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Do large storage drives work on older Macs?

Z

zoran

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 30, 2005
4,881
136
Hello, i want to ask if there are any known compatibility issues concerning the mid 2010 corei7 iMac (one with FW800 port) and external drives over 1TB of capacity! I was told that older machines cannot handle more than 1TB of storage.
I want to get one of those big ones (3/4TB with FW800 port) so i wanted to know if this is an issue or not!
 
There should be no problem. I think the issue was moreso many of the FireWire & USB cases of the day couldn't address bigger drives, but that's really a non-issue these days with a reputable external drive enclosure (if your going the DIY route).
 
this is the drive im reffering to :)
 
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It'll be fine. I have 2009 Macs that are regularly accessing storage way bigger than 4TB.

The issue you're probably talking about (and were told a bit incorrectly about) is that there are 32-bit OSes and orating systems that have trouble with storage that's larger than 3TB or so. You're 2010 Core i7 is 64-bit, and so is the version of OS x running on it, so you should be fine.
 
scaredpoet can you tell me which Mac OSes and Mac cpus were 32bit?
 
Believe me (us), your 2010 iMac will handle it just fine. I have the same iMac sitting in my office right now (though presently not connected) and it's been connected to my 8TB RAID over FW800 with no issues at all.
 
xraydoc said:
Believe me (us), your 2010 iMac will handle it just fine. I have the same iMac sitting in my office right now (though presently not connected) and it's been connected to my 8TB RAID over FW800 with no issues at all.
Click to expand...
8TB raid? What brand have you selected?
Have you made any video file capturing through the FW800 port?
 
zoran said:
8TB raid? What brand have you selected?
Have you made any video file capturing through the FW800 port?
Click to expand...

OWC Qx2 with 4x2TB Seagate Barracudas.

I don't do any video capture, so I can't comment on that, but it will completely saturate the FW800 bus. Currently it's connected via eSATA (faster than FW800).
 
where have you connected the e-sata port to, the iMac dont have such a port, has it? :confused:
 
zoran said:
scaredpoet can you tell me which Mac OSes and Mac cpus were 32bit?
Click to expand...

Snow Leopard is where you started to see 64-bit kernels, but many Macs except Xserves and mac pros still booted in mostly 32-bit mode (even even they had 64-bit processors). Lion was the first fully 64-bit version of OS X. If your Mac can run Lion or later, it's 64-bit.

Processor-wise, Macs starting with the Intel Core 2 Duo processors were 64-bit. Intel Core Duo (no "2") and core solo were 32-bit.

One interesting quirk: The PowerPC G5 processor was also 64-bit. So, for a short while, Apple regressed to 32-bit computing when switching to Intel.
 
scaredpoet said:
One interesting quirk: The PowerPC G5 processor was also 64-bit. So, for a short while, Apple regressed to 32-bit computing when switching to Intel.
Click to expand...
How very vey interesting! Τhanx scaredpoet! ;)

Let me ask one more thing, im on dilemma of selecting two large external drives
myBookStudio4ΤΒ
myBookStudio II 4TB
what are their differences and which of the two would you recommend?
 
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Two main differences:

- The Studio II model is using 2 2TB drives linked in a RAID 0 configuration to get you 4TB of storage. The Studio model is using a single 4TB drive.

- The Studio II has multiple interfaces: USB 2.0, Firewire and eSata. The Studio model is USB 3.0 only.

To me, each has their strengths and weaknesses depending on your situation. Personally, I would (and actually have) gotten the USB 3.0-only model, but that's because all my Macs have USB 3.0 and can take advantage of the much faster speed. Also, I don't particularly trust external storage that uses more than one drive, and RAID 0: more drives with no redundancy equals more parts that can fail.

On the other hand, for your situation, the Studio II model might be a better choice if you're willing to spend the extra cash. If your Mac has a FireWire 800 port, then that will be faster for you than going through USB, since your Mac has only USB 2.0.
 
scaredpoet said:
Two main differences:

- The Studio II model is using 2 2TB drives linked in a RAID 0 configuration to get you 4TB of storage. The Studio model is using a single 4TB drive.

- The Studio II has multiple interfaces: USB 2.0, Firewire and eSata. The Studio model is USB 3.0 only.

To me, each has their strengths and weaknesses depending on your situation. Personally, I would (and actually have) gotten the USB 3.0-only model, but that's because all my Macs have USB 3.0 and can take advantage of the much faster speed. Also, I don't particularly trust external storage that uses more than one drive, and RAID 0: more drives with no redundancy equals more parts that can fail.

On the other hand, for your situation, the Studio II model might be a better choice if you're willing to spend the extra cash. If your Mac has a FireWire 800 port, then that will be faster for you than going through USB, since your Mac has only USB 2.0.
Click to expand...
I agree on the "single drive" external storage solutions, but is there something out there that has 3+TB on a single drive and FW800?
 
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