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CLUELESS on what External HDD to buy ..

Sehnsucht said:
Personally, Seagate is my preference. At the moment I've got a 250GB FireWire 800 HDD that I've had for about 6 months now...I thought I'd never use up 250GB until I started using Time Machine to back up to it. :D A few weeks after I got it, the internal HD in my mom's Dell took a s**t, so I got her a Seagate 500GB SATA and it's been great (now the only part of the computer that functions normally.) :D Also, I like how the external Seagates for Mac have the sleek "Mac look". :cool:
Click to expand...

I was looking at Seagates but as people have said the new Desk models have a crazy bright light that cannot be turned off or covered without covering the fan vents.

Between Seagate and WD more people seem to have the WD's though ..

UPDATE:

Okay, I looked at the OWC Mercury Elite drive that was posted. I know OWC and Newegg are pretty respected in the community and I feel I'd get better customer service ordering from them instead of like Amazon and stuff. Agree?

Maek .. you said Cache size doesn't matter? (16 vs 32?) Also, since my 2.16 GHz MB from 1.5 years ago doesn't have FW 800, then I should choose the FW 400 + USB 2.0 configuration instead and save $30 right? What is eSATA?

And is this drive all put together already like a WD one or do I still have to put this together and add other stuff? Sorry for all the questions .. the Hitachi and Samsung drives seem to get good reviews .. what drive does this OWC come with?
 
I spent hours yesterday shopping for new HDD's
I beagan with the run-o-the-mill boxes from OfficeMax / Staples, then moved on to the MacMall / Amazon offerings
I ended up at OWC (I knew I would somehow)
then I couldn't decide whether to get the :
Mercury On-the-Go bus powered 2.5" drive enclosures
the Mercury AL Elite drives
the Mini-Stack v3
or the Raid1 Guardian Maximus
honestly, I still haven't got it totally figured out

to the post above, I'm not sure exactly what OWC puts in some configurations, but the Mercury Elite and Mini Stack ENTERPRISE versions use the Hitachi Deskstar e7k100
Enterprise Class: The Deskstar E7K1000 delivers value to the enterprise 7200 RPM performance and innovative technologies like Rotational Vibration Safeguard (RVS). To mitigate any adverse impact on system performance, Hitachi-patented RVS technology works to counteract this disturbance ensuring drive performance and data integrity. The drive also has a targeted 1.2 million hours MTBF rating and provides the industry’s most comprehensive 5-year warranty.
Click to expand...

overpriced or not, I'll probably end up with one of these "enterprise" class devices....... 1TB will run about $200 from OWC
I like the MiniStack v3 for the Airport form factor and powered hub

I almost bought a WD Caviar Black internal and slapped it into a SATA dock / enclosure, .......... I'll figure it out in a day or so


when you're buying backup peripherals, it makes the most sense to get something reliable
good quote I read was
"if you buy at a cheap price, you'll probably end up buying twice"
 
I too was debating firewire 800 external hard drives recently and after a lot of research I went with OWC. I have two of these. They have rebates on the drives now too.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEAQ7H1TB32M/

I wanted to convert my entire collection of 1200 CD's to Apple Lossless files and needed a lot of space. I purchased two so I would have an extra backup. I also have my Time Machine backups on both drives. I am very happy with them they are quiet and very fast. They are also well made. Another thing is that they come with cables for all of the interfaces. This saves a bit of money. They also have this one for less with the only difference being a smaller cache.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEAQ7H1TB16M/

I chose standard shipping and they were here in two days. I did not use any of their backup software. Time Machine found the drive right away and took care of everything.


James
 
Awesome, now OWC is at the top of my list. That Mercury Elite Al-Pro seems like a great buy even if it's more expensive - to me that is worth having a cheaper drive fail in 6-12 months losing all that data.

I wouldn't get the Quad-Interface config though since my MB only has FW 400 (learned just today, lol). Even so, is this drive still a good buy for only being able to use the FW 400?
 
At the very bottom of the 'spec' page OWC lists the drive included. However, in my conversations with OWC there are sometimes other configurations available - i.e. WD vice Hitachi. Just use the 'live chat' to find out.

The advantage of quad interface is future proofing. You MacBook has FW400. But maybe your next computer will have FW800. FW800 is faster than FW400 and eSATA is faster than FW800. eSATA is not currently available on 'consumer' macs. But that may change.

