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Good External hard disk (wireless)

M

Michielfm

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2011
33
0
Belgium
Dear Mac'ers,

I Have recently bought a MacBook PRO 15" 2.0. The computer is awesome (no news for you guys and girls) and I love it :eek::apple:!

As I'm starting University in 2 weeks I need to get an external hard disk mainly for backups (using time machine).
The best thing would be if it where a wireless hard disk that I can put some where in my room and when I get in my room it should backup automatically (I think this is how time machine works:confused:).
So what I think I need is an external hard disk for mac. It should have about 500GB storage and it should be wireless.
I had a look on the apple site where I found some nice hard disk like Time Capsule but they are to expensive for me as I'm just a student.. So I was wondering if you guys could help me out with some hard disks that are not so expensive and that work with time machine. It would be nice to have it wireless.
I will say it again in a shorter version:


HARD DISK:
- For MacBook PRO (Time Machine)
- 500 GB storage
- Wireless
- kinda cheap ;)
- good quality (not pro or awesome just no junk..)

Hope you guys can help me out!

Kind regards and ty!

Michielfm :apple:
 
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Never heard of a plain hard disk that worked wireless. In order for it to be wireless, there has to be something to do the wireless side. Time Capsule is overpriced anyway, but it does include the wireless part.

Hard disks come with interfaces like USB, Firewire, SATA, etc. None to my knowledge come with wireless.
 
old-wiz said:
Never heard of a plain hard disk that worked wireless. In order for it to be wireless, there has to be something to do the wireless side. Time Capsule is overpriced anyway, but it does include the wireless part.

Hard disks come with interfaces like USB, Firewire, SATA, etc. None to my knowledge come with wireless.
Click to expand...

So the only wireless hard disk is a Time Capsule hard disk?

And then, what is the difference between a USB, Firewire or SATA disc? And is there also a Firebolt one?
 
Michielfm said:
So the only wireless hard disk is a Time Capsule hard disk?

And then, what is the difference between a USB, Firewire or SATA disc? And is there also a Firebolt one?
Click to expand...

Do you happen to have an Airport Extreme? AEs can share a hard drive wirelessly. You might be able to pick up an older model for cheap, and then use any old USB drive with it. Functionally, the equivalent of Time Capsule, and you have the benefit of easily upgrading the hard drive whenever you want.

For TM backups, USB will do just fine. Firewire 800 is more expensive but faster, eSATA is faster still but nonexistent on Macs, unfortunately, and Thunderbolt is very expensive, and not many (if any?) devices are out on the market yet.


Michielfm said:
Don't know yea maybe, you know some got usb ones that are solid an cheap?
Click to expand...

They are pretty much all the same. I've had good luck with Lacie, and I got a cheap 2TB Hitachi from Newegg for $75 a few months ago that has been working well. Just read up on some reviews at Newegg or Amazon first.
 
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Cougarcat said:
Do you happen to have an Airport Extreme? AEs can share a hard drive wirelessly. You might be able to pick up an older model for cheap, and then use any old USB drive with it. Functionally, the equivalent of Time Capsule, and you have the benefit of easily upgrading the hard drive whenever you want.

For TM backups, USB will do just fine. Firewire 800 is more expensive but faster, eSATA is faster still but nonexistent on Macs, unfortunately, and Thunderbolt is very expensive, and not many (if any?) devices are out on the market yet.
Click to expand...

no I got no airport. so the difference between those disks is the speed? Is there no difference between mac or windows disks or solid once and stuff like that?
 
what you might be happiest with is a NAS interface drive.

Instead of an external drive that hooks up to the computer by USB it instead hooks up to the router by ethernet.
 
danpass said:
what you might be happiest with is a NAS interface drive.

Instead of an external drive that hooks up to the computer by USB it instead hooks up to the router by ethernet.
Click to expand...

Sounds good but I don't fully understand it. So it is a disk that has to be connected to my WiFi station and through that it saves files wireless?
 
Michielfm said:
Sounds good but I don't fully understand it. So it is a disk that has to be connected to my WiFi station and through that it saves files wireless?
Click to expand...

Yes. It works just like a USB disk connected to an Airport extreme, except instead of USB, it uses Ethernet.

