Best value external 250GB drive (USB2 or/and FW400)?

[edesignuk]

Looking at maybe getting an external drive for the new iMac. If I do it I'll go for a 250GB, and it'll need to be either USB2 or FW400 (or both!).

I'll partition off 160GB so that I can do full backups of my iMacs 160GB internal drive, and use the rest for "stuff" 😉 😀

So, what's a good value, reliable, drive to get?

Thanks!

 

[Anacondan]

Looking at maybe getting an external drive for the new iMac. If I do it I'll go for a 250GB, and it'll need to be either USB2 or FW400 (or both!).

I'll partition off 160GB so that I can do full backups of my iMacs 160GB internal drive, and use the rest for "stuff" 😉 😀

So, what's a good value, reliable, drive to get?

Thanks!

Tonight I ordered the Maxtor 250 One Touch FW400 (the one formatted for Mac) from Macmall. I also picked up the two 1 gb edge memory upgrade. My fingers are crossed that I didn't make a mistake...or two. 🙂
FWIW, I bought a seagate usb 120 a couple of days ago from a local retailer, the box said for mac or pc. But it turned out that although I could copy files to it, I could never get it to be recognized as a bootable drive? Anyway, I took it back today and took the step up to the Maxtor.
Ed

 

[hotwire132002]

Looking at maybe getting an external drive for the new iMac. If I do it I'll go for a 250GB, and it'll need to be either USB2 or FW400 (or both!).

I'll partition off 160GB so that I can do full backups of my iMacs 160GB internal drive, and use the rest for "stuff" 😉 😀

So, what's a good value, reliable, drive to get?

Thanks!

I use a couple of LaCie disks. So far, I haven't had any problems with them--"so far" being the past 2 years or so. I would highly suggest them. I can't remember the model off hand--but in general, I find that if LaCie makes it, it tends to work well.

 

[edesignuk]

Tonight I ordered the Maxtor 250 One Touch FW400 (the one formatted for Mac) from Macmall. I also picked up the two 1 gb edge memory upgrade. My fingers are crossed that I didn't make a mistake...or two. 🙂

You'll have to let me know how the "one touch" backup works out 🙂

 

[brap]

I just bought a 320GB LaCie 'extreme' drive - there was around £30 difference between that and the 250, and I can't miss out on that kind of crazy value for money. Mine has the FW800 connections, so it will continue being useful past my 12" Powerbook... It's also built like a tank. A pretty, silver tank.

Course, if you just want USB2/FW400, those Porsche LaCie disks are really cheap; all you have to do is find somewhere stocks them (not an easy task by any means).
Whilst I was looking around, here in Blighty home-baked drives are really not at all cost-effective. Best Kelkoo it, or just get from eBuyer, whatever you decide...

edit: A friend of mine uses 'one touch' drives, they're alright. Apparently the backup thing is cool. Pretty, but Tom's has benches which show it being quite a bit slower than Western Digital based drives.

 

[edesignuk]

I just bought a 320GB LaCie 'extreme' drive - there was around £30 difference between that and the 250, and I can't miss out on that kind of crazy value for money..

Hmmmmm.....very tempting...

 

[brap]

Hmmmmm.....very tempting...

Yeah, I bought it from eBuyer. It's actually 2 160Gb drives raided together, which is kinda cool... much better value than the .5Tb version. Just be warned that it's hella difficult (read: impossible, really) to get it bootable in both Windows and OS X. I had to buy this to make it worthwhile.

 

[SilentPanda]

You'll have to let me know how the "one touch" backup works out 🙂

I have the one touch 250GB drive. By "One Touch" it means that if you press the button it'll launch the Maxtor backup program on your Mac (or whatever program you've set up). But as far as I can tell it's not "touch and go". Also you might want to take a gander at this article:

http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/more/safety_shootout_top_backup_utilities_side_by_side/

#9 on the list is what the Maxtor HD comes with.

All that aside, I'm happy with the Maxtor drive... it does require a driver update from Maxtor's web site otherwise the "hot plug" feature of it ermmmm... panics the colonel. 🙂

I went with straight FW400. I have no use for USB2 right now and by the time Macs no longer have FW400 I'm thinking a 250 GB drive will be like a 10 GB drive is today... I still can't believe that in the early 90's I had a 120 MB hd and was very content (and usually had 10 MB free!). My how things change.

 

[jared_kipe]

Tell me about it, I used to have a 4MB hard drive on an old 8088. If you are really looking for value, nothing beats buying an external case for about $50 and then smacking whatever hard drive you want into it. I did so with I think a $150 or so 200GB and couldn't be happier. Well I could be, I got one with both usb2 and fw on it, and you can't boot from fw because it is some no name chipset.