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

Best Portable Harddrive with Firewire

J

jonesjb

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 20, 2009
35
0
I'm looking for a hard drive with firewire, from a reputable brand. The only harddrive that I've come across is the Western Digital Studio:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=783

My concern is the smart display and the WD SmartWare bloatware. I will be removing this, will this mean the screen won't work? Can someone recommend a suitable alternative?
 
"I'm looking for a hard drive with firewire, from a reputable brand."

Well, the BEST portable hard drive will be one that you build yourself using an external enclosure and a bare drive.

In most cases all it will take is a screwdriver and a few minutes' time.

Consider:
If you buy a "pre-assembled" drive (like most folks), you cannot open the drive without voiding the warranty. But if the drive enclosure goes bad on you -- preventing access to the core drive itself -- the only way to fix it (under warranty) is to send the whole thing back, with files that you can't "get to". You _might_ get your files back intact. Or....?

Build it yourself, and if the enclosure or core drive fails, just swap it out for a good component and send the bad part back (if it's still under warranty).

In addition, "rolling your own" drive will give you a sense of "control" over it, because you saw what's inside and will have a level of confidence and knowledge regarding drives that most users simply don't possess.

I'd recommend one of the higher-end enclosures from Other World Computing that have USB2, firewire 400, firewire 800. Great connection flexibility.
 
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