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Which external HD?

Josh396

Josh396

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 16, 2004
1,129
0
Peoria/Chicago, IL
I was planning on getting a new iMac for college but I think I've decided to wait until the Intel Powerbooks come out to get a new mac. It looks like I'll be bringing my G4 iMac for the time being but I'm going to need more room as I only have 4 GB's left right now. I figure that an external HD would be smarter than a new internal one as I could use the external as long as it lasts and could use it to back up data and still have it when I get my Powerbook.

I think I've narrowed my selection down to either this LaCie or this Maxtor. I'm open to another model if anyone has advice for a different one. I have a few questions before I order. First off, has anyone had any problems with either of these drives? Also, is it possible to hook 2 computers up to these drives simultaneously? For example, my roommate will have a Mac mini and I was wondering if we could share music libraries or our iPhoto library without having to unplug it from one computer and plug it into the other. If this is possible I'm leaning towards the LaCie because it has USB, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800. I also like the idea of having the Firewire 800 because it will "future proof" it, not that that is a big deal. Price isn't an issue right now either because on Amazon there is only a $15 difference between the two.

Thanks in advance.
 
I have a Lacie external and reccomend it without a second thought. Never used a Maxtor ... probably because the Lacie has never failed me!
 
I think that I would go with the LaCie model since it has Firewire 800. Both are good HDs but I think that having the model that is more "future proof" is the better choice.
 
I had the same decision to make, and I chose the LaCie over the Maxtor. Its a great drive, and the FW800 is great for when you back up large files.

I read here the other day that LaCie use Maxtor drives internally, so maybe theres not a lot of difference! BTW the LaCie drives look a bit nicer, but looks arent everything I guess.
 
Can look to buy a MacAlly enclosure, then add a hard drive, it cost less in the end per GB (especially for big drive). They have Firewire 800/USB 2 or Firewire400/USB2 aliminum enclosure, no fan. This is what I got, it work great, except for one thing, they lack an ON/OFF switch.
 
I have a nice aluminium enclosure for a laptop size drive, it means that you have a maximum capacity of 100GB (or 120 if you can find a drive), but it's compact enough to fit in most pockets. :)

It also has both USB2 and FireWire ports so it's very versatile.

Buying the enclosure on it's own also means that you can choose your favourite drive to go in there.
 
Ti_Poussin said:
Can look to buy a MacAlly enclosure, then add a hard drive, it cost less in the end per GB (especially for big drive). They have Firewire 800/USB 2 or Firewire400/USB2 aliminum enclosure, no fan. This is what I got, it work great, except for one thing, they lack an ON/OFF switch.
Click to expand...
That's something I thought of doing, especially since I heard of problems with both the Maxtor and LaCie drives. Just out of curiousity, how big of a drive did you get and how much did it cost?
 
Also, what about sharing the drives between two computers at one time? Would I be able to access a single music library or open the same program on the two computers at the same time?
 
After looking a little more closely I noticed the Maxtor has a 16MB buffer compared to the LaCie's 8MB. Will that make a big difference or no?

Thanks for all the help.
 
Josh396 said:
Also, what about sharing the drives between two computers at one time? Would I be able to access a single music library or open the same program on the two computers at the same time?
Click to expand...
You can't share a drive directly, although you can share it the same as to can any internal hard drive.

You can buy network drives that you connect to your network rather than to your computer, these can be easily shared, but cost a little more.
Josh396 said:
After looking a little more closely I noticed the Maxtor has a 16MB buffer compared to the LaCie's 8MB. Will that make a big difference or no?
Click to expand...
The bigger the cache the faster it will be, especially for reading and writing smaller files (or small parts of bigger files).
 
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