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1TB External Hard Drive for Time Machine

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Primejimbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 10, 2008
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Looks like the more expensive one has software built in to access it over the internet.

Just partition the HD in half to use it between 2 computers.

No other difference that I see, but maybe look at higher speed transfers. Firewire 400 maybe if you both have a firewire enabled macbook.
 
On a side note...I would highly recommend a firewire drive...much, much faster than USB for large transfers.

EDIT: just saw that you have the alu-macbook which has no firewire.
 
The office edition has the Mionet software for remote access. It is windows only, and sucks royally anyway.
If you want something you can both access easily go for an NAS like the My Book World Edition (that works very nicely but you do have to know what you are doing with it, PM me if you need help with that) If not just get a USB (or Firewire, 800 if you have pros...) and manually connect to it individually. Or get Time Capsule. It is bloody expensive for the space you get, but it supposedly works very well for just what you are describing.
 
Thank!! I'll get the cheaper one probably this weekend. I got a 100.00 gift card from Best Buy so I won't have to pay much out of pocket. I was going to get an Ipod Nano, but after see people lose all their info from 1 thing or another, I figure the hard drive would be a wise investment.
How do I partition the hard drive?
I have an Airport router and I will be using that and make it like a "Time capsule", I'll plug the hard drive into the USB port on the back of the Apple Airport.
 
Primejimbo said:
AWESOME!! Thanks!!
So I take it all I do is plug the hard drive to my Mac and go from there?
Click to expand...

Exactly, It looks like this You just say how much you need.
 

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Techguy172 said:
No, all Time machine does is put one single large package on the harddrive so you can use two macs on one unpartitioned drive.
Click to expand...

Ok cool, I was afraid if I did partition the hard drive that 1 mac would need more than 500GB and the other would only need 250. This is a big help!! Thanks!
 
I was going to go for the 1TB WD Essentials drive today as it was available for about £59/US$90 in the UK from PC World after price matching with Comet. However, customer reviews regarding its reliability were shocking. It seems that the usb port and power circuit regularly fail leading to mounting errors. The drive itself usually survives, so it is not a HD issue as such.

Have a read: Amazon one star reviews - plenty of 'em

I paid about another £6/US$10 extra for the WD Elements drive, which seems to have gone down better, although not as smart looking as the Mybook. I already own a couple of 500GB Mybook Studios, which are still going strong.
 
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weckart said:
I was going to go for the 1TB WD Essentials drive today as it was available for about £59/US$90 in the UK from PC World after price matching with Comet. However, customer reviews regarding its reliability were shocking. It seems that the usb port and power circuit regularly fail leading to mounting errors. The drive itself usually survives, so it is not a HD issue as such.

Have a read: Amazon one star reviews - plenty of 'em

I paid about another £6/US$10 extra for the WD Elements drive, which seems to have gone down better, although not as smart looking as the Mybook. I already own a couple of 500GB Mybook Studios, which are still going strong.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into the Elements drive
 
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Primejimbo said:
Ok cool, I was afraid if I did partition the hard drive that 1 mac would need more than 500GB and the other would only need 250. This is a big help!! Thanks!
Click to expand...

Right- no need to partition as mentioned-- however you will need to format the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using a GUID partition map to use it with Time Machine since it will probably come formatted for PC use.

You can either do it ahead of time (before starting up Time Machine) using Disk Utility- or Time Machine will ask you if you want to prepare it for use with TM if TM is started and it sees that it is formatted for PC.
 
Techguy172 said:
Seagate is a good brand despite some recent issues. Any hard drive will work for the mac and all you do is reformat it to HFS+
Click to expand...

Thanks, so is 1TB over kill for Time Machine? I have a 250GB hard drive and my wife has a 160BG hard drive.
 
Don't bother with firewire at this point. Its over. USB 3 will be out
before long. Anyway, for backup USB 2 is more than adequate.

Take a look at OWC...great prices on externals.
 
skye12 said:
Don't bother with firewire at this point. Its over. USB 3 will be out
before long. Anyway, for backup USB 2 is more than adequate.

Take a look at OWC...great prices on externals.
Click to expand...

He doesn't even have FW (alu MB)
 
can i suggest a backup for the backup? i've used an external hd for backup before but it also did get corrupt. so now i have a backup for the backup.
 
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