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Can anyone Recommend a good 1tb External Hard Drive?

iWoz

iWoz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 12, 2009
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East Midlands, U.K
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I'm looking for a good looking external Hard drive to store films and music on mainly going to be used at home to hook up to my ps3 for films/photos/music. Which is why I want it to look good. I don't want to spend more than £100... One that I like so far is the White mybook 1tb drive
 
Yep - Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 1TB. Two firewires on the back, usb, esata and an extra year warranty on top of the normal one.
 
1tb Hd

I'm 100% Seagate and they've been good to me. My IT buddies like both Seagate and Western Digital.
But remember, to back up a 1 TB drive, .... you'll need another 1 TB drive!

I have my server (Old G4) configured in a Raid 1 with two 1 TB drives. One did fail, and installing the new one brought it all back and happy!
 
Be sure to buy a FW800 drive. They really are much faster.

Unless this is to be used for backup, then you don't care to much about speed.

The only other spec worth reading on the box, after the interface type is the warrenty. Seage offers 5 years. I've seen some as short as one year.
 
I can highly recommend the Seagate FreeAgent 1TB for Mac. highly versatile, speedy and spacious ... and it ships with the stand and virtually every cable you'll ever require. Some sleep issues with FW800 and my 21" iMac, but nothing to be concerned about. All in all, a very good buy.
 
Sorry for using this thread, but i'll like to know what are your thoughts about using the Hard Drive of the Time Capsule for streaming audio and video with an imac and a ps3? I have one with plenty space left, and im thinking for using for that purpose and save some bucks instead of buying another one drive...
 
miles01110 said:
I wouldn't buy a premade hard drive; mostly because they tend not to be easy to open. Thus when your drive fails you can't swap it with another one, forcing you to buy a new unit.
Click to expand...

IF it fails.

to Woz: You are fine with USB because PS3 has no FW. I second WD My Book as well, it's great. LaCies are also great but cost more. AFAIK, PS3 only reads FAT32 so you have to format it so
 
My recommendation:

DON'T buy an external hard drive at all.

Instead, get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ld-keywords=usb2+sata+docking+station&x=0&y=0
(various models shown)

....and, buy one or two BARE hard drives to use with it.

Very handy and versatile, unless you intend to carry your external drive around "out-of-house", or if you need to leave it turned on continuously (although the drive is exposed to the open air, there is no fan running on it).
 
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Fishrrman said:
My recommendation:

DON'T buy an external hard drive at all.

Instead, get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ld-keywords=usb2+sata+docking+station&x=0&y=0
(various models shown)

....and, buy one or two BARE hard drives to use with it.

Very handy and versatile, unless you intend to carry your external drive around "out-of-house", or if you need to leave it turned on continuously (although the drive is exposed to the open air, there is no fan running on it).
Click to expand...

Depends on how "techie" you are, but this is what I would do:

Get an eSATA PCIe card.
Buy an external disk enclosure; if reliability and data protection is critical, buy one that has built in RAID1.
Buy (one or more) 3.5" OEM HDDs from a place like Newegg.
Put it all together in < 10 minutes.

It is important to use OEM HDDs because they are much much better tested than the consumer models. Also, many are required to be "burned-in" which means you will get a higher quality product. These are usually in no-nonsense packaging (usually bare) and therefore not as "pretty". Usually also cost less than the packaged solutions (drives themselves).
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
birdpixel said:
Depends on how "techie" you are, but this is what I would do:

Get an eSATA PCIe card.
Buy an external disk enclosure; if reliability and data protection is critical, buy one that has built in RAID1.
Buy (one or more) 3.5" OEM HDDs from a place like Newegg.
Put it all together in < 10 minutes.

It is important to use OEM HDDs because they are much much better tested than the consumer models. Also, many are required to be "burned-in" which means you will get a higher quality product. These are usually in no-nonsense packaging (usually bare) and therefore not as "pretty". Usually also cost less than the packaged solutions (drives themselves).
Click to expand...

AFAIK, OEM HDs (the ones with just plastic bag) are the same as retail HDs without the fancy package. If the model is the same, the drive is the same. There are different HDs from each version though, e.g. server and RAID versions which differ from normal ones but bare package and retail are the same
 
external enclosures do not manage power saving and auto sleep

i've been using them for years but i found it inconvenient to turn them off manually
 
A mate of mine bought two 1.5TB Samsung drives down here in Australia. Newegg has it for $130, and my friend got it for $135 each here in Australia. Samsung isn't a huge brand in HDD's, and but it's got decent reviews on Egg.
 
bigmanathome24 said:
Yep - Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 1TB. Two firewires on the back, usb, esata and an extra year warranty on top of the normal one.
Click to expand...

+1 For this. I have one. Pretty happy with it. FW800 for speed, or can plug in via USB for access to anything. Think it might have eSATA too if I remember correctly, but don't sue me if it doesn't!
 
Piplodocus said:
+1 For this. I have one. Pretty happy with it. FW800 for speed, or can plug in via USB for access to anything. Think it might have eSATA too if I remember correctly, but don't sue me if it doesn't!
Click to expand...

Doh, yes, as they pointed out in the thing I quoted, it does have eSATA!
 
Hellhammer said:
AFAIK, OEM HDs (the ones with just plastic bag) are the same as retail HDs without the fancy package. If the model is the same, the drive is the same. There are different HDs from each version though, e.g. server and RAID versions which differ from normal ones but bare package and retail are the same
Click to expand...

Hellhammer: What I was talking about was the OEM units sold by the manufacturers and the prepackaged "external" HDD versions. E.g. the passports from WD vs. their 2.5" HDDs sold as OEM. These two ARE different and not the same.
 
birdpixel said:
Hellhammer: What I was talking about was the OEM units sold by the manufacturers and the prepackaged "external" HDD versions. E.g. the passports from WD vs. their 2.5" HDDs sold as OEM. These two ARE different and not the same.
Click to expand...

They COULD be. I can't see why the drive wouldn't be exactly the same as OEM, but of course, it CAN be different but we don't know.
 
birdpixel said:
Hellhammer: What I was talking about was the OEM units sold by the manufacturers and the prepackaged "external" HDD versions. E.g. the passports from WD vs. their 2.5" HDDs sold as OEM. These two ARE different and not the same.
Click to expand...

True but if you go to Newegg and look at the 2 2TB Hitachi drives, they are the same, one is OEM and one is Retail. I talked to Hitachi about the difference, and they said just the packaging and distribution channels.
 
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