External Hardddrive suggestions for new MBA

This takes literally 30 seconds.

 

I just got myself one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...F8&qid=1344447677&sr=8-1&keywords=my+passport

Works quite well.

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Best Buy has 500GB USB3 HDDs on sale for $60 this week. 1TB models (from a different manufacturer) are $90.

 

I bought these MiniStation Buffalo 1TB for less than 85 bucks.


http://www.amazon.com/Technology-Mi...344450334&sr=8-2&keywords=ministation+buffalo

I recommend you.

 

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!

 

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.

 

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

 

what about a Lacie USB3 flash drive?? it has 64GB or 32GB only but it's fast.
caldigit has a USB3 drive, the AVDrive 500GB, they are running promotion now, it's only 109 dollars, speed is more than 100MB/s. but it requires power adapter.
http://www.caldigit.com/store.asp#Specials

 

I partitioned my 1 Terabyte B USB3 WD My Passport. I back up time machine on partition #1 and Super Duper on partition #2.

 

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.

 

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.

 

I have a 2TB WD My Passport - USB 3.0, was expensive, but worth it!

 

Totally forgot they have 2 TB drives now. I may look into that, thx!

 

They are good, a little bit thicker than some, but fully USB powered and pretty quick.

 

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

 

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

 

One thing to consider is that if you get a GoFlex drive from Seagate you can upgrade the connector later. If one day Thunderbolt becomes affordable.

I use the USB 2 version of this drive with my Air.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeA...44524973&sr=8-5&keywords=seagate+goflex+500GB

 

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.)

 

This is what I use with my 2012 MacBook Air and it Works Perfect!

http://www.freecom.com/Products/External-Hard-Drives/Mobile-Hard-Drives/Mobile-Drive-Mg

It is made out of magnesium so it is super light and matches the same look and texture of the aluminum used in the MacBook Air. It has USB 3.0 and comes in a few different sizes.

To me it's a Perfect Match!