How do I know what GB Hard Drive to get?

After my thread on which way to go to backup my stuff, which I will update later

How do I know what size GB hard drive I need? (like how much GB I've used on my iMac to decide what size HD to get)

Should I get a bigger hard drive than I actually need for future backup/use? or just get a HD size I need?

I have found some External Western Digital 500GB Hard Drive for under NZ$200.00 which is really good. Has no alumin case though which I've heard helps reduce heat View Here

and then there are some 320GB, 650GB, 750GB with or without enclosure and pretty good price but gst has to be added as well view here

So you will see some decent prices there but with a range of GB's.

I just need to decide how much GB I should look at then decide if I go for a HD with Enclosure or just a HD.

Then I can finally go buy one lol

Get the largest drive you can afford.

I bought a Western Digital Passport 320 gig external that I like very much. It's powered through the USB cable so it is very good as a portable drive. Im going to install the new Hitachi 7200 rpm 320 gig 2.5" drive as soon as it's available.. Then Im going to put my current 250 gig drive into an enclosure and use that for back up as well.

I got the 500 gb in my imac. 320 seems like I owuld fill it up eventually, esp with 100 gb of music

Don't neglect drive speed. There's a noticeable difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm. I'll gladly sacrifice some space if I can get a faster drive. For 3.5" drives it's not a big deal, it's pretty hard to get a 3.5" drive in anything under 7200rpm these days. 2.5" drives (ie. laptop drives) are still hit or miss. If you're getting a small form factor USB drive you may want to take this into consideration if you plan to push and pull big data from it.

KiwiJenn said:

How do I know what size GB hard drive I need? Should I get a bigger hard drive than I actually need for future backup/use? or just get a HD size I need?
I just need to decide how much GB I should look at then decide if I go for a HD with Enclosure or just a HD.

Click to expand...

KJ - years ago they used to say about RAM ... "you can never have too much!"

The same could be said about HD capacity, but you need to take into consideration the physical size of the hard drive casing and make sure it matches the space in which it has to fit.

Take a look on PriceSpy http://www.pricespy.co.nz for some very good bargains. Note too the per/Gb price. 250 Gb drives seem to be the cheapest. My personal preference is Hitachi, having experienced some rather average performance from other brands.

I have two external hard drives, one a Seagate 250 Gb, the other a Hitachi 160. Neither is half full. Perhaps you might consider an external addition to your iMac rather than replacing the internal drive. A combo USB-Firewire type is popular, but I find plain USB fast enough for my purposes.

Jenn make sure you purchase a Firewire drive - no doubt you have Firewire on the iMac? USB, even USB2 is not a great success on Macs generally.

IMHO Seagate is the way to go as they do seem the most consistent for Macs.

For a larger HDD see if you can get a fan cooled external case as they do generate quite a bit of heat.

ok I'm not sure I explaimed myself well. My iMac has 320GB hard drive, but where do I go to find out how much of this hd I've actually used?

I need to work out what size GB hard drive I need for backups via Time Machine, so I can go and buy one.

Those hard drives came from pricespy list The WD 500gb hd for NZ$163 is very cheap compared to other 500GB HDs I've seen in shops and other wholesalers. But then there is the other link i shared which has some good deals like a 640GB hd for the same cost +GST.

Should I just get a 500GB hd, is that a good size for backups of a 320GB hd with music, photos and docs.

Hey harryb2448;658136

I read the speed difference between firewire and USB and see there's litte time difference eg USB does 30mins backup and Firewire does 25mins backup, but I don't know really, never used Firewire and I do have it on my iMac I think.

Seagate and Western Digiatal were the ones I was looking at

I'm confused about the HD and the HD with Enclouse. I've also heard the HD would be better with Alumin caseing?

harryb2448 said:

Jenn make sure you purchase a Firewire drive - no doubt you have Firewire on the iMac? USB, even USB2 is not a great success on Macs generally.

IMHO Seagate is the way to go as they do seem the most consistent for Macs.

For a larger HDD see if you can get a fan cooled external case as they do generate quite a bit of heat.

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KiwiJenn said:

ok I'm not sure I explained myself well. My iMac has 320GB hard drive, but where do I go to find out how much of this hd I've actually used?

Click to expand...

R-click your desktop HD icon, then L-click Get Info. You should see how much of your 320 Gb you've used, and how free space much is available.

Should I just get a 500GB hd, is that a good size for backups of a 320GB hd with music, photos and docs.

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Should be. Can you do some culling of unnecessary or duplicate files before you do the backup to your new drive? A lot of forum users tell of cleaning out a heap of files that were hardly ever being used, thereby reducing HD usage (clutter) by several (or more) Gb.

Thanks, I've used only 20.7GB

Yep I will look around and see if there is anything I don't use or duplicates of photos. When adding photos from a camera to iPhoto, does it make copy's and put them else where? If I need to edit a photo I usually open iPhoto, selete a photo, copy it and paste to desktop then I edit it in a graphic program. I save the edit photo in another folder though, sometimes I upload it to photobucket then remove the editted photo.

hughvane said:

R-click your desktop HD icon, then L-click Get Info. You should see how much of your 320 Gb you've used, and how free space much is available.


