Good external hard drive?

[powpow]

I'm looking for an external hard drive, any recommendations??

Here's what I want:

• Quiet! (Since it will be housing my iTunes library and often running while music is playing)
• 250 Gigs
• Firewire preferred
• Reliable (Obvious), something I can run every day for a few hours
• Doesn't get too hot

Thanks!

[VanMac]

I will be picking up a LaCie before the end of the year. have a look at their product line....pretty slick.

[wdlove]

I'm looking for a good external hard drive myself. Have been wondering if the ones with fans are better. My current one that died didn't. Left it on 24/7.

[Maxiseller]

Yeh, Lacie make good, solid drives.

I brought the "Design by F A Porsche" model a few months back which was very inexpensive and offered the solution that I want. It's left on 24/7 and it does the job for music editing and composing.

[yellow]

I like the older LaCie d2 designs (160GB and lower). They were excellent drives. However, I read a lot of complaints about the heat/loudness of the fans in the larger drives, 200GB and up.

[Artful Dodger]

My friend who is a new Mac user thanks to me ;) bought a LaCie 160GB drive and sent it back (bad power conector). He then bought the Porsche 250 model and couldn't be happier and it's very quiet. My worry is getting one without the fan but it's only for backup so it just may not matter that much :rolleyes:

[Euan]

I have a Lacie and it is a very nice bit of kit.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

• Quiet!I would go with a Seagate Barracuda. Very high quality, long warranty and, most important, has been the most quiet HDs for a long time, now, you can barely hear them "whisper".

Seagate has some very nice Firewire/USB2 combo drives in sizes from 80-500 GB, like the affordable 200 GB (http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=304568&cks=PRL) or the much larger 400 GB (http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=305861&cks=PRL).

[shadowmoses]

Seagate barracuda's are nice and quiet although they do make a seeking noise every few minutes, i thought this was a fault but called up seagate and they told me that it is normal and is the sound it makes when checking for errors and it will do this throughout the day when the HD is inactive...

Anyway i have a 200gb barracuda in my eMac and its been great so far i have had it running long hours everyday for about 4-5 months...Reccomended,

ShadOW

[wdlove]

I would go with a Seagate Barracuda. Very high quality, long warranty and, most important, has been the most quiet HDs for a long time, now, you can barely hear them "whisper".

Seagate has some very nice Firewire/USB2 combo drives in sizes from 80-500 GB, like the affordable 200 GB (http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=304568&cks=PRL) or the much larger 400 GB (http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=305861&cks=PRL).

Looks very nice, have some questions. At least I wasn't able to find the answers. What is the case constructed of and is it durable? Does if have a fan? How long is the warranty?

[puckhead193]

I like my lacie triple interface

[Euan]

I like my lacie triple interface
same here!

[lopresmb]

Check out the western digital dual option backup, has firewire and USB 2.0 as well as one touch and scheduled backups

[aricher]

same here!

Same here on the tri-int. Lacie - quiet as well.

[gMac]

I've had my Maxtor OneTouch II for about three months now and am very happy with it. This is my first external HD, so I don't have any basis for comparison, but it seems fairly quiet. It's definitely not SILENT though so maybe I'm less sound-sensitive than others.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Looks very nice, have some questions. At least I wasn't able to find the answers. What is the case constructed of and is it durable? Does if have a fan? How long is the warranty?It looked like the case on the 400 GB I had at loan a couple of weeks ago had a fan, but we actually never heard it, even when backing up a nearly full 40 GB HD off a laptop.

I have no idea if the case was made from some composite material or a light alloy, but it felt quite durable and "heavy" (i.e. not "plastic light", but don't get me wrong: it didn't weigh that much).

The warranty is a question, though, because when I browsed a bit around it looks like Seagate have a 5 year warranty on all internal disks, but not the externals (which seems to be normal in the industry). You better ask this question to whatever retailer you buy the disk from. (Or you could get an "internal" disk and put it into a 3rd party Firewire/USB2 case, yourself, that way you should get 5 years.)

[mpsullmann]

I have a LaCie d2 drive (250GB) since 6 month to back-up my digital pictures, it is not running 24/7 but I have it always switched on with the G5 so it is running fairly a lot.

It runs really quitely, the G5 (latest build, D2.0 GHz) is what I hear not the d2 drive. The speed is phenomenal - connected by the FW800 and my picture transfer so quick. I use a D100 and save uncompressed RAW files, so each is 10MB in size and when working the typical amount of pictures I move around are a couple of GBs. For this it is perfect and I am sure MP3s will work as good.

I have as well a small LaCie Porsche Drive (USB and FW) with 40 GB to carry with me. It is convenient, small, looks good and for the purpose fast enough but not as sturdy as the d2 (was a bit disappointed by the plastic housing). Something more solid and offering more HD space is definitely the d2 drive (I think not all d2s have the FW800 bus, for me this would be a must).

