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

Best acting and Looking External Harddrive for your mac

H

herbcheck

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 14, 2005
51
0
So i have been looking for a while for a decent looking external harddrive probally in the 200-500 gb range. Looks are important but so is performance. I love the way this gtech looks
88-154-002-01.jpg


but BAD BAD BAD reviews. I have had a Lacie 80gb for a while just need for space. Also, i would like it to have firewire 400 and a USB 2.00 connection.

Can anyone help?
 
THANKS FOR THE FAST REPLY! Have you ever used this drive before? Are they reliable?
 
My G-drive has worked great for me. Much much quiter than all of my friends' Lacie externals. I bought my dad one too for his back ups. I always wondered why no one ever writes about them here...
 
jsw said:
I love these.
Click to expand...

I've been trying to figure this out, but what is a RAID drive? The entire right section of the drives is all different types of RAID drives, how do they differ from regular drives, what do they do thats so special?
 
Danksi said:
Second that. Good drive.
Click to expand...

I have been using LaCie's and been very happy. The only small exception is the fan noise on the original 1TB....a little loud when it is right next to you. But, I do like the looks and features of these drives. I wish they came in a larger capacity.
 
furious said:
any of the Western Digital MyBooks. They are great.
Click to expand...

I had a 250gb MyBook Premium that has Firewire/USB and I loved it. Metal case and all, it was a sleek machine.

However, Black Friday came around and they had a 400gb MyBook Essential for $100. It only has USB and a plastic outer case, but I don't really need the other stuff... and to get that much more space for $100 cheaper... worth it to me.

I had a great experience with both machines though. WD makes a good product.
 
The beauty is the turn on and off with the machine they are plugged into. The only drives that do this to my knowledge.
 
go to OWC, pick out the case you want, with the connectivity you need (their Mercury line is pretty good), buy the bare drive you want from Newegg, and put it together. You'll save money, and if you go with a seagate or other drive with 5yr warranty, you get the security of that also. OWC's drive cases have always been a winner for me. High quality and easy to add a drive to...

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
 
DEXTERITY said:
I second that, I have three and they work great. no problems and I literally leave them on for weeks at a time..
Click to expand...

are those noisy? i've read on Newegg.com the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, which is what is used in the Mercury Elite AL Pro is really noisy.

The fanless G-Drive sounds really good to me though.
 
Roll your own. The pre-builts all seem to be unreliable. Get a really good 3.5 and drop it into an Icy Box enclosure. You will save a lot of money and have a quiet and really reliable drive if you choose your drive wisely.
 
I've been running a G-Drive 250gb for several months now with no problems at all; no fan noise and it never even gets warm much less hot. My G-Drive stays on 24/7 and has been used for daily back-ups with SuperDuper and the combination has proved very reliable.
 
LaCie

herbcheck said:
So i have been looking for a while for a decent looking external harddrive probally in the 200-500 gb range. Looks are important but so is performance. I love the way this gtech looks
88-154-002-01.jpg


but BAD BAD BAD reviews. I have had a Lacie 80gb for a while just need for space. Also, i would like it to have firewire 400 and a USB 2.00 connection.

Can anyone help?
Click to expand...

I just bought in an end-of-year sale the LaCie 320 Gb with USB 2.0, FW 400 and 2 FW 800 ports. Plug and play. works very nicely. i wanted the FW 800 because I have a new MBP. Too bad the new Airport Extreme doesn't have a FW 800 port.
 
DEXTERITY said:
I second that, I have three and they work great. no problems and I literally leave them on for weeks at a time..
Click to expand...

Quick question - are you saying that if your computer will go to sleep or you shut it down the OWC hard drive will shut down or go to sleep by itself too?
 
mac000 said:
Quick question - are you saying that if your computer will go to sleep or you shut it down the OWC hard drive will shut down or go to sleep by itself too?
Click to expand...

It's pretty common for an external drive to behave this way. My G-Drive is on 24/7 but it's in sleep most of the time, only becoming active when needed.
 
BobP63 said:
It's pretty common for an external drive to behave this way. My G-Drive is on 24/7 but it's in sleep most of the time, only becoming active when needed.
Click to expand...

If i buy a external enclosure from OWC - the Mercury Elite AL PRO, and pop in a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 by myself, do I have to do anything to set the drive up to sleep/become active?

I was going to get a My Book Pro 500GB, but from what I heard the drive doesn't go to sleep when the computer goes to sleep and causes "disk was improperly ejected situations" so i'm staying away from those.
 
Quick Help

Hey all, I just bought a MacBook, switched back from PC. I was just wondering if anyone out there could help a semi-newb with building a 500GB to a 1.5TB External HD. The advice given here is great...I was just wondering if there was any complexities to the building of the drive or is it pretty much simple stuff? Thanks guys.
 
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