External Hardddrive suggestions for new MBA

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seared.ahi

seared.ahi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 5, 2012
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I want a new external HD for my new 128gb Air. My preferences are as such:

- Must be Portable (I'd like to be able to carry it around in my backpack if necessary)
- At least 500 GB
- USB 3.0 is ideal
- Must be able to be powered by MBA USB port - IOW, not require an AC adapter (a few years ago I bought a WD Passport for my Powerbook but my computer couldn't charge it through the USB port [it didn't supply enough power] so I had to return it)
- Made for Mac (and compatible with 10.8 Mtn Lion) - no reformatting crap required...
- Under $100

I'll take any suggestions or advice. Thanks!!
 
\-V-/

\-V-/

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Mickey8297

Mickey8297

macrumors member
Jun 12, 2009
67
1
PA
I have the 500GB version of this one.
Hard Drive
I agree with the above posts. It is easy to reformat the drive and takes only a few seconds.
 
seared.ahi

seared.ahi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 5, 2012
135
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\-V-/ said:
No offense, but this is a stupid requirement. It takes 5-10 seconds to format a new drive via Disk Utility to work with any Mac. That's why Disk Utility exists.
Click to expand...
Ok, ignore it then. It's not a requirement so much as a "preference" as I said before. But I agree with you. :)

I have another question. So I know I said I wanted more than 500GB but my HD is only 128GB. Does Time Machine only back up what you have on your computer currently? In other words, my external HD usage would never go over 128GB? Or say, if I delete a file from my computer, but then back up to my external HD, the file stays on my external HD?

I'm sorry, Ive never used Time Machine.
 
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ishmeister

macrumors newbie
Aug 8, 2012
3
0
Paris, France
seared.ahi said:
Does Time Machine only back up what you have on your computer currently? In other words, my external HD usage would never go over 128GB? Or say, if I delete a file from my computer, but then back up to my external HD, the file stays on my external HD?

I'm sorry, Ive never used Time Machine.
Click to expand...
IIRC Time Machine creates progressive backups of your mac - allowing you to go back to exactly how it was on a given date - therefore, the space used by time machine can be greater than the 128gb of your MBA. Once your time machine is full it deletes the oldest copy.

Personally I run one ext HD for content that won't fit / isn't needed on my Air and a separate one for time machine that I keep at home.
 
\-V-/

\-V-/

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seared.ahi said:
Ok, ignore it then. It's not a requirement so much as a "preference" as I said before. But I agree with you. :)

I have another question. So I know I said I wanted more than 500GB but my HD is only 128GB. Does Time Machine only back up what you have on your computer currently? In other words, my external HD usage would never go over 128GB? Or say, if I delete a file from my computer, but then back up to my external HD, the file stays on my external HD?

I'm sorry, Ive never used Time Machine.
Click to expand...
I personally use Carbon Copy Cloner and use option to delete anything that is not the same on the origin hard drive... this way the hard drive space doesn't exceed what's on the laptop itself. There's also an option to do archival backups so that you can use the external as extra storage... so you can have your backups and use the extra space to store files that are taking up space on your Air. I have an Air myself with 128 GB of storage, so I know how quickly space an diminish.
 
PBG4 Dude

PBG4 Dude

macrumors 68030
Jul 6, 2007
2,714
1,872
Best Buy has 500GB USB3 HDDs on sale for $60 this week. 1TB models (from a different manufacturer) are $90.
 
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stockcerts

macrumors 65816
Jun 29, 2007
1,284
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San Francisco, CA
ishmeister said:
IIRC Time Machine creates progressive backups of your mac - allowing you to go back to exactly how it was on a given date - therefore, the space used by time machine can be greater than the 128gb of your MBA. Once your time machine is full it deletes the oldest copy.

Personally I run one ext HD for content that won't fit / isn't needed on my Air and a separate one for time machine that I keep at home.
Click to expand...
So does this mean you use two external drives? I was thinking I would need two. One for the majority of my data, the second to back up the MBA and the external drive that holds my data. Thanks!
 