Also, if you look again at your OWC product take a close look at the 'enterprise' version. It currently is offering a $20 rebate (i.e. the $200 FW400/USB2 1TB is $180 after rebate). And it has a 5 year warranty on the drive (3 on the enclosure). And it reports 1.2 million hours MTBF (mean time before failure) vs 300,000 for the non-enterprise version above it. Sounds very attractive to me. Maybe to attractive - looking at my checkbook :D

You can buy it preassembled or you can buy the enclosure and drive separately and put it together yourself - but the warranty may not be same as the preassembled unit and may lack the software package.
 
bdj33ranch said:
At the very bottom of the 'spec' page OWC lists the drive included. However, in my conversations with OWC there are sometimes other configurations available - i.e. WD vice Hitachi. Just use the 'live chat' to find out.

The advantage of quad interface is future proofing. You MacBook has FW400. But maybe your next computer will have FW800. FW800 is faster than FW400 and eSATA is faster than FW800. eSATA is not currently available on 'consumer' macs. But that may change.

Also, if you look again at your OWC product take a close look at the 'enterprise' version. It currently is offering a $20 rebate (i.e. the $200 FW400/USB2 1TB is $180 after rebate). And it has a 5 year warranty on the drive (3 on the enclosure). And it reports 1.2 million hours MTBF (mean time before failure) vs 300,000 for the non-enterprise version above it. Sounds very attractive to me. Maybe to attractive - looking at my checkbook :D

You can buy it preassembled or you can buy the enclosure and drive separately and put it together yourself - but the warranty may not be same as the preassembled unit and may lack the software package.
Click to expand...

OMG Thank you so much! Just what I wanted to hear! Can't believe how helpful everyone has been.

Btw, so true about "future-proofing" as I do plan on getting a new computer this year.

Okay, so I personally don't trust myself assembling it (yet) so I'd definitely want what you mentioned .. the Enterprise pre-assembled.

I will also check out the live chat to see what other HDD they can include and report back.
 
yeah, for me, it's down to this :

1.0TB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 'Quad Interface' 7200RPM 32MB Cache Enterprise Solution with eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB2
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEAQ7H1TE32M/
for $210

or

1.0TB Newer Technology miniStack v3 Enterprise-Class 7200RPM 32MB Performance FW800/FW400/USB2/eSATA Solution this:http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MS3S7H10TE32/
for $225
(the benefit of the miniStack v3 is that it has powered USB/FW hubs, it closely resembles the look of the MacMini / Airport Extreme

both have $20 rebates off the Hitachi Enterprise drive
plus, buying the "assembled" units includes about $150 of useful software


can anyone push me one direction or the other ?
 
Puck, that second one you posted looks pretty cool too. When you say powered FW/USB hubs, what do you mean?
 
Khryz said:
You mean you can connect this External HDD to a computer and the computer will power it instead of it needing to be connected to the wall?
Click to expand...

now, the MiniStack will need to be plugged in
however, any thing plugged into the ports on the ministack do not

if you want something that is "bus-powered" look at the OWC Mercury "On-the-Go" enclosures. they do not need an external power source, they are powered by the ports on your Mac
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

the3se would be real useful if you were constantly on the go with a laptop
if you're looking for desktop storage solutions, the others will benefit more from being able to use 3.5" SATA drives (cheaper / larger capacities)

by the way, have you seen these ?
http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00549&dept_id=015&cat_id=031
i think these "docks" are slick
unfortunatley, they are only USB (OWC sells one that is quad, but doesn't have the built in card reader)
these docks can use ANY 2.5" or 3.5" drives

UCABL004900_01_L.jpg
 
That dock looks pretty cool -- talk about never having to worry about it getting too warm, lol.

So like you I'd also like to know any differences in whether to get the OWC Mercury or the ministack v2. For $15 more it's not a huge difference in the grand scheme of things and from some quick google servers both units have gotten great reviews.
 
Khryz said:
You mean you can connect this External HDD to a computer and the computer will power it instead of it needing to be connected to the wall?
Click to expand...

Goodness...

There are 'portable' harddrives/enclosures, 2.5" drive size or less, which are bus powered, so they don't need their own power supply.

Very convenient, but more expensive and right now limited to 500GB .

It works with both USB and FW, FW being more reliable.
 
Khryz said:
That dock looks pretty cool -- talk about never having to worry about it getting too warm, lol.

