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What is the BEST external hard drive for the 13" Aluminum Macbook??

BoilerMacUser

BoilerMacUser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 4, 2009
1
0
Purdue University
I've had my 13" Aluminum Macbook since it was released...now I'm wanting to add an External Hard Drive so I can put all my files in there and use it as extra storage...I will be putting anything from music and video to PDF documents, Pages files, Excell, Powerpoint, etc...

I need some suggestions on which drives are the best....speed and durability are a MUST have. I'm looking to get a 1TB perhaps a 1.5TB or 2TB...IF its not too pricey...I'll be getting them from newegg.com so $$ shouldnt be that bad of an issue.... definitely 7200RPM...I unfortunately do not have firewire ports on my 13"MB so I'm stuck with USB 2.0 connections...

SO.....I NEED some advice and guidance as to what drives are worth the $$ and will last me a good long time.
 
I have several WD Studio drives, both the full size and the Passport models. Depending on your portability needs you may want to look at one of those.
 
I have the Seagate - FreeAgent Desk 1.5TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive from Best Buy. It has worked perfectly so far, I have it connected to my Airport Extreme so all I needed was USB 2.0. It says that it is only PC compatible but any Hard Drive is compatible so don't listen to them. So that is what I recommend and I think it has like a 5 year warranty so that helps! :)
 
I use LaCie drives over here with WD Green Power inside both. All on Firewire 800.

LaCie makes a nice enclosure but mine came with noisy and hot Seagate drives inside. I wanted bigger drives anyway so in went some cool quiet and fast 1TB Greens.

LaCie, OWC, G-Tech and Iomega all make nice, solid drives with standard SATA internal drives and multiple interfaces including Firewire 800 which is the best option for most Macs.

Beware of the small, inexpensive plastic external drives like the WD MyBook. Many of this type use proprietary drives that cannot be replaced with standard drives. Also in many cases the power brick and cables are inferior cheapies if you even get all the cables (some ship with only a USB cable)
This is fine for a 2.5" self-powered USB drive, but for better performance, longevity and capacity use a 3.5" enclosure with replaceable drives and Firewire.

Don't worry about drive RPM in an external enclosure. Heat is a much more important factor. Many external enclosures don't have any fan at all and the thermostat-controlled ones (like my LaCie 2BigTriple) get noisy with hot drives inside. A WD Green drive is an excellent choice as they are very cool and quiet yet plenty fast.

The OP was insisting upon a 7200rpm drive for a USB interface. Why? There's no way USB2 is going to come close to even a 4500rpm notebook drive's capability.

My suggestion: Either an inexpensive Passport-type 2.5" drive for convenience and low cost or get a decent 3.5" drive from one of the above makers like OWC or G-Tech.

Have Fun,
Keri
 
KeriJane said:
LaCie, OWC, G-Tech and Iomega all make nice, solid drives with standard SATA internal drives and multiple interfaces including Firewire 800 which is the best option for most Macs.
Click to expand...

To clear this up (Keri it's clear you have the knowledge, but some may not) - LaCie, G-Tech and Iomega all make enclosures the drives come from companies like Seagate, Western Digital, etc...
 
Thanks a lot guys. One question to goldenmac-how come when I typed in 'external hard drive' days ago when I started this search, your guide (which is excellent btw) didn't show up on the first page? MacRumors search FAIL!
 
i would like to question in this thread about using a wireless drive for media with my imac. Right now, i have a 2tb time capsule and im considering to use the drive of this equipment for media share with my apple tv.

Do you think its worth it for this or not?
 
cnote678 said:
Thanks a lot guys. One question to goldenmac-how come when I typed in 'external hard drive' days ago when I started this search, your guide (which is excellent btw) didn't show up on the first page? MacRumors search FAIL!
Click to expand...

I am not sure, I highly suggest using mroogle instead of the default search feature. You also should probably change the dates in the past year, but then again - it appears using mroogle and those parameters it wouldn't show up. There are plenty of guides on MacRumors and I highly recommend checking them out.
 
I'll keep that in mind-good to know.

Anyway, I went with a 500GB My Passport Studio, because it will fit easily in my desk or wherever else I want to keep it, it doesn't need a power cord, and it has the 5yr warranty which is more important to me than the extra space since I don't use that much memory.

Thanks for everything!
 
cnote678 said:
I'll keep that in mind-good to know.

Anyway, I went with a 500GB My Passport Studio, because it will fit easily in my desk or wherever else I want to keep it, it doesn't need a power cord, and it has the 5yr warranty which is more important to me than the extra space since I don't use that much memory.

Thanks for everything!
Click to expand...

Good choice! I've been very happy with mine.
 
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