External HD Recommendations

[JurgenWigg]

Hey guys, I'm looking into an external HD to back up my iMac data after some files got corrupted and I lost a lot of important stuff and had to reinstall the OS. Anyway, it's an iMac G5, and I need something around 400 or 500 GBs. I've looked into a few and it looks like LaCie and Seagate have reliability issues with their external HDs (I have a Seagate internal and love it, but not so for externals?), and I've been looking into Western Digital and Iomega. Any recommendations? Personal preferences? Things to avoid?

 

[ozontheroad]

Hey guys, I'm looking into an external HD to back up my iMac data after some files got corrupted and I lost a lot of important stuff and had to reinstall the OS. Anyway, it's an iMac G5, and I need something around 400 or 500 GBs. I've looked into a few and it looks like LaCie and Seagate have reliability issues with their external HDs (I have a Seagate internal and love it, but not so for externals?), and I've been looking into Western Digital and Iomega. Any recommendations? Personal preferences? Things to avoid?

you can buy the HD you like and get an external enclosure for it. this way you avoid paying the branding price.

you can get USB only , FireWire only or combo enclosures. you might want to consider buying one that comes with a cooling fan or the option to add one.

 

[rob5]

go for the fantoms from macsales.com - they use seagate internal HDDs which are good.

 

[crees!]

I've looked into a few and it looks like LaCie and Seagate have reliability issues with their external HDs

My last job used only LaCie for external drives. We were a video production house so data integrity was very important. At home I have 2 LaCie drives and haven't had any problems with them. I think they're great drives and for now that's who I'm sticking with in terms of external drive manufacturers.

 

[Locatel]

Lacie makes a great enclosure, but you never know wich HD is inside. I've seen Lacie d2s with Maxtor, Samsung and Seagate. Their product is covered by a 1 year warranty.
Mercury Elite Pro Aluminum units are mounted with the latest Seagate drives. The unit is covered by a 2 year warranty PLUS 3 year warranty for the drive, directly from Seagate (the drive itself is covered by a 5 year warranty). I don't think you'll find a better deal than this.
Check it out: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...teAL/800+USB2/

They use top quality chipsets on their cases. You can make your own HD+enclosure combo but, believe me, it's not worth the savings. It doesn't make any sense to me getting a good HD and put it in a cheap enclosure.

 

[pdpfilms]

Other World Computing!!!!

www.owcomputing.com

They're the only externals I use, and I've got over 2TBs of them. I'll probably be going for a third TB soon. Their customer support is superb, the drives work great, and they come with various softwares and backup solutions installed.

 

[Squonk]

I'm a Seagate fan myself. I've had zero failures with them. I cannot say that about my two failed Maxtors. Each lasted about 3 years.

I agree about choosing your drive and case separately and putting it together. You will get exactly what you want and most likely for the best price. I have a combo USB/Firewire case so I can use on my Mac or PC.

 

[SpankyPenzaanz]

I got a maxtor 300gb fw I think I want to get a fw800 drive though

 

[vicki2314]

i was at the same position you are a few months ago and ended up taking everyone's advice and buying a case and hard drive seperately and i don't regret it.

i went with a 320gb seagate barracude internal drive with perpendicular recording and a firewire/usb case from macally and they both work great. since i bought an internal drive i got a 5 year warranty from seagate which is pretty important to me.

the drive is very quiet and fast and the macally case doesn't get hot. i read lots of reviews and bought both from newegg.com for around $150- i've bought many things from newegg and absolutely love their service, fast shipping, and good prices.

hope you find something that works for you!

 

[Locatel]

i went with a 320gb seagate barracude internal drive with perpendicular recording and a firewire/usb case from macally and they both work great. since i bought an internal drive i got a 5 year warranty from seagate which is pretty important to me.
...bought both from newegg.com for around $150...

Macally cases are good, aluminum body but painted plastic endings. Many users complaim about the LED, too bright (a problem in a dark room?). At OWC you can get that very same 320GB Seagate drive with their machined aluminum enclosure for $175, 2 year warranty for the whole unit PLUS 3 year warranty for the drive. I think the extra $25 are worth it.