Martin

[wdlove]

I've had my Maxtor OneTouch II for about three months now and am very happy with it. This is my first external HD, so I don't have any basis for comparison, but it seems fairly quiet. It's definitely not SILENT though so maybe I'm less sound-sensitive than others.

The noise doesn't bother me, I'm used to the constant hum of my Power Mac G4. Just something that I one learns to ignore.

[MacFan25863]

I also have a Maxtor OneTouch II. I just bought it Sunday, it was on special at Frys for only $270 (its a 300GB 16MB Cache drive with Firewire and USB 2.0). Only complaint I have is that when I have both my LaCie DVD-Recorder and the disk plugged in at the same time, its alot slower than if I just had one of them plugged in. But I can live with that!

[Artful Dodger]

Mitthrawnuruodo
Quote:
Originally Posted by powpow
• Quiet!
I would go with a Seagate Barracuda. Very high quality, long warranty and, most important, has been the most quiet HDs for a long time, now, you can barely hear them "whisper".

Seagate has some very nice Firewire/USB2 combo drives in sizes from 80-500 GB, like the affordable 200 GB or the much larger 400 GB.

Mitthrawnuruodo, that's an awesome price for that drive 200 GB as it's $210 US but I'm sure just a bit cheaper if I did a search but not much.
The only thing that has made me wait on getting a drive is the software (for backup purpose), as well as in putting one together (internal drive/external case) but if it doesn't really matter then I've seen some great deals around ;)

[Moxiemike]

I have a LaCie d2 drive (250GB) since 6 month to back-up my digital pictures, it is not running 24/7 but I have it always switched on with the G5 so it is running fairly a lot.

It runs really quitely, the G5 (latest build, D2.0 GHz) is what I hear not the d2 drive. The speed is phenomenal - connected by the FW800 and my picture transfer so quick. I use a D100 and save uncompressed RAW files, so each is 10MB in size and when working the typical amount of pictures I move around are a couple of GBs. For this it is perfect and I am sure MP3s will work as good.

I have as well a small LaCie Porsche Drive (USB and FW) with 40 GB to carry with me. It is convenient, small, looks good and for the purpose fast enough but not as sturdy as the d2 (was a bit disappointed by the plastic housing). Something more solid and offering more HD space is definitely the d2 drive (I think not all d2s have the FW800 bus, for me this would be a must).

Martin


I too have the LaCie D2 500gb drive and it rocks. I move ~1000 digital photo files from my D2h/D100 around per week, and it's quiet, realible, and fast. I sometimes forget that it's an external.

I do connect it with FW800, FWIW

[alexeismertin]

Hi

Just got the Maxtor OneTouch II 300GB drive (16mb cache version), it has Firewire 400/800 USB 2.0 & I am using it for exactly the same function as you want!

It has a single button backup system which I have configured to backup the itunes library, it is sooo quiet its not true - I think it is much quieter than the LaCie that friend has. Additionally I have used it all day & it it is cool to the touch.

Oh and you get Retrospect Express bundled in (as well as all the Firewire400/800/USB 2.0 cables, International power adaptor with 2 pin & UK 3 pin cables & 2 year warranty)

There is nothing bad to say about this drive

[Moxiemike]

Hi

Just got the Maxtor OneTouch II 300GB drive (16mb cache version), it has Firewire 400/800 USB 2.0 & I am using it for exactly the same function as you want!

It has a single button backup system which I have configured to backup the itunes library, it is sooo quiet its not true - I think it is much quieter than the LaCie that friend has. Additionally I have used it all day & it it is cool to the touch.

Oh and you get Retrospect Express bundled in (as well as all the Firewire400/800/USB 2.0 cables, International power adaptor with 2 pin & UK 3 pin cables & 2 year warranty)

There is nothing bad to say about this drive

My only concern re: maxtor is that I've had an 80gb Maxtor SATA in my G5 fail, and i've had 2 120 gb Maxtor drives in external cases fail. Dead.

My experience has been that WD drives are a bit more reliable. That said, I don't know what brand drive is used inside of my LaCie...

[jsw]

I've got three LaCie d2 drives and a LaCie burner in a rack at home, on 24/7. The drives range in age from ~3 years to ~6 months. Never had a problem with any of them (sized 120GB to 250GB). They seem very quiet to me, and I like the design.

[Euan]

Yep, my lacie drive is very quiet.

[wdlove]

I really appreciate everyone that is posting in this thread. A very interesting read. Comments are important. It looks as though I should really be looking at Lacie.

[powpow]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, this input is definitely helping with my decision process, keep it coming. Will buy something soon!

