backup before you make a major change to your operating system.

5. My Mac is a 500 GB, I am only using 60 GB what type of an external drive should I purchase?

Generally, it's important to have a backup drive that is equal to or greater than the size of your internal drive. This allows you to grow your storage needs without having to worry about upgrading your backup device.

Any other informatioon would be helpful.

I Love my Mac and want to keep it "safe".

SweetPea

Regardless of what kind of computer you have, it's always been - and always will be - important to have backups. Remember - there are only two kinds of computer users in this world - those who have lost data and those who will ;)
 
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howdy folks,

So I have got another 'I need a HD and what do you suggest' question..

Here is my particular dilemna..

I currently have a 24" iMac with 650 GB internal and a lacie desktop 500gb non-portable HD. I am a photo grapher and thus have lots of photos to back and videos/tv shows. Thus right now the lacie drive is full of that sort of stuff but I would like to use it time machine my imac. I used to have a WD portable mybook and it died, well the connector died, which seems to be a common issue. Thus I refuse to buy more WD.

So I am looking for a portable drive so I can bring my photos/videos with me on the go (on my old macbook). Preferably about 1-1.5 TB and one thing I would very much like is to have it firewire 800 compatible for my imac. And the more reliable the better, but also cheap is good (haha to make it hard)..

here's what I am leaning towards right now: Amazon.com: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5 TB USB 3.0 Ultra-Portable External Hard Drive in Black STAA1500100: Electronics
 

chscag

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Take note the drive you linked to from Amazon is USB 3 and will only operate at USB 2 speeds with your Mac. They do advertise an upgrade cable which will give FW 800 capability to the drive. You might want to find out how much that upgrade cable - adapter will cost first.

Reliability is important when you're dealing with things like photos and videos which are impossible to replace if hardware problems occur. Redundancy is a must.
 
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Take note the drive you linked to from Amazon is USB 3 and will only operate at USB 2 speeds with your Mac. They do advertise an upgrade cable which will give FW 800 capability to the drive. You might want to find out how much that upgrade cable - adapter will cost first.

Reliability is important when you're dealing with things like photos and videos which are impossible to replace if hardware problems occur. Redundancy is a must.

thanks for the help. yea sorry I did realize that but forgot to add it to my post. The upgrade cable to firewire 800 is about $25 and I would (like you mentioned) also have to purchase it. Seems not many drives (that I could find) ship with firewire 800 in the box. Oh and my macbook is USB 2 so I need that cable also (to make it more complicated lol)

thanks again
 
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I have a 160 Gb Western Digital that I previosuly used with my pc. When I switched to a Mac a few years ago I reformatted it and have been using it for my Time Machine back-ups. I think I've outgrown it and from everything I read I should have gotten a bigger drive a long time ago. My Mac has a 300 Gb hard drive so I'd like to pick up a 1 Tb external drive which should last me awhile.

I have been looking at some Western Digitals on Amazon and notice they have "For Mac" branded hard drives but they are a few $$ more. Is there really any difference? Or can I save a few bucks and get the non-Mac branded one?

Non-branded:

Amazon.com: Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Black): Computers & Accessories

Mac branded:

Amazon.com: Western Digital My Passport for Mac 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - WDBBXV0010BBK-NESN: Electronics
 

cwa107


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I have a 160 Gb Western Digital that I previosuly used with my pc. When I switched to a Mac a few years ago I reformatted it and have been using it for my Time Machine back-ups. I think I've outgrown it and from everything I read I should have gotten a bigger drive a long time ago. My Mac has a 300 Gb hard drive so I'd like to pick up a 1 Tb external drive which should last me awhile.

I have been looking at some Western Digitals on Amazon and notice they have "For Mac" branded hard drives but they are a few $$ more. Is there really any difference? Or can I save a few bucks and get the non-Mac branded one?

Non-branded:

Amazon.com: Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Black): Computers & Accessories

Mac branded:

Amazon.com: Western Digital My Passport for Mac 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - WDBBXV0010BBK-NESN: Electronics

The only significant difference is that one is formatted for the Mac out of the box, while the other is formatted for Windows. All you have to do is format the non-Mac-branded one in Disk Utility.
 
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The only significant difference is that one is formatted for the Mac out of the box, while the other is formatted for Windows. All you have to do is format the non-Mac-branded one in Disk Utility.


Cool, thanks. So there should be no problem with the non-branded being USB 3.0 correct?
 

cwa107


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Cool, thanks. So there should be no problem with the non-branded being USB 3.0 correct?

No. USB 3.0 is backward compatible with 2.0. It should be fine.
 
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I really like the seagate goflex desk harddrives. i like them because they have different bases that you can use depending on the capabilities of your computer. I picked up a 3TB drive for mac that had usb 2.0 and firewire 800 on it. however, if i ever got a computer that supported usb 3.0 i wouldn't have to go out and buy another hard drive to support that speed, i can just use the same 3tb hard drive but with a different dock! definitely a smart design idea!
 
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MacBook Pro 13.3 2.4Ghz C2D 8GB Corsair X128 128GB SSD, iBook G4 1.2Ghz 1.25GB RAM
SSDs, firewire, GoFlex, and Thunderbolt

Thought I would throw in some items since I've been using SSDs in my Macbook Pro 2010 13", and my 2011 iMac 27".

The Macbook Pro: using an X128, older SSD with Indilinx controller, in my MacBook Pro for over a year and no problems whatsoever. Extremely fast compared to the original 250GB internal.

On the iMac 27", same deal - I was able to get these at closeout prices early in 2011. The iMac 27" is using it via target disk mode, Thunderbolt 800, and a Macally PHR-S250UAB FW800 / USB 2.0 enclosure.

