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Hard Drive Questions

PaperMacWriter said:
EDIT: Looking at the drives I was conisidering again, it looks like there's actually a much bigger gap in price than I thought - they're only $90 for the normal drives, as opposed to $140 for the Hybrid! Is it really worth $50? $20, yes, but $50 seems like a lot...
Click to expand...

You have to think that an SSD of the same size would cost you $1300.
For $50 someone might get most of what they are really looking for in an SSD.
 
cube said:
You have to think that an SSD of the same size would cost you $1300.
For $50 someone might get most of what they are really looking for in an SSD.
Click to expand...

True, but for 4GB, $50 seems steep... but then again, this WILL be the drive I'm stuck with until SSDs are cheap... So many decisions!
Stan
 
OK, so Ive decided to get the Momentus XT, Ive downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner, and Im ready to go - except I still need to know what enclosure I should buy. Im getting the stuff from amazon - anyone have a particular brand/model that I can trust that amazon will ship?
Thank you all so very much!
Stan
 
PaperMacWriter said:
Thats $72 dollars - is there anything cheaper than that? That seems awfully pricy...
Click to expand...

And it's $82 with the software bundle. OWC is a Mac-oriented brand. There're a few others. Otherwise, if you want to go for the cheap generic stuff, it's your risk.

There's an OWC with FW400/USB for $38.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/add-ons-and-hubs/enclosure-kits

Maybe you can check out anything with amazonpayments, I don't know.

Be careful to get a case for SATA drives, not IDE/PATA.
 
Hey, I've been looking at enclosures, and these two products caught my eye:
Newertech Universal Drive Adapter
Newertech Voyager - Q or S2

So those looked pretty good, but I wasn't sure if those are the smartest purchases - what do y'all think? Would any of those be particularly good for me?
Stan
 
I know that - many of my friends rely upon their products - I just need to know if these particular products will be good for my purposes.
Stan
 
OK, so I need to decide which of these I'm going to buy as an enclosure for my new HDD:

OWC On-the-Go FW800 ~ $70, would be able to repurpose old 160GB HDD for excess media that I don't need to have on my computer, fast

OWC On-the-Go USB ~ $25, also use 160GB HDD for media, but SLOW :(

Newertech Voyager S2 ~ $28, Versitile and elegant, easily reusable

Newertech Voyager Q ~ $90, Versitile and elegant, easily reusable, FAST

Newertech Universal Drive Adapter ~ $30, Highly versatile, but slow and ugly :(

So, from those Im having a hard time deciding. Im probably not going to buy another enclosure/transfer device for a long time, so I don't want to make a poor choice, but I don't want to pay through the nose - which one of these seems the smartest choice for me? I can't make up my mind...
Thanks!
Stan
 
Hi Stan,

It seems that you also have decide what you prefer: portability or desktop solution?

The OWC On-The-Go are decent for the price. I have the FireWire one and it has worked fine for me. I haven't used recently so I don't remeber very well but I think that if you connect it only with USB cable it works without having to connect the power adapter (better ask the OWC folks throught their chat), later I will check this and confirm. For FireWire it has to have the power adapter connected.
Be aware that even it is easy to carry inside it's leather pouch, and even the plastic enclosure is decent it is not the most robust thing, but so far it has been OK in my limited usage.

And for the voyagers, the choice is limited to: do you want to use eSata? Do you have the adapter? Or do you want to go with FireWire?
 
For the adapter, it is mainly used for doing quick connections with the bare hard drive, I wouldn't use it as a permanent solution, because the hard drive will be vulnerable to any handling damage.

As well as the Voyagers they are the kind of solutions for people that's have plenty of HDD, or do IT support and they need to quickly connect and disconnet the drives without messing around with the enclosures.
 
McGiord said:
Hi Stan,
The OWC On-The-Go are decent for the price. I have the FireWire one and it has worked fine for me. For FireWire it has to have the power adapter connected.
Click to expand...

I think you mixed FW400/FW800 ports. Both firewire models are FireWire-powered since 2001, according to their site.
 
Amazon has some deals on Macally enclosures.

I've never bought one, but I think they should be OK, as OWC sells some.
 
cube said:
I think you mixed FW400/FW800 ports. Both firewire models are FireWire-powered since 2001, according to their site.
Click to expand...

You are right.

Now I remember, the reason why I wasn't able to power it up with the firewire port is when I tried to use it on my wife's MacBook, because it is having power issues, it isn't charging the battery nor properly handling the power.

I just tested my OWC enclosure and it works fine with power over FireWire on my MacBook Pro.

That aluminum enclosure looks nice.
 
So, looking at it, I need to choose between a permanent solution (that wouldn't be as useful for future usage, but would pay off in the short term at least). For those, I think it makes the most sense for the Universal Drive Adapter if I want a cheaper, more reusable solution, and the FW800 enclosure if I want to use the old drive into the future. Right now, I'm leaning towards the Universal Drive adapter, as 1) I'm very nearly broke 2) I think that I could use that in the near future and 3) I already have a backup hard drive, so an extra Hard Drive really isn't a top priority. Do those reasons seem like a logical conclusion to get the Newertech Universal Drive Adapter? I mean, I'd like to have a use for the old drive, but is it worth an extra $50 for an enclosure?
Thank you for all the fantastic help and putting up with my indecisiveness,
Stan
 
cube said:
Do you really still use IDE drives?
Click to expand...

Unfortunatly, I do have a G4 tower and a TiBook in the house, and some friends with plenty of IDE drives - so yeah, it makes some sense. I also have 2 old PCs in the closet (from 2000-2003 - not sure what kind of drives they have, but once I get all my data off, they're out'a this house!). So while I don't really need the IDE cables, it would be nice to have the choice. But then again, the Voyager S2 is a much cleaner and easier solution..... GAH!
 
And if you want to try generic, there are some cheap SATA+IDE cases (but I don't think with FireWire).

Just be careful that the SATA can be actually hooked to USB, and not only to eSATA.
 
If you look at the best price per gigabyte, it's about double for 2.5".

But I was mainly thinking that you wanted to do something with some 3.5" drives you already own.
 
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