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External HDD for Time Machine: USB or FireWire?
- Thread starter keaide
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Unless you need to backup GBs of data every hour, USB 2.0 will suffice, the initial backup will take some time, but the subsequent ones (every hour) will be fast enough with USB 2.0.
The correct answer is Firewire. Always firewire for hard drives. USB requires CPU cycles in order to operate, so when you do a backup over USB it will slow down your system. Firewire is DMA (direct memory access) so it will not slow down the computer nearly as much.
TEG
TEG
I use firewire (800) for my Time Machine backups. Mainly because my 1.5tb Seagate drive has is and I am not using that port on my iMac for anything else.
Like the other 2 have already said, it won't be bad either way. But, if it was me i would just go with the firewire. If you ever had to use the drive for something else in the future it will already be set for better speeds.
Like the other 2 have already said, it won't be bad either way. But, if it was me i would just go with the firewire. If you ever had to use the drive for something else in the future it will already be set for better speeds.
I am using a WD with firewire 800 but I don't think its worth the premium. My old USB2 WD drive has about the same transfer speed. You can only spot the difference if you need to transfer many GB.
I think that the normal hourly backup should be below 1GB, except when backing up new footage, music or pictures, which would not happen every day.
Anyway, the point about the later usage options is a good one. I expect that my footage will grow in the coming 3 years. So I might use the FW disc for that and get a new one for TM.
But in 3 years... USB _3 _ might be a thing of the past already and Light Peak might have taken over... and probably Apple will have dropped support for FW by the already. 😕
Anyway, the point about the later usage options is a good one. I expect that my footage will grow in the coming 3 years. So I might use the FW disc for that and get a new one for TM.
But in 3 years... USB _3 _ might be a thing of the past already and Light Peak might have taken over... and probably Apple will have dropped support for FW by the already. 😕
FireWire as others have said. Just buy a retail drive and put it in something from owc (macsales.com)
Get one of these:
http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php
... and one or two "bare drives" of your choice (I like Seagates), and you'll be covered for whichever connection method you need.
Selling for $69 here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/FWU2ESHDK/
(no financial interest)
http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php
... and one or two "bare drives" of your choice (I like Seagates), and you'll be covered for whichever connection method you need.
Selling for $69 here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/FWU2ESHDK/
(no financial interest)