External HD Advice

If you want a USB2 LaCie drive, and like Porsche's design, I would rather go for the much cheaper Desktop version which has a 3.5 disk that's faster (7200 rpm) and has much more storage space, without being that much bigger, physically.

I'm probably going to get a 200GB version of that drive this week. (I actually prefer Seagate's external combo drives, but I can get a brand new 200 GB USB2 LaCie Porsche for NOK 500 ≈ US$ 75, and I need some extra space for my poor old iBook now, and don't have too much money... )

As far as I can tell, the Mobile versions uses 2.5" laptop drives, which typically runs at 4200/5400 rpm (the speed the disk spins at) and have up to 160 GB storage space (the newest and most expensive Seagate), while the Desktop version uses 3.5" disks typically found in desktop computers. They are cheaper and usually runs on 7200 rpm and come in sizes up to 500 GB.

The desktop disks are, as you can see, cheaper and faster (even if there are some 7200 rpm laptop disks, too, out there) and has much more capacity. The downside is power consumption: A laptop disk can often get enough power from the USB/Firewire connection while the desktop drives typically need external power.

So if you want to be ultra-portable then get a Mobile (i.e. laptop) drive, but if you can endure an extra power cord then the Desktop models will give you much better value for money...

Or consider one of these (which come with Seagate Barracuda drives inside):

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/800/

I would not buy a Lacie. I had 3 of them and they all died on me. I brought them since they looked cool.

I would get one of those Pocket drives from firelite and you dont have to drag around a power cable.

DarkNetworks said:

I'm planning to get an external HD from LaCie.
I'm currently considering,
LaCie Mobile Hard Drive, Design by F.A. Porsche (USB2.0)
40GB 5400RPM
50GB 4200RPM
Both for the same price. What's RPM and will it make any difference at all?
Plus, i'm considering this one as well,
LaCie Hard Drive, Design by F.A. Porsche (USB2.0)
80GB for the same price as well.
The problem is, the Mobile HD doesn't need an external power and this one needs one. Which one should i really get?

Click to expand...

I actually went out and bought the above mentioned desktop version of the 200 GB USB LaCie Porsche disk:

First impression: Very nice. More quiet then I expected and reasonably fast for an external USB2 disk. I made a couple of partitions, transferred my +3GB iPhoto library (which finally has some expansion room) and used SilverKeeper to make a complete clone of my iBook HD (wit more that 45 GB data). At the end both disk and iBook CPU were pretty hot, but neither "complained".

And it matches my external DVD burner 100%...

I'd recommend you buy a nice seagate internal drive and put it in a nice enclosure. It'll end up costing about the same, but you'll get a 5 year warranty on the HD instead of a 1 year warranty on most externals.

DarkNetworks said:

What's SilverKeeper? I've an iBook. Can i install Mac OS X on the external HD and boot and run my computer from there? Will it work using my iBook? So does it get really hot quickly?

Click to expand...

SilverKeeper is a free backup program provided by LaCie with most burners and hard drives (or you can download it from LaCie). With that you can make a copy of your iBook's HD on any external HD (large enough), and if it's a Firewire drive you can boot from that external drive if you need that. (My old Pismo could boot from a USB drive, too, but I don't think the iBooks can do this, though I haven't tried, yet).

When you make the initial backup of everything on your HD, the external drive will get hot. Copying lets say 45 GB of data will do that to any external drive (which is why some enclosures come with it's own fan) like this one I mentioned in another thread (which seems like a good deal, BTW, even it the enclosure is butt ugly) which is a good Seagate disk bundled with an enclosure, just as adk recommends.

If you copy that amount of data over to a USB2 drive it will also get your iBook CPU very hot, because USB is much more CPU dependant than Firewire, which has more of the guidance system on the Firewire module itself (which is one reason why a Firewire chip takes much more space than a USB chip ). But of cause, it won't harm your iBook (the fans just kick in), and shouldn't harm the disk.

Acehigh said:

I would not buy a Lacie. I had 3 of them and they all died on me. I brought them since they looked cool.

I would get one of those Pocket drives from firelite and you dont have to drag around a power cable.

Click to expand...

You should not get a mac 3 of t hem have died on someone and they got them because they looked cool.

Video Editing

If you are going to be doing a lot of video editing, make sure the drive spins at 7200 RPM. 4200 or 5400 is not good for video editing.

DarkNetworks said:

i wouldn't mind going into FireWire even if i had to pay extra but i don't think my PC is FireWire compatitable...

Click to expand...

whats the spec on the pc ??

I have a EZQuest Cobra HD and it's been solid. It's a little loud for my taste but EXTREMELY reliable. I highly recommend this drive.

~e

DarkNetworks said:

i wouldn't mind going into FireWire even if i had to pay extra but i don't think my PC is FireWire compatitable...

Click to expand...

So get a 3.5" drive enclosure that has both Firewire and USB2...
http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/storage_device/phr_100ac.html

whats the spec on the pc ??

Click to expand...

"My Desktop PC doesn't have a Firewire Port" already stated earlier in the thread... seems fairly definitive...

CanadaRAM said:

"My Desktop PC doesn't have a Firewire Port" already stated earlier in the thread... seems fairly definitive...

Click to expand...

Why i wanted to know is: there might be a pci fw card that he could install into the pc for the higher speed than USB for like video editing etc



edit: since he asked about fw in post #13: i wouldn't mind going into FireWire even if i had to pay extra but i don't think my PC is FireWire compatitable...

iphil said:

whats the spec on the pc ??

Click to expand...

Why i wanted to know is: there might be a pci fw card that he could install into the pc for the higher speed than USB for like video editing etc

Click to expand...

And in that case a reply like "You can install a Firewire card in your PC for about $25 if it has an open PCI slot" would have been a more informative post...

Or how about getting a drive that has USB2 and Firewire....

get this desktop drive its good price, has USB 2, FW 400 and 800 and it 160Gb

I got one when i bought my iBook G4, but ended up using it with my iMac G5.

link to apple store(i bought it in real life, it was the same price)
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...P1QNzo6sy/3.PSLID?mco=606E62CF&nplm=TB080LL/B

http://www.iomega.com/direct/products/detail.jsp?PRODUCT<>prd_id=11969855


I have this one and it works well if you travel a lot. No need for power plugs just a Firewire cable or USB cable.