external hard drive recommendation wanted

[slarsson]

hi there,
one week after restoring my imac from Time Machine, my WD my book decided to die on me, and i need to make a wise decision. my imac is 300 GB, i use a lacie external for crucial files that i want easily available (backup with chronosync) and i want to replace a 500 GB WD.

i looked at the G-tech, but someone said they were having problems with it, and i looked at segate, but then i saw that they were having major problems.

how does the quality of lacie or iomega compare? i really need to be able to rely on this for Time Machine backups.

would appreciate any advice.
susan

 

[Tomorrow]

Just a thought, when you say your MyBook died, was it the drive itself that failed or something else within the enclosure?

Anybody know if it's possible to replace the drive in a MyBook?

 

[slarsson]

the message is that the drive is now read-only. an earlier message said that the drive had limited functionality. not reliable for my purposes...

susan

 

[Tomorrow]

Read-only sounds like it's formatted to NTFS. At some point during this ordeal did you ever reformat or restore factory settings, something like that?

Does Disk Utility tell you anything about what filesystem it's using (HFS+, NTFS, FAT32, etc.)?

 

[slarsson]

i didn't touch the TM drive other than to restore the imac - and it was working fine for several days afterwards. the "read only" message came after i received a warning that something was wrong with the drive and it only had limited functionality.

i haven't run disc utility on it, but i am more concerned about having a fully reliable drive, and therefore am more interested in a solid suggestion for what to buy rather than trying to rescue this one.

 

[Tomorrow]

i haven't run disc utility on it, but i am more concerned about having a fully reliable drive, and therefore am more interested in a solid suggestion for what to buy rather than trying to rescue this one.

Yeah, I think from what you've told us I'd do the same thing. It's a shame, too, I had heard good stories about MyBooks (I don't have one, though).

I've seen many posts from people who seem to be happy with Lacie drives, they seem a little pricey for my tastes but I guess you get what you pay for. I think the Iomega drives might be a little more affordable, but I can't attest to their quality. I do agree with your take on the Seagates - it sounds like they have some hiccups they need to work out lately. You might also look into Buffalo - I'm using a Buffalo NAS and I've been very happy with it. Are you using USB or FW?

 

[eldivino]

I have a 500gb GTech Drive Q. The drive is amazing and its very quiet. The only thing that can become annoying is a small led it has on the front. It doesn't really bother me since I only turn the drive on once a week for TM to do its thing. They are on the pricey side but the are highly recommended.