[Pine-Tree]

Hi all, been reading macrumors for quite some time and because of all you guys have bought a new ibook! Mac OSX is so cool!!

ok, well I have this exact same question as I too would like to back up all my things, so I was looking around and decided that i would go with the portability and small factor so I'm stuck between the western digital and lacie

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10558
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=110&Language=en

Any suggestions??

I can go with either one, but I'm hoping I can get some feedback, and are these were I can push a button and everything backs up automatically or do I have to manually back up everything everytime?

Thanks in advance

[Wingsunn]

Hey,

I have a 15" powerbook (1.67 MHz G$) and I am looking into purchasing an external hard drive for video editing purposes. I want to see if it is possible to use my editing software and do my work straight from my external hard drive rather than my stock internal one without the data transfer rate being slower. So basically I want to know if the data transfer rate of a 9 pin firewire connection is either equal or maybe even faster than the data transfer rate of my internal HD. Thanks guys!

[micvog]

I would go with a Seagate Barracuda. Very high quality, long warranty and, most important, has been the most quiet HDs for a long time, now, you can barely hear them "whisper".

Seagate has some very nice Firewire/USB2 combo drives in sizes from 80-500 GB, like the affordable 200 GB (http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=304568&cks=PRL) or the much larger 400 GB (http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=305861&cks=PRL).

I bought the 200GB Seagate from Circuity City a few weeks ago ($149 after a $50 in mail-in rebates). It is a nice unit - comes with both FW and USB2 cables, has a power switch, and runs very cool - but it isn't quite. The fan is silent (if there is one), but the drive makes normal noises that seem to be slightly amplified by the case.

I use it for backup primarily and am very happy. Besides the noise, I would strongly recommend it.

[micvog]

Looks very nice, have some questions. At least I wasn't able to find the answers. What is the case constructed of and is it durable? Does if have a fan? How long is the warranty?

Case is plastic but very well made/solid.

According to my manual, it has a 1-yr. parts and labor warranty with lifetime technical support. Before I bought it I e-mailed Seagate and they responded the same day to confirm it has the Oxford chipset so tech support seems good. If it has a fan, it is either silent or mine doesn't come on.

The only noise is the usual hard disk noise - not silent but OK for my purposes. If the hard drive isn't being accessed it is silent. And my drive is on my desk about 3-feet from me.

[Greg_C]

Thought I'd give my 2 cents worth...I'm (unfortunately) not on a Mac, but I have a very nice external HDD made my G-Technology. They use Hitachi drives (good stuff), have every interface, and are have a fan-less design which is effective, nice to have, and obviously extremely quiet, as the only noise is from the drive itself. They are also very good looking (would compliment a PowerMac G5 or PowerBook especially well). My drive is the 80 gig usb 2.0 model, and I couldn't be happier with it. Very quick, and so far no relibility issues...I back up my main system drive to it several times a week, and it's spinning at least a few hours a day. Here's a link to the G-Drives: http://g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVE.cfm
Obviously LaCie makes nice drives, as well as many other companies, but just thought I'd offer another option. Good luck with your purchase.

--Greg

[PieMac]

Thought I'd give my 2 cents worth...I'm (unfortunately) not on a Mac, but I have a very nice external HDD made my G-Technology. They use Hitachi drives (good stuff), have every interface, and are have a fan-less design which is effective, nice to have, and obviously extremely quiet, as the only noise is from the drive itself. They are also very good looking (would compliment a PowerMac G5 or PowerBook especially well). My drive is the 80 gig usb 2.0 model, and I couldn't be happier with it. Very quick, and so far no relibility issues...I back up my main system drive to it several times a week, and it's spinning at least a few hours a day. Here's a link to the G-Drives: http://g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVE.cfm
Obviously LaCie makes nice drives, as well as many other companies, but just thought I'd offer another option. Good luck with your purchase.

--Greg

I have a G-Tech G-Drive on order to be delivered Tuesday. I almost went with the LaCie D2 Extreme, but there are so many mixed reviews about it (at least outside of this forum). I'll be using mine mainly for general backup and to store my iphoto library.
I'm starting to second guess the size I ordered (80 GB)-might refuse delivery, bite the bullet, pay more, and go for the 160 GB with 400/800 firewire (I also like the idea of "future proofing"with the 800 firewire option-not to mention faster transfer speeds).

I noticed that the G-Drives have an on/off switch-do you leave yours on all the time and does it sleep when your computer sleeps (and for that matter, are there any sleep issues?).

[Greg_C]

I have a G-Tech G-Drive on order to be delivered Tuesday. I almost went with the LaCie D2 Extreme, but there are so many mixed reviews about it (at least outside of this forum). I'll be using mine mainly for general backup and to store my iphoto library.
I'm starting to second guess the size I ordered (80 GB)-might refuse delivery, bite the bullet, pay more, and go for the 160 GB with 400/800 firewire (I also like the idea of "future proofing"with the 800 firewire option-not to mention faster transfer speeds).

