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

[anushal2000]

Hi I am completely a novice when it comes to computers and especially mac since I am just planning to get one for my college.I also store tons of songs.(Hey I've have an iPod).
So the question is can I store all my songs and videos in my iTunes in a mac mini which I am planning to use as my desktop and back up and a second iTunes library in my mac notebook with not as many songs and videos?Will any problem arise while syncing with iPod?
Also can I store my old projects in mac mini and delete them from mac notebook and still access them later for reference?All this using time machine.Please help!!!

 

[Wilfred Jones]

I've been looking at a Western Digital Elements 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive. Seems good value, average customer review is ok.

 

[slammy77]

Suggestions for a new external HD?

I'm looking for a new external HD. Any suggestions?

I'd like a 1TB HD. It will be used exclusively as a backup device. Is there one or two in particular that are better choices than others? I've heard bad things about Time Machine, my first choice, so now I'm skeptical.

I don't need blazing speed. I don't need wi-fi (although that would be quite nice).

Thanks for your advice.

(This will be used with my new iMac.)

 

[brian_cambourne]

No one seems to recommend Apple external hard drives?

How come no one has recommended any of the external storage devices advertised by Apple ? What' wrong with Time Machine?

 

[Postoak]

The online Apple Store

How come no one has recommended any of the external storage devices advertised by Apple ? What' wrong with Time Machine?

That, and Seagate Free Agent seems to be a favorite on this forum, but no Seagate external HD's are listed on the online Apple Store. Why?

 

[cwa107]

That, and Seagate Free Agent seems to be a favorite on this forum, but no Seagate external HD's are listed on the online Apple Store. Why?

For that kind of stuff, Apple is just the retailer. They pick and choose what brands and products they want to carry. Quite honestly, just because Apple sells it, doesn't mean they've given it "their blessing".

External hard drives are a dime a dozen. My only recommendation would be to buy a drive that comes from the manufacturer of the drive mechanism itself (like Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, etc). This way you know for sure what kind of drive you're actually getting. A lot of companies like LaCie just make the cases, the drive mechanisms themselves are a crap shoot. It's always better to know what kind of drive mechanism it is as you could always get stuck with a Fujitsu or (god forbid) Samsung drive.

 

[Postoak]

Thanks for that useful bit of information cwa107. I will feel better buying a Seagate knowing it's reputation and satisfied customer now.

 

[Sear]

Which external HD to buy?

So I figured I could ask here for this, as I am truly clueless about macs.

I'm buying an external HD for my gf as I know she wants one, and not least needs one. Thing is I have no idea what to look for as I'm not very into macs, at all.

So can start off with asking what I am supposed to look for, and what information can help you guys suggest one to me? Think she has a regular macbook, pretty old but not that bad (buying her a new one is not an option right now hehe) but her hd there is only 120 GB.

Would be nice with a 1TB HD, +-, and a fairly fast one, 7200rpm would help her I think as she is quite impatient with computers

found a couple just by browsing fast, being "Time Capsule - 1 TB" and "Western Digital 1TB My Passport SE for Mac". Are there any requirements for these? Also if you have something to say about them, or suggest another - all help is appreciated!

- Sear

 

[codda]

For that kind of stuff, Apple is just the retailer. They pick and choose what brands and products they want to carry. Quite honestly, just because Apple sells it, doesn't mean they've given it "their blessing".

External hard drives are a dime a dozen. My only recommendation would be to buy a drive that comes from the manufacturer of the drive mechanism itself (like Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, etc). This way you know for sure what kind of drive you're actually getting. A lot of companies like LaCie just make the cases, the drive mechanisms themselves are a crap shoot. It's always better to know what kind of drive mechanism it is as you could always get stuck with a Fujitsu or (god forbid) Samsung drive.

What's wrong with Samsung...? I'm looking at this drive...Samsung inside...

500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Oxford934 Fire... (MS4U5500GB8) at OWC

 

[cwa107]

What's wrong with Samsung...? I'm looking at this drive...Samsung inside...

500GB OWC Mercury On-The-Go Oxford934 Fire... (MS4U5500GB8) at OWC

Personal experience with Samsung drives in my professional life suggests that their reliability is questionable at best. I wouldn't put any data that I value on one.

 

[codda]

Personal experience with Samsung drives in my professional life suggests that their reliability is questionable at best. I wouldn't put any data that I value on one.

So...if I'm comparing Lacie vs. OWC neither is better I should go direct with say...Seagate..? Just trying to get the best for the $...I'm open to suggestions. Looking for 500gb firewire mac osx 10.6

 

[Tryx]

Hi, I'm looking for a 500 GB hard drive (that's ideal, but 300-400 could also work) to use to store video files for editing...

