Portable Hard Drive

[FearMediocrity]

Hi,

I'm a currently a graphic designer looking to purchase a portable hard drive for my MBP. I'd like a portable hard drive that operates with a 3.0 USB port, and is formatted for easy use with Mac products, but also runs on PC computers too. I currently have a 2009 MBP, but would like to buy a portable hard drive that uses a 3.0 for future use when my MBP dies. I've looked around at LaCie, Western Digital, Seagate, Buffalo and Iomega. However, from what I can see, only LaCie and Buffalo offer portable hard drives for Macs within my 150-160 dollar price limit for a 3.0 USB 1TB portable drive. I've looked at the LaCie's Rikiki, Porsche Design and Rugged Models. I have also looked at Buffalo's MiniStation Models.

I was wondering if anyone had advice on reliable portable hard drive brands, or any other recommendations as to which portable hard drive I should purchase.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[revdlc]

One idea

It's hard to say much about reliability because I just got it, but for a portable Time Machine I bought a Go Flex 1.5 TB drive from Costco for $120 (including a $20 instant rebate), plus tax. It's a USB 2/3 drive... How you format it will determine its cross-platform usefulness; I used Disk Utility to format mine for a Mac, but there are alternatives.

Hi,

I'm a currently a graphic designer looking to purchase a portable hard drive for my MBP. I'd like a portable hard drive that operates with a 3.0 USB port, and is formatted for easy use with Mac products, but also runs on PC computers too. ...
I was wondering if anyone had advice on reliable portable hard drive brands, or any other recommendations as to which portable hard drive I should purchase.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[miles01110]

No platter-based hard drive is more reliable than any other. Buy the one with the best warranty for your budget and size requirements. Windows/Mac inter-operability is possible with formatting, but Time Machine will only work on Mac OS Extended (journaled)-formatted partitions. You will need to partition the drive to use TM and Windows/Mac storage with one drive.

 

[ffderek]

I have a WD 1TB that I formatted through disk utility. If you format it "fat32" it will be able to be used on both operating systems. Other wide what ever you plug it in to first that is how it will be automatically formatted. It you are doing this on a hard drive you already have reformatting WILL delete every thing on it. One LAST note, make sure as you are going back and forth that your ejecting it properly from both operating systems!!!!! If not it will mess up the "fat" format. And any and all things you have on it will be lost. I had a WD 750 GB. That I let a lot of people borrow for different reasons. They were not ejecting properly and it messed up the format. My MBP warned me the the format was messed up and needed to reformat but I procrastinated and lost it all.

Long story short...

Any hard drive
Disk utility
Fat 32 format
Eject properly

Oh yeah some hard drive from different manufactures have "Mac" or " windows" it really does not matter! Just reformat it!

 

[Dre Sage]

Which Portable Hard Drives have reliable instant ejection. For instance, in case the cord is removed on accident or purpose.

 

[FearMediocrity]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your help!

 

[CarcinogenX]

There is this:

http://oyendigital.com/firewire-800-usb-3.0-hard-drive.html

FW 800 and USB 3/2

I bought an SSD drive for my 2010 MBP and bought a similar enclosure for use as a portable backup for the original Apple hard drive I took out. Firewire 800 is very fast. I can transfer 1GB in less than 20 seconds. Doesn't need external power either, runs off the cable power.

You can buy it with installed with a regular drive, an SSD or just the enclosure and add your own drive.