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External Hard Drive advice.

G

giganten

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 23, 2006
602
0
I am looking for a external hard drive and need some advice.
I will use it now to move some files from my windows pc so i can reinstall it. And I want to use it when I get my Mac. It should be fat32 for this? Can you make 2 partitions on an external hdd?

I choose between this.
* Mybook Essential 250Gb.
* Mybook Essential 320Gb. +32$ (on the Mybook 250Gb price)
* Freecom 400Gb. +42$ (on the Mybook 250Gb price)
 
Okay. Two votes for Mybook. Should I go for the 320Gb or the 250Gb?
Anybody know anything about the Freecom?
 
i have the 250gb mybook from newegg or buy.com i forget which one, but i love it so far. very nice =)
 
I do not need a new drive at this minute, but at this deal here is mighty tempting.

"Buy.com has the giant Western Digital 1 TB 7200 RPM USB 2.0 / FireWire 400/800 External Storage System (My Book Pro Edition II) for $370 with free shipping (add to cart to see this price)."

Sadly it just came up today after having my dad pick up the 500 for 70 dollars less two days ago.
 
herr_neumann said:
I do not need a new drive at this minute, but at this deal here is mighty tempting.

"Buy.com has the giant Western Digital 1 TB 7200 RPM USB 2.0 / FireWire 400/800 External Storage System (My Book Pro Edition II) for $370 with free shipping (add to cart to see this price)."

Sadly it just came up today after having my dad pick up the 500 for 70 dollars less two days ago.
Click to expand...

that is def a killer deal.. there's more detailed discussion on this external HD here..

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/291043/
 
flopticalcube said:
Get the biggest drive you can afford. I guess the Essential drives don't have Firewire. That would be a shame but they are good units nonetheless.
Click to expand...

Is it better to buy one that have Firewire, is 400 good or is it 800 that i should look for. But they are maybe little over my price.
And my idea was to buy an airport extreme and have the hdd in the usb port so i can stream music from my 360, will this work?
 
giganten said:
Is it better to buy one that have Firewire, is 400 good or is it 800 that i should look for. But they are maybe little over my price.
And my idea was to buy an airport extreme and have the hdd in the usb port so i can stream music from my 360, will this work?
Click to expand...

Mine is FW400 since my Macbook is also FW400 so there would be little point in getting the 800. FW is much faster at sustained transfers than USB.

If you attach it to the Airport, remember that it will be on all the time unless you manually turn it on and off when you need it. This will shorten the disk's life. Having said that, with the MyBooks, all you need to do is touch the front button for off/on.
 
flopticalcube said:
Mine is FW400 since my Macbook is also FW400 so there would be little point in getting the 800. FW is much faster at sustained transfers than USB.

If you attach it to the Airport, remember that it will be on all the time unless you manually turn it on and off when you need it. This will shorten the disk's life. Having said that, with the MyBooks, all you need to do is touch the front button for off/on.
Click to expand...

Okay.
I don't know what Mac i should buy yet, i am looking at the Macbook and the iMac. If I buy the Macbook I also need a wireless router, the airport. But if I buy the iMac then i don't know about the airport. So if I understand you right then I should buy a Mybook with FW 400 maybe 800 and the best is to plug it in the computer so the disk will get longer life. If I want to stream music from the 360 then just connect the disk with usb to the console or just turn my computer on.
 
I don't know about 360's maybe someone else can help there. Might be a problem with multiple partitions or HFS+ partitions when connected to the 360. I do know people who are using connect360 and streaming vid and audio direct from their Macs. Both an iMac and a Macbook can act as a WiFi base station without the need for an Airport. You would need a hardwired (ethernet) connection to your internet modem if you don't use something like an Airport, however.
 
i have the same sitution as giganten, i want to transfer files from a pc to my new macbook (itunes files) and also store some of my own personal music that I had recorded on my pc to the external hardrive.

I want to back up my band's cd from my macbook on the hard drive as well.

everyone here seems to like western digital, but I had bought one a few months ago and my pc didn't recognize it. I called tech support and the guy tried to help me out, but nothing worked. He said that sometimes a pc may not be able to recognize it or something and I should exchange it for another one (same product, but try again). I just ended up returning it.

Should I get a MyBook or will I end up just having the same problem?
 
I am going to voice my support for the G-tech external HDD with quad interface. I absolutely love it. Great looks, great quality, quiet, no fan, and 4 different hook-ups (2 FW 800, 1FW 400, and 1 USB).
 
Aniej said:
I am going to voice my support for the G-tech external HDD with quad interface. I absolutely love it. Great looks, great quality, quiet, no fan, and 4 different hook-ups (2 FW 800, 1FW 400, and 1 USB).
Click to expand...

Any suggested places to buy from and price to pay?
 
Aniej said:
I am going to voice my support for the G-tech external HDD with quad interface. I absolutely love it. Great looks, great quality, quiet, no fan, and 4 different hook-ups (2 FW 800, 1FW 400, and 1 USB).
Click to expand...

Can you buy just the enclosure? Any links? Looks like a very nice enclosure, but their prices are a bit steep with the included drive. I was looking here:

http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVEQ.cfm#buy
 
I did buy an Mybook Premium Edition 320GB USB2.0/Firewire. I think I will get it next week.
 
giganten said:
I did buy an Mybook Premium Edition 320GB USB2.0/Firewire. I think I will get it next week.
Click to expand...

I did cancel my order today.
I am not sure if it is what I need, I will probably go to school and I think I will buy an iMac to get a bigger screen to work on. And then I need something to move my files from the school to my iMac and the Mybook is not so portable and it needs a power cord. So maybe a WD Passport II 160 GB is better for me?
 
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