Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

500GB external HD -- what to buy?

C

Corman922

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 28, 2007
2
0
I'm in need of an external hard drive for my Mac. I'll be using it mostly as a backup drive. Are there any brands that I should consider or steer clear of? Thanks!
 
Try using the forum search (top right corner of the site). There are a whole host of threads on this exact subject.

Also; you'll want a 500GB drive. :)
 
Corman922 said:
I'm in need of an external hard drive for my Mac. I'll be using it mostly as a backup drive. Are there any brands that I should consider or steer clear of? Thanks!
Click to expand...

You'll get plenty of people here bitching and moaning because of some drive that didn't work for them and lost all their holiday snaps.

As long as you stick to the big three you'll be alright. For Mac's that is Western Digital, Seagate or LaCie. I'd love to include iomega, but to my mind they've always been the slow expensive option.

Personally have WD Studio drives, ie. with firewire 800 & eSata for future proofing.

Cheers. M.
 
I've read that the most recent Iomega 500GB integrates well with Leopard and Time Machine. Since I don't have Leopard, I don't know what that entails, but I'm looking at getting a back-up drive soon along with Leopard, so if anyone has any thoughts along those lines, I'd appreciate it.
 
MikeDTyke said:
You'll get plenty of people here bitching and moaning because of some drive that didn't work for them and lost all their holiday snaps.

As long as you stick to the big three you'll be alright. For Mac's that is Western Digital, Seagate or LaCie. I'd love to include iomega, but to my mind they've always been the slow expensive option.

Personally have WD Studio drives, ie. with firewire 800 & eSata for future proofing.

Cheers. M.
Click to expand...

Yessssuuurrrr.... I second a WD with FW. The new ones are quieter (green my book [?] was loud), and the FW makes it easy to daisy chain in/for the future.
 
mondesi43 said:
Yessssuuurrrr.... I second a WD with FW. The new ones are quieter (green my book [?] was loud), and the FW makes it easy to daisy chain in/for the future.
Click to expand...

x2 I love my 750 GIG WD with Firewire/Esata/Usb sooo quiet and I love having a on and off switch
 
WD 500GB FW sale

Best Buy has it for $130 this week. Price difference +10% back from Circuit City for a purchase 3.5 weeks ago... Gotta love CCs return/price matching policies!!!
 
I've always bought the LaCie Porsche drives and never had a problem with them but I was in Cancom last week looking for another drive and the guy in store was recommending Formac drives such as this one - he said they're very reliable and they actually crack them open and use the hard disks inside some of their Mac Pros; also v quiet, fast and have a triple interface. Might be worth a look.
 
tamvly said:
Any thoughts about Firewire vs. USB?
Click to expand...

Get a drive with both interfaces if you can (or "triple" interface i.e. FW400, FW800 & USB 2.0)

FireWire 400 is faster than USB; FireWire 800 is faster still but not all macs have a FW800 port.

USB has greater compatibility with other devices and can be plugged into some routers for use over a home network.

FireWire allows you to use target disk mode.
 
Re: USB vs. Firewire ... as I expected. Alternatives are good. My experience is that Firewire is a bit faster.

So I assume that the configuration that 150hp uses magically transforms the device interface of serial ATA to Firewire in the external enclosure?
 
i just picked up a WD 500gb Home Edition from Best Buy for in the $130's its got firewire 400, usb, and eSATA.....great deal in my opinion
 
dcv said:
Get a drive with both interfaces if you can (or "triple" interface i.e. FW400, FW800 & USB 2.0)
Click to expand...
IMHO eSATA is a must if you're looking for a "future-proof" drive.

I picked up a Seagate 750GB at Costco a few months ago that came with separate plug-in modules for FW800/400 and USB2/eSATA.

B
 
150hp said:
FWIW, I went with an empty NewerTech miniStack V3 & a WD Green Power 500GB HD. I wanted the USB Hub & FW800/ESATA for future-proofing. I chose the GP drive for its quiet operation & low power use. Yes I paid a bit more but I got exactly what I wanted.

Here's the links:

NewerTech miniStack V3

WD Green Power 500GB HD
Click to expand...
Wow, that enclosure looks fantastic port-wise. Let us know how it works out for you, I'm probably going to be looking into a similar solution a few months from now.
 
joefinan said:
But the specs for the WD HDD say that USB is 480Mbps where as Firewire is 400Mbps.

So how come FireWire is faster??
Click to expand...

Those numbers are theoretical, not real world.

I'm not an expert, but it is my understanding that the Firewire architecture is simply more efficient and better designed.
 
If you don't care so much about looks, it's cheaper to get an enclosure and an internal drive separately.

Either as just a case or as the whole unit, I'm a big fan of these. I've got six of the 500GB drives.

S600MBUSA said:
Those numbers are theoretical, not real world.

I'm not an expert, but it is my understanding that the Firewire architecture is simply more efficient and better designed.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Firewire is much faster at real-world file transfers in most cases.

FW800 is dramatically faster. As mentioned, eSATA is even better, but isn't (yet) supported by most systems.
nhexima said:
Wow, that enclosure looks fantastic port-wise. Let us know how it works out for you, I'm probably going to be looking into a similar solution a few months from now.
Click to expand...
I have the older v2 model with my mini. I love it. The v3 is even better from all I've heard.
 
seagate freeagent pro. Fast, lots of connections, power button, nearly silent, reasonably priced. I really like mine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back