Which External drive? Help!

[InquisitiveAmI]

As I've said, I think that any USB3 external will be fast enough. Therefore I'd go for the largest capacity device that's portable, by which I mean (single) bus-powered. At present this seems to be a 2TB, 5400rpm, 2.5" HHD. If this proves to be fast enough, you win.

If this doesn't, then you're going to have to look at faster options (and the only significantly faster options I can think of are SSD, meaning loss of capacity, or proper 7200rpm/RAID0 gear, meaning loss of bus-powered portability). But your 'rejected' HHD will still be very necessary because you've got no backup/archival in place. Again, you win.

Win... win... you can't lose.

But please don't rush out and buy something right now, wait to see if anyone comes up with a counter-suggestion.


As an aside, I'm assuming that you and the rMBP are moving around. If it spends all its (working) hours in one location then obviously 'portability' moves down the list of needs.

Yeah Im moving around alot so it MUST be portable. I think in terms of backup I really cant be bothered and I know ill regret it but i could always buy a 50 quid 1tb WD drive for backups.

However ! This could be the only half decent idea I have and I think this product maybe perfect for me.If there are any others like these or better/cheaper Id love to know but this could be the one!!

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1240

But of course the verdicts down to you

 

[InquisitiveAmI]

Yeah Im moving around alot so it MUST be portable. I think in terms of backup I really cant be bothered and I know ill regret it but i could always buy a 50 quid 1tb WD drive for backups.

However ! This could be the only half decent idea I have and I think this product maybe perfect for me.If there are any others like these or better/cheaper Id love to know but this could be the one!!

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1240

But of course the verdicts down to you

Only 200 aswell!

 

[matreya]

Yeah Im moving around alot so it MUST be portable. I think in terms of backup I really cant be bothered and I know ill regret it but i could always buy a 50 quid 1tb WD drive for backups.

The problem with having a 4TB external drive is that if you want to back it all up, you're going to need a time machine capable drive in excess of the total storage in use, so at least a 6TB drive.... none of which are portable...

If you don't backup, imagine all the work required to get your MBP working again with an OS, apps and settings all needing to be setup from scratch...

 

[InquisitiveAmI]

The problem with having a 4TB external drive is that if you want to back it all up, you're going to need a time machine capable drive in excess of the total storage in use, so at least a 6TB drive.... none of which are portable...

If you don't backup, imagine all the work required to get your MBP working again with an OS, apps and settings all needing to be setup from scratch...

Thanks but im not concerned plus Id only use 2tb after 3-4 years
Thats why could my passport pro be the best for me?!?!?!?!

 

[hfg]

Here is a bus-powered dual-drive USB 3.0 enclosure:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteALmini/RAID/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

It even has hardware RAID-0, RAID-1, or SPAN.

Note that it recommends an optional power adapter for "some high powered drives" on the bare enclosure spec sheet. However, all of the preconfigured models, including the 2TB 7200rpm hard disk drives, do not require the power adapter. The largest preconfigured SSD model is a pair of 480GB SSDs (960GB total) with no power adapter required. Perhaps if you configured it with a pair of 960GB or 1TB SSDs you might have a problem with bus-power? OWC doesn't offer that configuration.

 

[InquisitiveAmI]

Would that work better than my passport pro though?

 

[hfg]

Would that work better than my passport pro though?

That would depend on what was important to you.

The WD Passport Pro is a pretty cool product ... but new and not a lot of user reviews.


Some differences:
WD is Thunderbolt ... OWC is USB 3.0
....(probably the same performance ... but what interface do you need)

WD has JBOD ... OWC has SPAN (both have RAID-0 and RAID -1)

WD is more expensive and hard to get, but much smaller and more portable with attached cable (although 4GB model is pretty big).

OWC has standard drives that you select ... and can be SSD or 7200rpm HD

OWC has standard SATA interface if you want to change drives ... WD is unknown until somebody tears one apart.

 

[Marty62]

Hmm .. I don't like the look of the WD Pro built in TB cable.
That's just asking to get stressed or break and it's too short !!

You mention using "Logic" would this portable be for working Audio files
and recording to/play back from ??
I use one of those 1tb HGST's in an Icydock USB3.0 enclosure and that's plenty
fast enough and enough storage for Audio and 200gb of samples data.

I think that would work for you and is less than half the price of the WD Pro
which is as yet untested.... so buy two ??

M.

 

[InquisitiveAmI]

As I've said, I think that any USB3 external will be fast enough. Therefore I'd go for the largest capacity device that's portable, by which I mean (single) bus-powered. At present this seems to be a 2TB, 5400rpm, 2.5" HHD. If this proves to be fast enough, you win.

If this doesn't, then you're going to have to look at faster options (and the only significantly faster options I can think of are SSD, meaning loss of capacity, or proper 7200rpm/RAID0 gear, meaning loss of bus-powered portability). But your 'rejected' HHD will still be very necessary because you've got no backup/archival in place. Again, you win.

Win... win... you can't lose.

But please don't rush out and buy something right now, wait to see if anyone comes up with a counter-suggestion.

As an aside, I'm assuming that you and the rMBP are moving around. If it spends all its (working) hours in one location then obviously 'portability' moves down the list of needs.

Looking at other threads I've found the perfect solution .
Use a cineraid enclosure
http://www.cineraid.com/products/home_h212.htm

And stick in either two hgst or the faster WD black drives

Is this a good idea??