External Drive Size

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My iMac is coming with a 256 SSD knowing that I will be adding external drive/drives to it. Right now on my win box I have 41.55 GB of disk space used with my doc's, music and photo's. Would buying two 1TB external drives be adequate using one for Time Machine & Clones and one for music and photo's? I planned on keeping the doc's (2.75 GB) on the SSD and the music & photo's on external. Any guidance appreciated.
 

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Hey Kenny. I just purchased two bare hard drives yesterday. From a price standpoint he "sweet-spot" at the moment for HD's seems to be in the 2TB to 4TB range. I bought 2 x 2TB 7200rpm drives for $54 each. Got these locally...might have been able to get them for a bit less online. 4TB drives were about $92 each...but were slower (5900rpm).

These are bare drives (no external cases). I pretty much use the drives for backups...so I don't bother with external cases. I use one of these HD docks when I need to access/use them:

Screen Shot 2018-12-15 at 8.14.09 AM.png

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3S3HD/

I think if you got something like these...you would be just fine.:)

- Nick
 
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Thanks Nick, you just use one base for many drives?
 

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Yes...one base for many drives...just swap them out.

I do redundant backups. After done with the first...eject...and do the 2nd one.:)

- Nick
 
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That might work for me. I only bought my iMac with a 256 SSD and planned on using an external hd for accessing my photos & music instead of getting a larger SSD internally. I would just have to remove music/photo drive at end of day and insert other for time machine/clones. Could work too.
 
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@KennyC I use of the devices that Nick pointed to and love them. I've seen them at various proces from about $30.00 US and above. Some of thrm have the abiliity to clone the contents of one drive onto another drive without using the computer. I haven't tested this ability personally because my unit doesn't support that but it strikes me as a nice feature to have.
 

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I've seen them at various proces from about $30.00 US and above. Some of thrm have the abiliity to clone the contents of one drive onto another drive without using the computer. I haven't tested this ability personally because my unit doesn't support that but it strikes me as a nice feature to have.

Yeah...the one I have was around $30. I bet the models that can clone on their own are a good bit more pricey.;)

- Nick
 

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My unit was about that same price as yours. This si the second one for me. I dropped the first one onto a tile floor one too many times. Think I got the current one from OWC as well.

I don't remember how much the docks with computerless cloning cost when I first saw them but they are about $75.00 now at least in some places See Here
 
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Hey Kenny, sounds like your system and mine are about the same only I went for the larger SSD, but I also went with a larger external drive to do the same type of thing you are thinking about. With the price of T drives I would recommend going with the largest you can afford. I went with a 4T WD drive that I partitioned into 4 1T sections and keep my music in 1 of the 1T partitions and use a 1T partition to use for Time Machine backups. I use a third 1 T partition for my graphics & photos and the forth 1 T partition as a file archive. This way the only thing on my 1T SSD is the operating system and programs that can take advantage of the extra speed.

What pigoo3 and Sly are telling you is good advice and would certainly work well for you if you took that path. I prefer the way I went for the simple reason is when I turn the unit on every thing is there ready for use without having to hook up another drive, but that is a matter of personal preference and either will get the job done. I'm a great believer in getting drives with enough room to expand. I remember my old days when I bought my first 20 meg hard drive and thought my God I will never fill that up...now I use programs that are bigger than 20 megs...:Evil:
 

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As a general rule James I tend to have an approach similar to yours. Initially I bought that portable dock to access drives that don't get used often such as clones or drives where I am attempting to clean up things for friends. I can use that dock on either Windows or Mac as needed. Like Nick I also had multiple drives kicking around.

I was using the dock daily until I got one of these units recently. The basic unit doesn't do RAID but it works well as four separate drives in one unit. It is easy too swap out drives as needed but I still use the dock fro drives I need temporary access to.
 
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Ya Sly I understand how useful those docs can be when you need to do specific things I also have about the same thing where all I have to do is slip a drive into line and can access it fully, very handy for sure for special circumstance use. But for general everyday use I prefer my data to be there every time I turn the unit on and not have to hook in a different drive each time. Strictly personal preference like I said before.
 

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I agree. I think we are on the same page. Before I got the drive box I linked to, I had the four drives that are now in that box in four different enclosures taking up space on my desk. Wen one of the enclosures started showing some signs of failure I took it as an opportunity to cut down on the number of enclosures I was using but still keep access to the drives.
 
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If you look at Amazon, there are some pretty good deals.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06W55K9N6/?tag=macforums0e4-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TKFEE5S/?tag=macforums0e4-20

are just two. Both of those are 2T drives, powered by the USB bus.

EDIT: Oops, the second was a dupe. Updated to point to second offer.

Jake, was looking at those, I've been partial to WD but it appears the seagate was purchased by 10K and the wd about 1.8K nit sure if that means a lot.

Thanks Slydude & Nick having nothing but older small drives I'll be basically starting from scratch. I like those larger enclosures but I have no need for that much but very cool.

James, I kinda have the same preferences as far as external as you, been looking at drives like Jake has suggested and probably be going that way with 2T each.

Thanks again for all the help and input.
 
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Two things to be careful of before purchasing drives:

- drive size (footprint)
- drive speed (rpm's)

There are 3.5" "desktop" hard drives and 2.5" "laptop" hard drives. The 2.5" are obviously smaller & lighter (great for mobility/portability)...but sometimes cost more. Since the drives I purchased were for backups only (no portability needed)...I purchased two 3.5" drives. I feel 3.5" drives are more durable than 2.5" drives...but haven't really looked at any recent data.

Also pay attention to hard drive speed (rpm's).

When I was shopping I needed two separate HD's for redundant backups. I was choosing between two 2TB drives...or two 4TB drives. Drive cost was linear (basically same cost/TB of storage). I decided to go with the two 2TB drives...since drive speed was 7200rpm...compared to the 5900rpm of the 4TB drives.

HTH,

- Nick
 
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Nick great point, I’ve noticed a lot of 5400 drives or they just don’t even list drive speed just what usb is capable of. Footprint isn’t as much of an issue as desktop clutter, I know that sounds petty. I have also been reading from people reviews that some do complain little about noise but with my hearing probable isn’t an issue more concerned with drive longevity.
 

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Nick just ordered Two Voyager S3 with 2.0 tb drives from OWC on sale for $99 each:D. So now I have an extra unit plus two 2tb drives for all my stuff. I thought that was a great deal from everything I've been looking at. Thanks again for suggestion.
When I read you post on a 5900 drive I just figured it was a typo, that is an odd speed. Would like to pass on the deal from OWC to other member's but don't know how that's done, they are offering a bunch of other stuff too.
 

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Nick just ordered Two Voyager S3 with 2.0 tb drives from OWC on sale for $99 each:D.

Are these the 2TB drives that come with the swappable dock?

- Nick
 
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Nick, yes. Two bases and each has a 2tb 7200 drive:Blushing:. I sure that should hold me for while. I couldn't believe it when I got an e-mail with all these sale items and I have been looking for a while and thought this was gonna be the biggest bag for the money.
 
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