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Best External Portable drives for Time Machine back up of OSX MBP

EricaV

EricaV

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 20, 2008
140
5
I would appreciate any feedback on compatibility and external hard drives y'all have used for backing up macbook pros.

I have a 1 TB laptop and would prefer to use the same external HD for some time to come.

I'm looking at 4TB portables and of course would love to find a unit that will be reliable in every way an not malfunction in a years time (like my ReadyNAS server grrrr :(. Basically I've given up on using this server and I just want a portable unit- my 500 g one is already full.

Any help appreciated !!!
 
I use Western Digital's "My Passport for Mac," and that seems to work well. In fact, just yesterday it saved my digital life.

My MacBook Pro wouldn't start. I ran recovery mode and tried to repair the disk. The Disk Utility said the disk couldn't be repaired and it had to be reformatted. I reformatted it, downloaded OS X Mountain Lion from the Internet and installed it. Then, when the laptop started up it gave me the option of restoring from Time Machine. I did. It took six hours, but when it was done, everything was exactly as it had been. Like it never even happened.

Thank God for Time Machine!
 
Thank you ! Time machine has saved my life more than once- I love to hear that ! Appreciate the HD tip, I've had best luck with Western Dig too.

Gogurt48 said:
I use Western Digital's "My Passport for Mac," and that seems to work well. In fact, just yesterday it saved my digital life.

My MacBook Pro wouldn't start. I ran recovery mode and tried to repair the disk. The Disk Utility said the disk couldn't be repaired and it had to be reformatted. I reformatted it, downloaded OS X Mountain Lion from the Internet and installed it. Then, when the laptop started up it gave me the option of restoring from Time Machine. I did. It took six hours, but when it was done, everything was exactly as it had been. Like it never even happened.

Thank God for Time Machine!
Click to expand...
 
I use Western Digital's My Passport as well. Those are the best out of all the external hard drives I've used for Mac.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 
If you're going to use TM, you probably don't care about the software that comes on the drive. Save some cash, skip the "for Mac" version and get the standard version. It can be formatted with Mac OS X Journaled format using Disk Utility.

FWIW, I have the WD My Passport as well, a 2 TB version.
 
I have about 20 external hard drives accumulated over the past 7 years. Various brands. The only one that failed was a Western Digital My Book.
 
Good point- thank you !!

hallux said:
If you're going to use TM, you probably don't care about the software that comes on the drive. Save some cash, skip the "for Mac" version and get the standard version. It can be formatted with Mac OS X Journaled format using Disk Utility.

FWIW, I have the WD My Passport as well, a 2 TB version.
Click to expand...


----------

much appreciated
 
The units sold by OWC have been reliable. I have a couple 6-7 years old still going strong. My Hitachi To Go's have worked well. WDs my book, not as portable, but has worked well for oh 5 years now. you also have the option of buying a bare drive and enclosure. Sometimes the newegg ratings can give you a rough idea of which drive models have issues.
 
Personally I'm a big fan of network backup, i.e. Time Capsule. Having Time Machine run once an hour as long as I'm on wifi, regardless of whether I'm in bed, on the couch, on my deck, etc. is important to me. Plugging a portable drive into my MacBook is enough of a hassle that it doesn't get done often enough, and when I'm generating work it could leave quite a lot of data off the backup at any one time.

I'm actually using a Mac Mini with Mountain Lion Server personally, not a Time Capsule, but TC is the way to go if you don't have a Mac server on the network.
 
FreakinEurekan said:
Personally I'm a big fan of network backup, i.e. Time Capsule. Having Time Machine run once an hour as long as I'm on wifi, regardless of whether I'm in bed, on the couch, on my deck, etc. is important to me. Plugging a portable drive into my MacBook is enough of a hassle that it doesn't get done often enough, and when I'm generating work it could leave quite a lot of data off the backup at any one time.

I'm actually using a Mac Mini with Mountain Lion Server personally, not a Time Capsule, but TC is the way to go if you don't have a Mac server on the network.
Click to expand...

Same here, if it's an option. I now have two 2TB time capsules, which for myself, is wonderful. My MacPro server uses up about 1.25TBs of space (Mostly pics/videos.) and that doesn't leave much room for my MBP and Macbook. Now I have a dedicated TC for my MP and then one for my MBP and MB.

Although, since I use the MBP at work too and this is where all my "new" files are created, I've considered getting an external as well for "office only" backups. (duplicate with the TC at home - just incase) With that in mind, I might see if work can get me a 1TB external and I may go with the regular WD Passport. (Although, I'd like to get something with a TB connection. Sometimes I carry iso's home to edit them as well. A larger 2TB+ would be great. Hmm not sure.)

EDIT: Lacie Big Disks are looking good, if that's within your budget.
 
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mwhities said:
Although, since I use the MBP at work too and this is where all my "new" files are created, I've considered getting an external as well for "office only" backups. (duplicate with the TC at home - just incase)
Click to expand...

That's an excellent plan, and with Mountain Lion the multiple disk support in Time Machine makes this a very simple thing to do. Both your home TC and your portable drive will contain full 100% backups of your data.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11452
 
Thanks for this.

Can I use a WD My Passport 2TB Portable Hard Drive to backup both my iMac (1TB Drive) and occasionally my rMBP (512gb) on the same drive?

Will save some money and just format the drive.

Thanks.
 
Connecting a backup drive directly to the Mac makes it a mounted part of the Mac's file system. That means it is susceptible to anything that goes wrong with the file system (virus, global edit/delete commands...etc.) . Better is to have the backup drive mounted in another machine'f file system such as a Time Capsule or NAS. Personally I highly recommend Time Capsules as they can generate your wifi network, provide backup disk space, be a small router, and provide a USB port.

Connecting backup drives(s) directly to a Mac is definitely better than not doing backups!!!! But having the backup drive(s) outside the Mac's local file system is a lower risk architecture.
 
MCAsan said:
Personally I highly recommend Time Capsules as they can generate your wifi network, provide backup disk space, be a small router, and provide a USB port.

Connecting backup drives(s) directly to a Mac is definitely better than not doing backups!!!! But having the backup drive(s) outside the Mac's local file system is a lower risk architecture.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. I've always heard here that wifi can be an issue with backups, its the weakest of the links. A few reports here of corrupted backup sets over wifi, but none connectivity related for a local drive. So if you are paranoid enough to be reluctant to use a local drive.. then you better use ethernet, never wifi. Ethernet on an isolated network to even be safer.

I'm going to guess malware that can affect a local drive by corrupting it can also corrupt a remote drive that is mounted to the file system so time machine can do its work... but I dunno.... a mounted drive/volume is a mounted drive/volume.
 
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