Should be. Can you do some culling of unnecessary or duplicate files before you do the backup to your new drive? A lot of forum users tell of cleaning out a heap of files that were hardly ever being used, thereby reducing HD usage (clutter) by several (or more) Gb.

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Jenn have a look at this link to explain the speed difference between Firewire and USB 2. Firewire 400 even is faster and USB 2 wiorks great on PC machines but never worked so good on an y Macs, as Apple went the Firewire route in their development.

By the way on a much more serious note - where is Tweetie? Better than snow tigers!

Wow! Only 20.7 Gb used. Going with an extra 500 Gb drive will see you well into future years.

Re iPhoto, it stores the images in Users -> Pictures -> iPhoto Library.

If you've arranged your photos into albums, be careful when deleting from an iPhoto album, because it will delete the original as well.

This digresses from your main topic, but some thoughts about iPhoto. When loading from a camera to iPhoto, avoid loading duplicates. There's a dialogue which reads "Would you like to import .... duplicate photo?" Check the 'Apply to All Duplicates' and then 'Don't Import'. iPhoto doesn't check its own Trash to compare what's there with what might be on your camera card, therefore you end up duplicating duplicates that you might have trashed as duplicates in the first place! I quite often don't use iPhoto at all, preferring to open the Untitled drive - ie. the camera card - to drag the photos I want to the Desktop for editing later.

ok but can you add the link please

harryb2448 said:

Jenn have a look at this link to explain the speed difference between Firewire and USB 2. Firewire 400 even is faster and USB 2 wiorks great on PC machines but never worked so good on an y Macs, as Apple went the Firewire route in their development.

Click to expand...

ROFL Tweetie went for a walk, might be back soon

By the way on a much more serious note - where is Tweetie? Better than snow tigers!

Click to expand...

hehe maybe 320GB is what I need humm

Thanks for the iPhoto info too that was very helpful. I might just do the open camera card and drag and paste the photos I want to my own Folders. I do like how iPhoto shows the photos though, its wuicker than clicking on each photo to view. I will be more aware now when adding photos from camera to iMac

hughvane says: Wow! Only 20.7 Gb used. Going with an extra 500 Gb drive will see you well into future years.

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Looking at PriceSpy's prices, I see the 320 Gb USB-EHD goes for 36c/Gb, the 500 for 29c/Gb. Nothing much in it really.

http://shop.digitalcity.co.nz/product_info.php?products_id=246 gives you the option of selecting the brand of drive you want inside (at bottom of page), plus enclosure brand, and other options. Good service.

From experience, the cheapest drives are Western Digital. I avoid them and, as posted earlier, I'm not too chuffed with the Seagate ones either (no doubt there'll be people keen to disagree). [I see the Hitachi option adds <$10 - that would be my choice.] Good luck with the shopping.

I'm going for a 500GB HD, If I can find a decent priced one with Firewire I will get it otherwise USB.

I'm kinda stuck between three, my $$ limit was $200.00 but I kinda like one that is around $75 more.

500G Western Digital Elements External Hard Drive USB2.0 - view me

Western Digital 500GB My Book Studio External Hard Drive (Mac Ready) - view me

Iomega 500GB 3.5" External Hard Drive - USB 2.0 (which I almost bought today for $203.00 but was told it has less quality than WD and Seagate) - view me

I don't know if any of them are Alumin to help with the heat issues.

I also read up on the differences in the My Book WD HDD's which was an interesting read http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/index.asp?Cat=8

HA! a friend is alos going to get a HD too but it waiting for me to go first LOL

Sorry if I ask too many questions, I don't know a lot about External HDDs and all that stuff.

KiwiJenn said:

I'm going for a 500GB HD, If I can find a decent priced one with Firewire I will get it otherwise USB.

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I get good value with USB only. The Seagate 250 drive inside and ICL enclosure is actually a combo (ie. USB-Firewire) but the Firewire stalled and caused other problems so I've used USB only. Incidentally, I bought my enclosure and hard drive separately, did the installation myself, and saved about $40. It's simple. If you want to know how, just ask.

I'm kinda stuck between three, my $$ limit was $200.00 but I kinda like one that is around $75 more.

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Have you looked on TradeMe? I see a Maxtor 500 USB there at $170, reserve met. There's also a Welland combo for $199, but the drive brand is not specified. If you do buy ready-to-go, make sure you know what brand of drive is inside.

I don't know if any of them are Alumin to help with the heat issues.

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Most enclosures are Al. My preference is for the silver colour, others go for black because it dissipates heat better. The fan inside does most of the cooling work either way.

Sorry if I ask too many questions

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Don't be sorry, be persistent. It's how you get answers. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for your advice and help I finally bought a Western Digital 500GB My Book Studio Edition - view me.

I went with the 1TB WD external. I haven't had any problems whatsoever.