So your setup would look like this:

<Wireless router>>Ethernet connection>>NAS Disk>>Wireless Connection>>MBP (or any computer on your wireless network)

Here is the cheapest one I found on Newegg (I know you are in Belgium, but it should give you an idea of what they cost.) If you don't already have a wireless router, it may be cheaper to get a used Airport Extreme (or a different router that can share hard drives) + USB drive.

so the difference between those disks is the speed? Is there no difference between mac or windows disks or solid once and stuff like that?
Click to expand...

Hard drives are platform agnostic. You usually will have to format the drive for the Mac, but that is simple to do. SSDs (Solid State disks) are very fast, but smaller in capacity and quite expensive. Also, you wouldn't notice their speed over USB 2.0 anyway.
 
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Cougarcat said:
It works just like a USB disk connected to an Airport extreme, except instead of USB, it uses Ethernet.

So your setup would look like this:

<Wireless router>>Ethernet connection>>NAS Disk>>Wireless Connection>>MBP (or any computer on your wireless network)




Hard drives are platform agnostic. You usually will have to format the drive for the Mac, but that is simple to do. SSDs (Solid State disks) are very fast, but smaller in capacity and quite expensive. Also, you wouldn't notice their speed over USB 2.0 anyway.
Click to expand...

I got no Airport so no wireless for me then..

So you say that a USB 2.0 would be just fine? and if I want to go a little higher in price then a fire wire would be better because it is faster? And both are solid? won't break? and are there any brands in hard disks that are good price-quality?
 
Michielfm said:
I got no Airport so no wireless for me then..

So you say that a USB 2.0 would be just fine? and if I want to go a little higher in price then a fire wire would be better because it is faster? And both are solid? won't break? and are there any brands in hard disks that are good price-quality?
Click to expand...

Firewire 800 crushes USB. Firewire 400 is usually faster, though not by much. If all you are doing is Time Machine backups, you really won't notice a difference, though.

External hard drive manufacturers pretty much use all the same parts. Just read some reviews online before you pick one and you'll be fine.
 
Cougarcat said:
Firewire 800 crushes USB. Firewire 400 is usually faster, though not by much. If all you are doing is Time Machine backups, you really won't notice a difference, though.

External hard drive manufacturers pretty much use all the same parts. Just read some reviews online before you pick one and you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

So for back up firewire isn't necessary? for what is it then? You some brands maybe?

----------
zodiaque said:
depending on where you are located i would have a look at www.alternate.be they have a variety of has drives
Click to expand...

I'll have a look, ty





And euhm, Is it true that when I use a hard disc on my mac I will only be able to use it on mac? so it is best get my own private hard disk??
 
Michielfm said:
So for back up firewire isn't necessary? for what is it then? You some brands maybe?
Click to expand...

FW is good for video production or running apps from the drive. Anything that needs high sustained read/write speeds. For backup, USB 2.0 is fine. Something like this should suit you just fine.


And euhm, Is it true that when I use a hard disc on my mac I will only be able to use it on mac? so it is best get my own private hard disk??
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean. Time Machine backups to a folder, so you can use it for other things, as well as other macs. Mac disks are HFS+ formatted, so you can't use them with PCs (well, without special software).
 
I'd suggest picking up a refurbished airport extreme. 129 bucks on the apple store. You can plug in a low power USB drive and access it over your home network, or from anywhere in the world with a little bit of work.
 
winterlocked said:
I'd suggest picking up a refurbished airport extreme. 129 bucks on the apple store. You can plug in a low power USB drive and access it over your home network, or from anywhere in the world with a little bit of work.
Click to expand...

That depends on the university allowing you to do it. Lots of the universities require you to register your MAC address and do not allow you to add a router in your dorm room. I wouldn't buy an airport extreme unless I was absolutely ure the uni would allow it.
 
thanks for helping me out everyone!!!
I've got my self a mobile extern hard disk (WD 2TB) and I'm using Time Machine works fine :D thanks again!
 
ben een beetje laat bij het feestje!

maar er is wel een wireless hard disk => de seagate goflex satellite.
maar denk dat dat alleen voor Ipad is
 
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