Adding External Hard Drive

Discussion in 'iMac' started by Brewing, Oct 27, 2015.

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  1. Brewing, Oct 27, 2015

    Brewing macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2014
    #1
    Well, I finally pulled the trigger this morning on ordering a fully loaded 27" i7, m395x, 512ssd iMac. I was going to make the switch from pc to mac last year, but held off based on purported heat issues and the retina display being in it's first year. I kept debating again this year, but figured I will always be waiting if I keep waiting for the latest and greatest.

    I didn't want a spinning drive in my iMac, so I went with the SSD over the fusion. Not really interested in setting up as a RAID. I would like to add an external drive 1-2TB for media and files, and a second external 3-4tb for a time machine backup. It would be nice to do some type of enclosure so I only had 1 usb cable. In the past I have had trouble putting drives on a usb hub. Is that still the case with putting a drive on a usb hub?

    Does anyone have any recommendations on a setup? Suppose maybe there will be some SSD's on sale Black Friday for the non backup drive. Would love to get your inputs.

    Thanks.
     
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  2. bankshot, Oct 27, 2015

    bankshot macrumors 65816

    bankshot

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2003
    Location:
    Southern California
    #2
    I currently have 5 USB hard drives and 1 Blu-ray drive connected to my Mac mini via USB hub. No problems - the only issue is that if you want to boot from an external drive, it must be connected directly to the machine, not through a hub. That's usually not a problem since I boot from the internal drive.

    I plan to drop my new iMac in place of the Mac mini when it arrives next week, connecting all external drives the same way. I don't expect any issues.

    Right now, Seagate external drives tend to be cheapest per TB. I have 3 of their "Expansion" line.

    I like Western Digital internal drives (combined with separate enclosures) for reliability, but I can't recommend their external drives. This is because they apply some sort of proprietary encryption to the drives: if the USB controller in the drive fails, you can't open the enclosure and pull out the bare drive to recover your data. :eek:

    My best recommendation is to have at least one Time Machine backup drive as you mention, and maybe a second backup as well (either another TM or just manually cloned). Drives from all manufacturers fail, often with no warning. Better to have extra copies of important data than no copies. I recently had 3 different Seagate internal drives fail - all from the same batch, all failed at 2-3 years old and out of warranty. My 3 Seagate externals are doing much better, different batch.

    Hope this helps. :)
     
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  3. Toxe, Oct 27, 2015

    Toxe macrumors newbie

    Toxe

    Joined:
    Oct 26, 2015
    #3
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  4. Sirmausalot, Oct 27, 2015

    Sirmausalot macrumors 6502a

    Sirmausalot

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2007
    #4
    Although this doesn't meet your requirements, it's my favorite drive as it is small, super fast, and large. Perhaps worth considering? Although it is RAID, it is invisible. http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/performance/backup-plus-fast-hdd/
     
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  5. Brewing, Oct 27, 2015

    Brewing thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2014
    #5
    Glad to hear there are no problems with the usb hubs. Guess I should seek out a quality hub. Would still be interested in hearing others recommendations for a drive set up.
     
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