I need to get an external HD for mp4 storage. I'm looking for something in excess of 500gb, but am curios what name to go with and which ports I shoud be looking for with regard to the best possible data transfer rates. I have a 24" iMac, so I have USB, firewire 800 & 400, and an available ethernet port(can I use that for a HD?). Can someone please make a recomendation on which HD to purchase and well as by what means I should connet it to my computer? Thanks
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Please recomend an external HD
- Thread starter tinydancer
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OWC 1TB Guardian Maximus. FW400/800/USB. RAID1. Decent warranty too.
Very quiet.
Don't invest hundreds of hours of video conversion time in a single drive setup; go with a RAID setup to ensure your data is safe.
You'll want to use FW800 for the fastest connection to your iMac.
Very quiet.
Don't invest hundreds of hours of video conversion time in a single drive setup; go with a RAID setup to ensure your data is safe.
You'll want to use FW800 for the fastest connection to your iMac.
Western Digital MyBook Pro II. Dual Drive, 2TB. USB, FW 400, FW 800. Raid 1. Comes pre-formatted for Macs. You'll see some poor reviews regarding fan noise, but the newer ones are much quieter now. I had an older one, and now a new one. Much better now. 3-year warranty.
This might be more than what you're looking for, but I found that once I got my 
TV and started ripping/encoding my movies, I needed more space than I thought. I decided that I needed an external drive for media, but also for backup, so I went with one of these Taurus enclosures and 2 WD 1TB drives.
(this is an Oz site, but you can get them all over the world)
http://www.epowermac.com.au/product.asp?P_ID=739
The benefit is that I can connect it to my AEBS (via USB) and stream my media to myTV, but also use it for Time Machine. If I use my laptop near it, then I just connect the FW800 cable and high-speed access is a breeze.
It's fairly quiet too.
TV and started ripping/encoding my movies, I needed more space than I thought. I decided that I needed an external drive for media, but also for backup, so I went with one of these Taurus enclosures and 2 WD 1TB drives.(this is an Oz site, but you can get them all over the world)
http://www.epowermac.com.au/product.asp?P_ID=739
The benefit is that I can connect it to my AEBS (via USB) and stream my media to my
TV, but also use it for Time Machine. If I use my laptop near it, then I just connect the FW800 cable and high-speed access is a breeze.It's fairly quiet too.
Go for Western Digital, they're the best in my (i)book... I have 2, never a problem
Guardian MAXimus
I just got my Guardian MAXimus from OWC. After much thought, I decided to buy it as an enclosure, adding two of my own Seagate Barracuda 1 TB SATA drives. Now, I have 1 TB RAID 1 (mirrored). This thing runs quiet and seems fine. It also comes with some great software.
I just got my Guardian MAXimus from OWC. After much thought, I decided to buy it as an enclosure, adding two of my own Seagate Barracuda 1 TB SATA drives. Now, I have 1 TB RAID 1 (mirrored). This thing runs quiet and seems fine. It also comes with some great software.
I've had a WD for 3 years now, no problems. THe 500GB passport should be available soon, which would be perfect for ATV or TM.
I have a MyBook Studio 500GB. It's a quad-interface drive (USB2/FW400/FW800/eSATA). It seems to work reasonably well for me and I use it quite a bit with FCP.
A couple of my video editor friends swear by G-Tech drives (they source their hard disks from Hitachi), but they do carry a price premium.
What will you be using the drive for?
A couple of my video editor friends swear by G-Tech drives (they source their hard disks from Hitachi), but they do carry a price premium.
What will you be using the drive for?
Nice, but it's only USB and you have to buy another device from them just to network it.
Also, it's all proprietary, you can't really do much with the HD's after if you decide not to use Drobo
Another big plus for the WD MyBook range is that (unlike a lot of other external harddrives) it has an automatic power-off function.
So, if your computer is running, so is the external HDD, and if you turn off your computer, the external HDD turns off as well.
That's a big feature if you regularly turn your comptuer off overnight.
I have a 1TB MyBook Essential Edition at home for my iTunes library, and a 750Gb My Book World Edition (full networkable, with remote access function) for my business. Both are great.
If I was buying a new one today, had more than 1 comptuer at home and had a decent network setup, I would go with a 2TB MyBook World II, plugged straight into your hub.
So, if your computer is running, so is the external HDD, and if you turn off your computer, the external HDD turns off as well.
That's a big feature if you regularly turn your comptuer off overnight.
I have a 1TB MyBook Essential Edition at home for my iTunes library, and a 750Gb My Book World Edition (full networkable, with remote access function) for my business. Both are great.
If I was buying a new one today, had more than 1 comptuer at home and had a decent network setup, I would go with a 2TB MyBook World II, plugged straight into your hub.
Not to beat a dead horse but I had a horrible time with this product. If you visit the Drobo forums you will find similier experiences with this product. I also wrote a short review for someone on this forum. I was looking for external storage also. I ended up with a four bay eSata solution that has been working great!
Although its certainly easy to find drives that are cheaper than OWCs, the they are great. I have had an OWC 250 gig FW 800 drive for several years. Although it was expensive, it has been reliable, quiet, and fast, I could not have asked for more.
What's proprietary about it? I mean, you put in a standard SATA 2 HDD, and when you need to upgrade, you replace the smallest one with a bigger drive. Then you can do with that old drive what you will....Drobo doesn't do anything to it that would make it only proprietary from then on. Maybe I don't know what you were getting at because that doesn't make any sense to me.
Also, USB is plenty fast. I've had no problems streaming or transferring.
As for networking, well, I don't need to do that since I only have one computer at the moment. Even if I did need to share it between multiple computers, couldn't I just configure it to share it as an external drive?