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diegobgr

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 22, 2009
340
0
Hi.

I need a hard disk to store music and photo libraries as well the Time Machine copy.

I'm thinking about 3 TB.

Any recommendation?
 
If your Mac has a Thunderbolt port then how about one of these?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/H8682ZM/A

They are very fast and you can add extra drives if needed.

The problem (in my opinion) with Thunderbolt drives is you pay a huge price premium on drives that don't need the speed. You tend to access your music one song at a time - USB and Firewire work just fine for that. Even HD video doesn't need Thunderbolt transfer speeds. For the same price you could buy two 3 TB drives
 
For what you use it for, any USB 2.0 drives should suffice. Firewire is an option as well, but Thunderbolt drives would be a waste imo. Time Machine only takes long the first time you activate it, otherwise incremental changes shouldn't take long. Or if you leave your computer 24/7 just schedule it during down time.
 
USB or Firewire is your best bet for a single disc solution. IF you go USB look at one that supports USB 3 as most likely the 2012 Macs will finally support it.
 
For what you use it for, any USB 2.0 drives should suffice. Firewire is an option as well, but Thunderbolt drives would be a waste imo.

The original poster said photos. Managing photos stored in USB 2.0 drive is far from ideal. FW800 7200 rpm should be the minimum.

I agree with Thunderbolt though. One should consider it only if you intend to use SSD and/or RAID.
 
The nice thing about the Seagate GoFlex drives is that you can add TB if you choose. You can buy a USB or FW800 drive now... and upgrade to TB in the future if your needs demand TB.

For example: My 2009 iMac does not have TB... but I can use a USB2.0/FW800 drive which performs quite well if using FW800.

If I want to use the same drive on my MBA, i am limited to USB 2.0 which is much slower. However, if it is a Seagate GoFlexI can buy a $99 TB adapter and get fast speeds with with the MBA using TB.

So far, I have a Pegasus 8TB R4, Seagate Desk GoFlex with USB2.0/FW800/TB, and a Seagate portable GoFlex with USB3.0/TB. The advantage of TB for the Pegasus is obvious. I think I will use it to house my A3 library because it just screams. With my old iMac, I now use FW800. For my MBA, I connect through a ATD, and daisy chain TB drives. The MBA feels very fast with an internal SSD, external RAID, and a high res ATD monitor.

/Jim
 
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