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Portable Hard drives for macbook pro?

S

sim667

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Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
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I'm after a portable hard drive for my macbook pro as Im getting quite into applications like resolume and ableton and dont want to fill my Macbook pro HD up with samples and video clips.

Can anyone recommend any drives that are portable and about 2TB? I know that Western Digital do one (A passport, very bad rep for failing quickly), and there's a new toshiba canvio basics out today, but obviously it hasnt been out long enough to be properly reviewed.

Any other suggestions?
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

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Nov 28, 2010
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Do you have a 2012 MacBook Pro? If so, you could use a USB 3.0 drive with 2 TB capacity.

Anyway, you probably have a 2010 MacBook Pro, thus Firewire 800 might be the fastest port on it, thus the WD My Passport Studio 2 TB HDD could work for you. I have the 1 TB version of that and it is quite good.
 
S

sim667

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
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simsaladimbamba said:
Do you have a 2012 MacBook Pro? If so, you could use a USB 3.0 drive with 2 TB capacity.

Anyway, you probably have a 2010 MacBook Pro, thus Firewire 800 might be the fastest port on it, thus the WD My Passport Studio 2 TB HDD could work for you. I have the 1 TB version of that and it is quite good.
Click to expand...

Yeah its april 2012 I got it, I thought it was meant to be USB 3, but im not sure, I can check.

I'd read the WD passports fail a lot, and I remember trying to fix my freinds that failed about a year after she got it......

There's a toshiba one out too, its only a 1.5tb, they've released a 2tb one (its a canvio basics), but its only just out, so doesnt look like its available anywehre yet..... im seriously considering one of them though.
 
J

jterp7

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2011
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sim667 said:
Yeah its april 2012 I got it, I thought it was meant to be USB 3, but im not sure, I can check.

I'd read the WD passports fail a lot, and I remember trying to fix my freinds that failed about a year after she got it......

There's a toshiba one out too, its only a 1.5tb, they've released a 2tb one (its a canvio basics), but its only just out, so doesnt look like its available anywehre yet..... im seriously considering one of them though.
Click to expand...

I'll vouch for the passports (have a 250gb, 1tb, and 2 2tb). Hell even my 250gb from years ago is working strong and that thing's been disconnected many times mid transfer by accident (not me hah). Seagates are marginally faster generally speaking but usually run hotter and are much louder. Their desktop counterparts were known to cook themselves in their enclosures.
 
Spink10

Spink10

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Nov 3, 2011
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sim667 said:
Yeah its april 2012 I got it, I thought it was meant to be USB 3, but im not sure, I can check.

I'd read the WD passports fail a lot, and I remember trying to fix my freinds that failed about a year after she got it......

There's a toshiba one out too, its only a 1.5tb, they've released a 2tb one (its a canvio basics), but its only just out, so doesnt look like its available anywehre yet..... im seriously considering one of them though.
Click to expand...

You must have a 2011 model - those are USB 2.0
 
S

sim667

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
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Spink10 said:
You must have a 2011 model - those are USB 2.0
Click to expand...

Yeah I think you're right..... I've got a midi controller that you were meant to have to do somethnig complicated to get it to work on USB 3..... but it worked perfectly first time without fiddling....

Im going to look at the seagate, but the wd is looking good!
 
hallux

hallux

macrumors 68040
Apr 25, 2012
3,437
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Spink10 said:
You must have a 2011 model - those are USB 2.0
Click to expand...

The OP does, the 2012's came out in late June.

I'll also vouch for WD drives, I have 2 My Books, 3 Black drives in my desktop and a 2 TB Passport. None have caused me any issues thus far.
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
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My suggestion:

Look around for the 2.5" "bare drive" of your choice (from vendors like newegg.com, amazon.com, etc.).

Then, pick up an external USB3 enclosure with either a
- ASMedia 1051e
or
- ASMedia 1053
...controller chip.

Then, use a screwdriver to put it together yourself. Initialize with Disk Utility and you'll be set to go.

This will take only a few minutes and you'll end up with a drive as good as anything else you could buy "in a box".

For an enclosure, I recommend this one:
http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/U32-M.html
 
Giuly

Giuly

macrumors 68040
Oct 16, 2009
3,348
4
That depends whether you ask for timezone, state o
+1 for the 2TB Western Digital MyPassport Studio, as Seagate nor LaCie has 2TB portable drives.
414FPpwIPJL.jpg


Or you get a MiniPro 2.5" 15mm FireWire800 enclosure and install a 2TB 2.5" WD Green drive, but that would be the same actual hard drive.
41H9oL3X-fL.jpg
 
Last edited:
S

sim667

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 7, 2010
1,390
2,915
Fishrrman said:
My suggestion:

Look around for the 2.5" "bare drive" of your choice (from vendors like newegg.com, amazon.com, etc.).

Then, pick up an external USB3 enclosure with either a
- ASMedia 1051e
or
- ASMedia 1053
...controller chip.

Then, use a screwdriver to put it together yourself. Initialize with Disk Utility and you'll be set to go.

This will take only a few minutes and you'll end up with a drive as good as anything else you could buy "in a box".

For an enclosure, I recommend this one:
http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/U32-M.html
Click to expand...


I did contemplate doing that, but in my experience ones I've done previously don't take so well to being moved about
 
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