S

stchman

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2012
671
2
St. Louis, MO
seared.ahi said:
I want a new external HD for my new 128gb Air. My preferences are as such:

- Must be Portable (I'd like to be able to carry it around in my backpack if necessary)
- At least 500 GB
- USB 3.0 is ideal
- Must be able to be powered by MBA USB port - IOW, not require an AC adapter (a few years ago I bought a WD Passport for my Powerbook but my computer couldn't charge it through the USB port [it didn't supply enough power] so I had to return it)
- Made for Mac (and compatible with 10.8 Mtn Lion) - no reformatting crap required...
- Under $100

I'll take any suggestions or advice. Thanks!!
Click to expand...
The Passport from Amazon looks good. Choose the size you want.

As far as formatting, as everyone else has said, disk utility can format that hdd in no time, so that should not be a concern.
 
Tinmania

Tinmania

macrumors 68040
Aug 8, 2011
3,456
905
Aridzona
stockcerts said:
So does this mean you use two external drives? I was thinking I would need two. One for the majority of my data, the second to back up the MBA and the external drive that holds my data. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Unless your primary concern is physical redundancy you can just buy a larger drive and make more than one partition, one being dedicated to Time Machine. That is what I do for my air.




Michael
 
G

Gator Bob

macrumors regular
Aug 3, 2011
148
3
I partitioned my 1 Terabyte B USB3 WD My Passport. I back up time machine on partition #1 and Super Duper on partition #2.
 
seared.ahi

seared.ahi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 5, 2012
135
0
Thanks guys. I notice the product description for the 1TB Passport says this:
USB 3.0 and high-speed USB 2.0 interface
USB-powered, so an AC adapter is not required for most computers.
Click to expand...
"Most" computers - does most include the Macbook Air? This is the problem I ran into with my Powerbook.
 
\-V-/

\-V-/

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seared.ahi said:
Thanks guys. I notice the product description for the 1TB Passport says this:

"Most" computers - does most include the Macbook Air? This is the problem I ran into with my Powerbook.
Click to expand...
It works fine on my MacBook Air. The ones it does not work on are ancient computers that cannot feed enough juice through the USB ports to power an external drive. This is not the case with the Air.
 
A

alibis

macrumors newbie
Aug 10, 2008
4
0
HD Speed

Is hard disc speed a factor for most externals? I notice a lot of people talking about USB 3.0 vs 2.0 and thunderbolt, but what about the spinning platter? Are most externals 5400, 7200 or some other number? I didn't see it listed on the Western Digital 1TB My Passport.
 
mmomega

mmomega

macrumors 68040
Dec 30, 2009
3,369
1,537
DFW, TX
Do you know some places overcharge for a "Mac formatted" hard drive, $5-10 more when all you do is open Disk Utility and click Partition + Mac OS Extended.

Most drives come as FAT32 anyway so they are readable by Windows and OS X, so Windows guys need to format NTFS as well.

but here goes
http://bit.ly/N7sapo
 
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ishmeister

macrumors newbie
Aug 8, 2012
3
0
Paris, France
stockcerts said:
So does this mean you use two external drives? I was thinking I would need two. One for the majority of my data, the second to back up the MBA and the external drive that holds my data. Thanks!
Click to expand...
I do, that's because I take the "data" drive with me but leave the time machine at home in case my bag get's stolen or whatever. Otherwise you could do as Tinmania very sensibly suggests
 
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itsjustmeee

macrumors 6502a
Dec 28, 2008
583
5
I was in the market for one as well and started reading reviews, etc but honestly I concluded that any reputable hard drive maker will be fine. Just go for the one that's on sale and make sure it's USB 3.0.

(I got a seagate 1 TB usb 3.0 for $79 at Costco. Works great. I partitioned it for just enough space to back up my os on one and have media on the other partition.)
 
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