I would recommend Western Digital (WD) or Segate. Also, you may want to use Firewire instead of usb for more speed with files. I have 6 Segate 280GB Drives at my comp. lab at work. and 3 WD 300GB drives. Make sure you get a power cable with it. (One WD got fried when my usb hub ran out of power)

 

[ChrisERoots]

external-hd-frustrated.com

Has anybody any thoughts on G Technology Drives. I'm currently looking at purchasing :

G Drive Mini 500gb
: 500GB G-Technology GDM4 500 EMEA G-Drive Mini Gen4 USB2.0 & FireWire400/800 5400rpm Oxford 934 (outdated link removed)

or

G Drive Mini 320gb
GDM4 320 EMEA - 320GB G-Technology GDM4 500 EMEA G-Drive Mini Gen4 USB2.0 & FireWire400/800 5400rpm Oxford 934 (outdated link removed)

I've been scouring around the Internet for a while now, looking at different Manufacturers, reading reviews and comparing specs. I want to go down the Firewire route and also have USB 2 on the side as i'll probably end up using the drive on Windows based machines.

I was pretty keen on the LACIE externals for a while but the sheer volume of inconsistent reviews i've seen have left me a little cold. Although I understand any drive could go quickly. Looked into the WD My Passport things and again the poor customer reviews has put me off.

Recently read info on OWC enclosures and drives and they look pretty handy and i'll probably be able to get them shipped to the UK. But i'm starting to get the itch and want to order the drive very soon. Any help would be gratefully received?

 

[cwa107]

G-Tech is actually Hitachi, believe it or not. In my recent experience, Hitachi drives seem to have improved. The cases are pretty nice too.

With LaCie, it's a crap shoot as to what drive mechanism you get (and often they're crap).

 

[Thalass]

External HD question

Hey everyone, new member here! I'd ask if I'm posting this in the right spot. . . but I think it's unequivocally clear that I am ;D

Anyway, I've been looking into getting an external HD for the past while, but I've only gotten serious about it over the last couple of weeks. I'll try to keep it brief, but here is what I've learned so far:

At first I was looking into getting an OWC drive (it's not out of the question yet, though). I was looking into the OWC Mercury Elite AL-Pro, the 2Tb version to be precise (2.0TB (2000GB) OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Q... (MEAQ7H20TB32) at OWC). The main obstacle I faced (when I first was looking into purchasing the drive) was that I am a resident of Canada, and the sales representative for OWC was very honest (thank you!) in stating that I'd get docked at the border for taxes, exchange rates and brokerage fees. So much for NAFTA free trade, right?

So I went to my local Mac store (I'm on a MacBook Pro unibody by the way), and asked him if there were any alternatives. He suggested Western Digital's MyBook Studio LX drive My Book Studio LX 2 TB Hard Drives ( WDBACH0020HAL ), as it was similar in features and available in Canada. He also took a look into the OWC drive, and he turned up his nose at it somewhat. If you look at the OWC page, it's full of numerous awards that the drive has won, etc. and I read reviews of it being "the best" out there, but he said that he wouldn't recommend it because it has a Hitatchi drive in it. He said that, in his experience, he's referred to the Hitachi "Deskstar" drives as "Deathstar" drives in the past, because they have a tendency to have problems. He runs a Mac store, so I trust his experience, but are the Hitachi drives that unreliable?

Stumped, I e-mailed Western Digital, because they don't list the HD specs on their page so I couldn't compare the two drives. The assistance I got directed me to this page: What kind of hard drive is inside a Western Digital external hard drive? (outdated link removed)

If you read it, it essentially says that they can't guarantee you what drive goes into the enclosure; they can't guarantee cache size, rotation speed, SATA or EIDE, or anything else other than the capacity of the drive. So that makes me wonder why the WD drives are considered more reliable? Also that enclosure only has USB 2.0 and Firewire 800 hook-up versus eSATA, Firewire 400/800 and USB 2.0 on the OWC drive.

So should I go with OWC and risk the Hitachi drive in spite of the salesman's experience, as well pay extra for fees associated with importing it? Or go with the WD drive that can't guarantee me a particular kind of HD anyway? Or (the third option!), is there something else out there that is recommended? I need a firewire drive, as I'll be running ProTools with it, thus the transfer speed needs to be quite high. I'm a music graduate, and I remember, quite clearly, being lectured enough times on the importance of drive transfer speed when dealing with Protools.

Sorry for the wall post, but I know that there are some committed members here that will be willing to help. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide!

 

[Thalass]

It's been a few days now; I was wondering if anyone has any advice?

 

[cwa107]

So I went to my local Mac store (I'm on a MacBook Pro unibody by the way), and asked him if there were any alternatives. He suggested Western Digital's MyBook Studio LX drive My Book Studio LX 2 TB Hard Drives ( WDBACH0020HAL ), as it was similar in features and available in Canada. He also took a look into the OWC drive, and he turned up his nose at it somewhat. If you look at the OWC page, it's full of numerous awards that the drive has won, etc. and I read reviews of it being "the best" out there, but he said that he wouldn't recommend it because it has a Hitatchi drive in it. He said that, in his experience, he's referred to the Hitachi "Deskstar" drives as "Deathstar" drives in the past, because they have a tendency to have problems. He runs a Mac store, so I trust his experience, but are the Hitachi drives that unreliable?

