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

[Granny Prime]

I like Western Digital. Had mine for a while now and it's constantly on and not given me ANY problems what so ever =]

[fleurya]

You can make your own for the cost of the harddrive plus $40 to cover the cost of an external case. You can get a lot more versatility and can save about 50% by doing it yourself. Here are some instructions that show how easy it is.
http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/201/42/

Honestly, I don't see where this is coming from! I was looking to buy an External HD. I went to Newegg.com where you usually find the cheapest prices. A Western Digital internal 250GB is $60, an enclosure is $14, (the cheapest available 250GB drive and enclosure on their site), but a Western Digital external 250GB drive is only $74!! Where's the savings???

Maybe if you go with Firewire or there's some savings. IDK, I haven't researched and it seems price for externals goes way up when Firewire is involved. If someone can show me how I could save 50% please do.

I ended up getting a 500GB WD MyBook for $129 ($10 off) b/c I like the design, but could have gotten a WD with a different design for $119!

[Mace]

I'd rather have firewire with my external simply b/c you can boot from it. However, I've heard that's not neccessary with intel macs. Still, internal hdd by seagate w/ a 5yr warranty and an enclosure is a lot better than a pre-built one with a one year warranty in my eyes.

[CAMERA MAN]

Who makes the best. I've heard really bad things about LaCie.

I have a Lacie rugged drive fo my laptop and i love it. Never had proplems with it at all because it a real HD running firewire 800. Just make sure it has firewire connections.

[CAMERA MAN]

I have a 80gb one, i really should have got the bigger one. But i had it for about 4 months and i love it, never lost any files on it. I put this concert that i was editing since i bought it till now and its still their. I wish the guy would hurry up so i could burn it and del it but its still there with no problems. One time during rendering video onto the drive it got disconnected and fell. I thought the file would be corrupted but the drive shut off before it could be damages. So by far i think the Lace drive is a very good choice.

[kilo15]

Raid Ftw

[sleepy_monkey]

My g/f and I both have Lacie's and have had some problems....her file folders will randomly have changed names and I have files in my garbage that WILL NOT delete....

You can find good deals on externals at www.dealnews.com 500 gigs for about $110 on a good day.

[Gargantua]

Just bought a new MacBook (2.16ghz/1GB Ram) about 2 months ago and want to get a backup HD as soon as possible (I'm not one to tempt fate...) I've read mixed things about LaCie; terrible things about Seagate and Western Digital. I'm looking in the 250-350gb range/$300 max. This is my first post here after posting on Consumer Reports forums. Thanks in advance for the help.

[schweb]

I've always used LaCie drives and have loved them. They work perfectly.

There was one series, the Porsche series, that was horrid, but other than that LaCie is very solid.

[fleurya]

I don't know what bad things you've heard about Seagate and WD, but they are pretty much the biggest names in hard drives: something you don't accomplish by making junk. I have 2 MyBooks (made by WD) and my old desktop had one of each and is still going strong after 4 years.

[bcooper0125]

i use the mybook series too. i have 3 now... a 350GB, 500GB, and a brand new 1TB. They're pretty solid. My 500GB one is a "World Edition" so it's hooked up to my ethernet for everyone in the house...

Unfortunately, the stupid remote access program doesnt work on a mac

But other than that, I've always sworn by WD. Anytime I used see a Maxtor drive in my computer, I used to rip it out. But since Seagate acquired Maxtor, they seem to have gotten better.

[Gargantua]

thanks for your input everyone. After some additional research I decided to go with the G-Drive Quad (320 gb), which has gotten really high reviews from sources I trust. LaCie was a second choice.

[fender1100]

Hi,

I've searched the forums for recommendations for external hard drives and I think I'm gonna go for a Western Digital Elements either 400gb or 500gb.

What I would like to know though is if I really need to have a HD with firewire connection. The WD hard drives that I have seen are usb connections and they are in my budget... (less that £100) I will be using the HD mainly for storage but now and again I would like to view/open some of the documents/movies/music/other various files that I have on it.
If I have a USB connected HD would I be able to open the files directly or would I need to copy what I needed to the Mac and then open it from there?

Thanks a lot!

Jamie

[smurfy]

Firewire will make it alot faster, but I guess USB 2.0 can't be that bad.

As always, I recommend to you the Disk Maxi. It is £95 and it is sooo tiny for 500GB!

[fender1100]

but when you say "faster", is that just to litterally transfer the files to the HD, or also viewing them...?