So like you I'd also like to know any differences in whether to get the OWC Mercury or the ministack v2. For $15 more it's not a huge difference in the grand scheme of things and from some quick google servers both units have gotten great reviews.
Click to expand...

The Mercury is aluminum and fanless and you can buy the new enclosure model with the Oxford 934 chipset that supports up to 2TB drives. I considered the MiniStack but I'm concerned that the fan will get noisy as it ages, otherwise it looks good as it comes with the well-rated Hitachi E7K1000 drive.
 
Horst said:
Goodness...

There are 'portable' harddrives/enclosures, 2.5" drive size or less, which are bus powered, so they don't need their own power supply.

Very convenient, but more expensive and right now limited to 500GB .

It works with both USB and FW, FW being more reliable.
Click to expand...

Actually the miniStack v2.5 and v3 utilize 3.5" SATA drives so they can not be just bus powered. Click on the link and choose the Specifications tab and see for yourself.
 
PuckDaddy said:
I spent hours yesterday shopping for new HDD's
I beagan with the run-o-the-mill boxes from OfficeMax / Staples, then moved on to the MacMall / Amazon offerings
I ended up at OWC (I knew I would somehow)
then I couldn't decide whether to get the :
Mercury On-the-Go bus powered 2.5" drive enclosures
the Mercury AL Elite drives
the Mini-Stack v3
or the Raid1 Guardian Maximus
honestly, I still haven't got it totally figured out
"
Click to expand...

Mercury On-the-Go use 2.5" drives so they're limited to 2.5" hard drive sizes, think max is 500GB right now. They're also slower than 3.5" drives but the unit is more portable and probably doesn't require an external AC adapter. You'd buy this for portability reasons only.

Mercury AL Elite are the high performance 3.5" single drive models. Uses 2A AC Adapter. Also comes in dual drive models that support RAID0 (striped), Span and JBOD.

MiniStack are great for space saving. Uses 3A AC Adapter to support powering USB devices.

Guardian Maximus is almost identical to the Mercury Al Elite dual drive BUT comes in RAID1 mirror.

OWC should pay me sales commission!

Here's my setup:
 

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PuckDaddy said:
by the way, have you seen these ?
http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00549&dept_id=015&cat_id=031
i think these "docks" are slick
unfortunatley, they are only USB (OWC sells one that is quad, but doesn't have the built in card reader)
these docks can use ANY 2.5" or 3.5" drives

UCABL004900_01_L.jpg
Click to expand...

I went with the OWC Voyager Q quad interface myself. Why get fast 3.5" drives if USB becomes the bottleneck. I don't use the card reader all the time so I don't mind plugging in when needed.
 
Horst said:
Goodness...

There are 'portable' harddrives/enclosures, 2.5" drive size or less, which are bus powered, so they don't need their own power supply.

Very convenient, but more expensive and right now limited to 500GB .

It works with both USB and FW, FW being more reliable.
Click to expand...

fwiw, his question was about the NewerTech MiniStackV3 drives
 
maestrokev said:
I went with the OWC Voyager Q quad interface myself. Why get fast 3.5" drives if USB becomes the bottleneck. I don't use the card reader all the time so I don't mind plugging in when needed.
Click to expand...

exactly .....
I just stopped by Best Buy ... just to see what they had
they've got a whole lot of nothing ...mostly USB drives
I mean, c'mon!, Seagate makes a 1.5tb drive that is USB only
what's the point in that ? it would take forever
very few devices with eSata ... and nothing with FW800
(keeps money in pocket)

I wonder if having the drive exposed invites chaos
 
So now I'm leaning towards the single enclosure and the Hitachi "B" 1 TB drive and putting it together myself.

But like I PM'ed Maestrokev .. I'm curious on how this will differ from the "Enterprise" OWC configuration posted above? I know in the Enterprise version the HDD is not the "B" version of the Hitachi 1 TB drive but there has to be some advantage to this configuration that gives it such a higher MTBF (sp?) than the other drives.
 
PuckDaddy said:
exactly .....
I just stopped by Best Buy ... just to see what they had
they've got a whole lot of nothing ...mostly USB drives
I mean, c'mon!, Seagate makes a 1.5tb drive that is USB only
what's the point in that ? it would take forever
very few devices with eSata ... and nothing with FW800
(keeps money in pocket)

I wonder if having the drive exposed invites chaos
Click to expand...

Best Buy sucks for higher end hardware, I know how you feel!
 
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