Everyone has an opinion and Hitachi/IBM had a bad run of drives earlier in the last decade. Their more recent offerings have been sound. I was one of the folks poo-pooing Hitachi drives until recently. But I run one in my MacBook Pro and so far it's been nothing short of stellar. Seeing as how Hitachi has extended their warranty out to 3 years to match that of Seagate and WD, I wouldn't be concerned about its reliability.

Stumped, I e-mailed Western Digital, because they don't list the HD specs on their page so I couldn't compare the two drives. The assistance I got directed me to this page: What kind of hard drive is inside a Western Digital external hard drive? (outdated link removed)

A Western Digital. Western Digital is a hard drive manufacturer itself. So, its externals use WD mechanisms.

If you read it, it essentially says that they can't guarantee you what drive goes into the enclosure; they can't guarantee cache size, rotation speed, SATA or EIDE, or anything else other than the capacity of the drive. So that makes me wonder why the WD drives are considered more reliable? Also that enclosure only has USB 2.0 and Firewire 800 hook-up versus eSATA, Firewire 400/800 and USB 2.0 on the OWC drive.

For the most part, the choice is between FW and USB if you own a Mac. I don't believe any current Macs have ESATA ports. If performance is of utmost importance, go with a FW800 model. FW400 is still a bit faster than USB 2.0 in real world scenarios, but in any circumstance, the transfer rate will be encumbered by the bus speed, unless you're using ESATA or external SCSI (mostly irrelevant these days in desktop machines). So, I wouldn't sweat the rotational speeds or cache size unless you're going with FW800 - and if that's the case, it's a high end drive to begin with, so they should be putting in a 16MB cache/7200 RPM mech inside to begin with.

So should I go with OWC and risk the Hitachi drive in spite of the salesman's experience, as well pay extra for fees associated with importing it? Or go with the WD drive that can't guarantee me a particular kind of HD anyway? Or (the third option!), is there something else out there that is recommended? I need a firewire drive, as I'll be running ProTools with it, thus the transfer speed needs to be quite high. I'm a music graduate, and I remember, quite clearly, being lectured enough times on the importance of drive transfer speed when dealing with Protools.

Sorry for the wall post, but I know that there are some committed members here that will be willing to help. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide!

I would go with the OWC drive with the FW800 bus. If you're storing data that is invaluable, you might want to purchase one of the OWC drives that has RAID1 (mirroring) support to protect yourself in the event of a failure.

 

[Thalass]

Thanks for the input. You're right, I'm probably over-thinking things for the most part.

I don't figure I'll need a RAID configuration (that is to say, I don't think I can justify the increase in price for my needs), so that narrows down my choice. However, just when I was about to buy the Elite AL-Pro, I noticed another drive on the site: the MiniStack v3. It's built to compliment the Mac Mini (especially since the drive doubles as a hub to compensate for the lacking amount of ports on the Mac mini), but what has me interested is it's hard drive.

On one hand, the Elite AL-Pro seems like a really high quality drive (32 mb cache, 7200 rpm, among other things), however the MiniStack v3 has a WD hard drive enclosed versus the Hitachi. Mind you, you quelled my fears about the Hitachi's reliability, but it seems like the WD drive (the Caviar Green model) might be slightly better, with a 64mb cache, 5400-7200 variable speed drive, and better efficiency in general.

The only thing that is putting me off about it, is the plastic exterior versus the aluminum exterior on the AL-Pro (it matches my MacBook Pro; it's a fickle thing, I know). Also, the MiniStack v3 boasts a smaller footprint (albeit only a few inches) while also sporting more inputs for peripherals.

So is the MiniStack v3 technically the better drive? Or will I really notice a difference? Seeing as they are both available and at the same price point, one can't be that much better otherwise it would have phased the other one out. However, this is me exercising caveat emptor and trying to make the right decision the first time around. So if you could just humour me one last time (even if I am over thinking it!) by providing your opinion, that'd be great. Thanks for all the help

 

[cwa107]

Funny you should mention the Green-series WD drive. I just read some anecdotal comments recently on the stability of those drives.

WD makes three series of drives - I only buy the "Black" edition, which are the high speed units. The Blue edition is mainstream and the Green edition are best suited to being a backup drive due to their slow performance.

I'd still recommend the OWC drive with the Hitachi mech. From every recent review I've seen over the course of the last 5-6 years, they seem to be pretty reliable and have a loyal following on NewEgg.com (a place known for very critical reviews).

 

[Thalass]

Awesome. Thanks for all the help, I'm sure I'll be more than happy with my choice.