The iMac / Firewire combo isn't as fast as the SATA connected internal MacBook - but it's still way faster on bootup and launch of apps than the internal 1TB disk. I use the SSD for the OS and most of my applications - 120GB is plenty for that.

What makes an SSD truly fast for bootup and typical applications is its access time, not so much it's max transfer rates. This holds true on the external FW800 SSD I use. A platter HDD can drop down to 1-2MB/s on random accesses of small to medium size; these drives stay at 70-80MB/s on firewire 800 no matter what you're doing.

GoFlex : I have a 2TB FW800 / USB 2.0 GoFlex Desk daisy chained with my boot SSD on the iMac. I love the interchangeability of the GoFlex line.

Thunderbolt : Not using it yet but I will be soon.

Found some interesting data on the new GoFlex interfaces when coupled with an SSD, VS USB 3.0, and Sata-3. Link below.

Summary : 3x faster than USB 3.0 on data transfers. 1/3rd the latency of USB 3.0 . More than 3x the IOPs of USB 3.0

Thunderbolt Storage With Any 2.5" Hard Drive or SSD | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews
 
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External RAID hard drive choices

Hello

I'd really appreciate some advice on storage. I'm looking to consolidate several years worth of (important) photos and movies - currently on many spools of DVDs in drawers, shudder - onto one system. I want at least RAID1 to be safe, so I know it's not going to be Superfast, but I'm not likely to use it much directly for editing. And I'm working with a 4 year old MacBook Pro, so I'm not bothered about Thunderbolt. Yet.
I'm thinking 4tb (2tb) or possibly 6TB (3tb) so I can just have everything in one place.

I'm considering G SAFE,
- is it worth the extra money.. is it much safer? Is the digital display really helpful? Or if I'm paying extra for speed I probably don't need it...

WD MyBook Studio Pro

-I like the 30% less energy consumption but I'm nervous about overheating. Any opinions/experience here?

and Lacie 2big Quadra - Again, any opinions/experience I'd love to know...

Or is there another option I should be considering?
(Is there something that'll automatically take it all off the DVDs for me and transfer it immediately and wirelessly? ;P)

Thanks very much
 
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going to get a new back up, the seagate i have isn't making it work anymore

Amazon.com: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 3 TB FireWire 800 USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for Mac STBC3000101: Electronics

that is the 3TB one, 10$ more than the 2TB model on Amazon that is..
then i think if i purchase this thing...

Amazon.com: Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter (STAE121): Car Electronics


.. and a thunderbolt cable then the drive turns into a thunderbolt drive for any future compatible Macs I buy.. anyone out there have this item?
 
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I recently got a G-Drive from G-Technology. Nicely built, 3 year warranty, looks to be pretty easy to open the enclosure if I need to. Only disadvantage is the slightly high price.
 
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Late-2012MBP, Early-2009MBP 15"(new to me)iPad Air 64GB iPad Air 2 6
Wanting to upgrade MBP Model 5,1 HD from 500gb to at least 1tb

1)I need 9.5mm, 2.5" (would like at least 1tb or greater without having to do many mods or jumpers - is that even possible?)
2) I have it narrowed down to Western Digital WD10JPVT Scorpio Blue 1 TB 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Amazon.com: Western Digital WD10JPVT Scorpio Blue 1 TB 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive: Electronics any other suggestions? I couldn't find one similar from Seagate. I'd prefer 7200RPM, if that's even possible.
Quickly running out of space on current hd.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
 
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Suggestions for an External HD for an Early 2009 iMac

Hello everybody this is my first day.
I own an early 2009 24" iMac model no A1225. Proc. 3.06GHz. 1067 MHz DDR3 memory module with 8GHz of memory (Crucials). and a 620 internal HD?
First, being an old guy, I must say that I am not very technically minded. My question to the community is that I want to buy an external HD with as much storage space as possible (!TB or 2TB) that my computer can run and deal with. I have a great many photographs of my family members plus I would want to do back ups of my system. What would you suggest is best to buy for my early 2009 iMac?
 
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I run a Seagate Free Agent 500 GB on my 2010 1 Tb 21.5" iMac. Have never had any problem what so ever with it. Sure came in handy last July when my Hard Drive crashed and had to be replaced. Worth a look to see if they still sell them.
 
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Hi Postoak,
Thanks for your reply pal. Much appreciated
Ran2
 
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Hi

Looking for some advice. 'Switched' about a year ago, now have in household: iMac 2011, 2-3 iPhones, iPad2, 2 PC laptops. One day would like MBAir! I am moderately 'computer literate', but no longer wish to spend hours/days puzzling things out or finding complex work-arounds or solutions. I switched to Mac for the promised simplicity. I don't have any experience with network-type hardware.

My iMac is stuffed to the eyeballs, so I need some external storage. Initially I thought I'd just get a standard desktop drive, plug it into the back and move my movies there. However, I'm now thinking: would a network drive (which I have never used) allow me/family to: watch movies (incl. non-DRM) on the iPad or laptops direct from the drive, access family photos on the drive, access music from the drive? And what about showing movies on TV?

The other need I have is back-up. I actually recently purchased a refurbished Time Capsule from Apple Store, but haven't set it up yet (because wanting to resolve storage issue at same time). Can I back up to Time Capsule from an external drive/network drive?

Any advice or suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks.
 
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hi - been through a few myself and CANNOT recommend anything from Lacie quite honestly. Had a few external drives over the last 20 years and they really aren't very good after use for a while imo.

They don't last and the customer service from Lacie stinks, they just don't want to know, only interested in selling kit of course, also tried a Western Digital MyBook 1Tb studio edition and that failed after just over one year, of course (!). Just my two pennies worth ....
 
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