I noticed that the G-Drives have an on/off switch-do you leave yours on all the time and does it sleep when your computer sleeps (and for that matter, are there any sleep issues?).

Hope you love your G-Drive as much as I love mine! To answer your question, I turn off my drive after shutting down my system. This is for several reasons...Firstly I turn off my PeeCee every night (Windows becomes more painful to use after every additional hour since a reboot :mad: ) Also, the drive is not used by any other computer than mine, so I have no reason to have it on when my computer is off. As for the size, it really depends on your personal needs. My system drive is only 40gigs, with about 98% of that used, so it's nice to be able to move some files to reside solely on the G-Drive (although I no longer have a complete backup of every file) However I anticipate I'll fill the G-Drive sooner than I originally thought. I'd recommend getting the largest drive you can (that is practical) My model is only USB 2, since I don't have any FireWire ports. However FW800 certainly seems to be a nice spec as far as speed goes (G-Tech quotes transfer speeds at up to 61 MB/sec using the FW800 bus) Well hope that helps some, and enjoy your new drive (PS - Did you get the silver or "stealth" finish? Just curious because the latter wasn't available when I bought mine, but it looks pretty nice.)

--Greg

[cruxed]

Not meaning to hi-jack this thread, but I have a slight query to all you external hard drive owners.

I have a Seagate 80gb external harddisk, connected to my mac mini via USB 2. The only problem is that it makes a copy of the file that I want to move into it, instead of acting like an internal drive and moving the original file. This irritates me as I have to go back and delete the original file.
Any solutions to this vexing problem?

Thanks guys.
Boris

[weezer160]

i like lacie, too, but the one i have is a usb 2.0 driven hard drive. instead for other more intense apps like games or the occasional video editing, i prefer my g-tech 160 GB FW 800 HD w/8 MB cache. it's actually mid-range in the line up... and is a little pricey. it doesn't get hot or loud, and it's fast and reliable. it goes well with my PB and also has the flexibility to go between FW 800 and 400. :cool:

[PieMac]

i like lacie, too, but the one i have is a usb 2.0 driven hard drive. instead for other more intense apps like games or the occasional video editing, i prefer my g-tech 160 GB FW 800 HD w/8 MB cache. it's actually mid-range in the line up... and is a little pricey. it doesn't get hot or loud, and it's fast and reliable. it goes well with my PB and also has the flexibility to go between FW 800 and 400. :cool:

Do you leave it on all of the time? I'm just wondering if left on if it will sleep when your Mac sleeps. This is one feature that I like that I know that the LaCie does, but have yet to be able to find out if the G-Tech does the same. For my own purposes, I'd prefer to just leave it on so that back ups can be done in the background at set times.

[PieMac]

Hope you love your G-Drive as much as I love mine! To answer your question, I turn off my drive after shutting down my system. This is for several reasons...Firstly I turn off my PeeCee every night (Windows becomes more painful to use after every additional hour since a reboot :mad: ) Also, the drive is not used by any other computer than mine, so I have no reason to have it on when my computer is off. As for the size, it really depends on your personal needs. My system drive is only 40gigs, with about 98% of that used, so it's nice to be able to move some files to reside solely on the G-Drive (although I no longer have a complete backup of every file) However I anticipate I'll fill the G-Drive sooner than I originally thought. I'd recommend getting the largest drive you can (that is practical) My model is only USB 2, since I don't have any FireWire ports. However FW800 certainly seems to be a nice spec as far as speed goes (G-Tech quotes transfer speeds at up to 61 MB/sec using the FW800 bus) Well hope that helps some, and enjoy your new drive (PS - Did you get the silver or "stealth" finish? Just curious because the latter wasn't available when I bought mine, but it looks pretty nice.)

--Greg

I ordered the titanium to match my Powerbook...and now I'm thinking that I will probably order the 250GB 800 firewire and refuse the original order. I am still waning back and forth between this and the LaCie D2 Extreme to some degree. Deep down I feel a greater peace of mind with the G-Tech (two year warranty doesn't hurt either...not to mention I love the design of it).... but ...I also can get the LaCie D2 at a really good price and I like it's power management abilities and they also just came out with an upgrade to it a couple of months back...perhaps more reliable since?

Hmmmmm....

[danny_w]

I looked at all the external drives out there and decided to build my own using a Rosewill RX30 case (FW+USB2) and a WD 160GB HD. I love it! I bought my son one of the new OWC Mercury aluminum drives, and I like mine much more, and it was cheaper to boot. Absolutely silent, very well built case, and fast transfers. I would do it again in a heartbeat.