External Hard Drive Questions

[michael-appleru]

Whats the best External Hard Drive that makes cheap External Hard Drive???

What is the best External Hard Drive that is 150GB??

Is a firewire External Hard Drive faster than a USB 2.0 External Hard Drive??

Edit:
i will be using the External Hard Drive for putting my movies that I edit using Final Cut Express so i think that a firewire one would be better right???? (ps my computer has no space to store the movies)

 

[pianoman]

my knowledge of USB vs. FireWire is limited, but I do know that USB is faster for the initial transfer and FireWire is better for updating (this applies to iPods, i'm not sure about other hard drives).

my LaCie external hard drive has suited me well for almost a year now. and when i run out of space i'll be getting another LaCie because i like the design. i think i paid a little too much for it but it was worth it. as with all other purchases, it's best to shop around - newegg usually gives me the best prices.

 

[crazycat]

I really like lacie i never had any problems with it. I would recommend usb so that you can use it with a pc if you ever need to.

EDITE - i had some problems with maxor a very long time ago but i hear they are good now.

 

[michael-appleru]

Would a Firewire and USB one be good??

 

[imacintel]

Seagate.

 

[nbs2]

Would a Firewire and USB one be good??

Yes. Depending. My wife and I share our external between her PC and my PB. I use the FW800 and she uses the USB. But, if you plan on only using it with one machine, just make sure that it is on a free port, remembering that old maxim "USB looks faster than FW, because of the 480/400 comparison, but in reality FW is faster."

Oh, and we have a Lacie. I like it, but I think my next will be home built....

 

[yellow]

Get your own external drive bay and put a seagate in it.

 

[slackersonly]

seagate because of the 5 year warranty and your ability to combine a good HD deal with a top notched external usb/fw case for cheaper.

last month I put together a 300gb Seagate plus an OWC Mercury Elite Pro usb/fw400 case for just $115!

 

[michael-appleru]

wheres the best place to get a seagate external hard drive

 

[slackersonly]

circuit city has been running very good sales on seagates. they do involve rebates but circuit city rebates have been easy for me.
also check, outpost.com.

make sure the hd and the case you are looking at are compatable (ie. ide to ide, sata to sata, etc)

 

[bmb012]

I got a 300 gig seagate for 200 bucks at best buy, sounded like a pretty good deal to me. Running applications off of it with firewire was FAR faster than USB 2.0, but I didn't measure file transfer rates or anything. Plus, you can daisy-chain firewire harddrives, or plug a camera or something into the drive (which I think they tell you not to do...).

 

[rat1571]

Programs

Hello all. i want to buy the seagate but i wanted to know if you can run full programs off of it. programs such as games that require a CD. Online Games, What about a version of windows. does anyone know. can i completely run off of the external HDD???

Thank you all in advance

 

[yellow]

You can run OS X or any Mac apps of an external. I'd suggest firewire over USB2.

AFAIK, running Windows off an external is only suported by USB2 and isn't easy to accomplish on a Mac.

 

[rat1571]

what about the games that require a cd to run???

 

[EGT]

I just got one of those Lacie rugged portables. Great little thing. It's bus powered so no need to carry a big clunky power adaptor with me. I use FW800 which seemed really slow copying everything across initially but when I smart update it, it only takes about 7-8 mins. That's a few gigs of data.

 

[yellow]

what about the games that require a cd to run???

I'm not entirely sure what you mean.. if you mean, can you make an image of the CD and store it on the HD and then mount it and play the game? Yes, if the CD is imagable. Yes, because I cannot think of any games that consistantly seek data off the CD, typically they only use it for verification that the game install is legit and you can eject the CD as soon as the game starts. Yes if the CD actually seeks data of the mounted image, becase a FW400 connection is pretty damned fast. Fast enough for video editing, definitely fast enough for a mounted game CD image.

Your concern should be more in the vein of 'can I make an image of game CD X'.

 

[roland.g]

Firewire is better than USB 2.0. While Firewire is 400 mb/s and USB 2.0 is 480 mb/s, the USB 2.0 is not constant, while the firewire is. When working with Digital video, get firewire. Also, as far as drives go, get a Western Digital. You can find them at newegg or owc or dealmac, even compusa for good prices. Then just pick up a firewire case for it. Just make sure the case can handle the size of the drive you buy. Also, for digital video you want the drive to be fast, make sure it is 7200 RPM with either an 8MB or 16MB cache.

 

[gothicx00]

Personally, I wouldn't buy a retail external HDD. Both of my external drives are slammin internal drives inside an external kit. And I assure you, except for the occasional extra ports or WD's fancy easy backup button, there is no difference.

In my experience the best kit on the market right now is the any of the Adaptec external enclosures. Pair that with your favorite (or cheapest) internal drive and whammo! You have an external drive that costs tons less than any retail external drive comes to. Comparison:

Lacie External 160gb Drive = $113
OR
Western Digital 160JB 160gb HDD = $65
Adaptec Firewire Enclosure = $25

Total cost =$90

Not only did you save $23 but you got a far better drive than whats in the Lacie. And you know exactally what you are getting. I'm not even sure what brand drive Lacie is putting in those enclosures these days.

 

[gothicx00]

AFAIK, running Windows off an external is only suported by USB2 and isn't easy to accomplish on a Mac.

Not true. If you are talking about a tried and true PC, that capability is going to vary widely depending on the chipset. I have a ASROCK mobo with a ULi chipset, and it supports booting from a firewire drive. It is possible to install (and not just move an image) to firewire drive if you have your drivers ready at installation and your mobo supports booting from firewire.

And as far as the booting WinXP on a Mac from an external drive, I don't believe it is possible at all. What you fail to realize is that your Mac is *emulating* a BIOS. It doesn't allow you to change any settings in said "BIOS" therefore you cannot boot from an external drive. Now if you go with one of the old, pre-bootcamp methods of running Windows on an Intel Mac, it maybe could be possible. But i'm gonna throw my chips all in on no.

 

[yellow]

Actually, it is possible, just technically difficult... there's a thread on here somewhere.

And I wasn't aware that EFI was a BIOS "emulation"?

 

[gothicx00]

No EFI isn't bios emulation, but to boot into WinXP (which doesn't support EFI) the system emulates a BIOS to fool windows into thinking that there truely is a BIOS. Which is why Vista (which will eventually, supposedly support EFI natively) will run better than WinXP does on an Intel Mac.

And like I said, the only way to pull it off is to not use bootcamp, but to use one of the pre-bootcamp methods to boot Windows on a Mac. If you remember correctly there was a contest before Apple even announced anything about Bootcamp. They pulled off what Apple did, but just down and dirtier. And not but about 72 hours after they announced that sombody had done it, Apple released the beta of Bootcamp.

I'd be interested to read the threads in question, because I'm willing to bet it has nothing to do with bootcamp, and everything to do with setting up the whole thing manually.

 

[yellow]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/191777/

 

[PlaceofDis]

my knowledge of USB vs. FireWire is limited, but I do know that USB is faster for the initial transfer and FireWire is better for updating (this applies to iPods, i'm not sure about other hard drives).

my LaCie external hard drive has suited me well for almost a year now. and when i run out of space i'll be getting another LaCie because i like the design. i think i paid a little too much for it but it was worth it. as with all other purchases, it's best to shop around - newegg usually gives me the best prices.

actually, this is wrong.
USB works in bursts, FW works in a steady stream. USB has a theoretically higher speed, but rarely reaches that max, whereas FW will build up to a faster speed and stay there. for any large transfers FW is the way to go. USB is good for updates and small files.

 

[gothicx00]

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...ot+windows+USB

Ok, I read through all of those posts, and only one person was able to supposedly pull it off, ipedro. But nobody was able to duplicate his method. And all the other methods people mentioned seemed like mere speculation, because they have a working knowledge of Windows.

And as for iPedro, I think he was on acid. And not the one made by Sony, i'm talking the kind that comes on blotter paper.

Later in the posts they mentioned that it has to be on the internal drive, and the reasoning for it. The GPT partition (which has the MBR and BIOS emulation information) has to be on the same disk as the OSX *and* XP partitions. So actually you are talking about 3 partitions. I can confirm this by Norton Partition Magic in XP (which i used to back up the windows partition shortly after install, and configuration).

 

[yellow]

Ok, I read through all of those posts, and only one person was able to supposedly pull it off, ipedro. But nobody was able to duplicate his method. And all the other methods people mentioned seemed like mere speculation, because they have a working knowledge of Windows.

Did you read page 2? mrichmon also accomplished this.