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most compact 1TB external drive?

sparkie7

sparkie7

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 17, 2008
2,540
287
hi, sorry if this is in the wrong forum.. but which ext HD is at least 1TB and ultra compact, or do I have to drop down to 250-500GB mark to be anywhere portable.

I think western digital do a range of portable HDs but only USB, i prefer FW800 for speed element

Any suggestions? make, model?
 
sparkie7 said:
hi, sorry if this is in the wrong forum.. but which ext HD is at least 1TB and ultra compact, or do I have to drop down to 250-500GB mark to be anywhere portable.

I think western digital do a range of portable HDs but only USB, i prefer FW800 for speed element

Any suggestions? make, model?
Click to expand...

You will find a tremendous difference in enclosure size between 2.5" and 3.5 drives. Also - when it comes to "portable" you need to consider power. Do you want to run your drive from buss power?

I currently have a Firewire 800 3.5 icy dock enclosure with a 1TB drive. I love it, but it's not really "portable" as it requires it's own power supply.

I am considering getting one of the buss powered 2.5 FireWire 800 external enclosures from OWC. Much smaller, extremely portable, but in this case, you are limited to 500GB.


good luck
 
thanks for the info :) i looked up the OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro drives.. they look nice and small! but i can't seem to find their website or stockist here in the UK
 
Yeah that drive looks great, Sparkie. I have an old 250gb passport and it's been a sturdy addition. The firewire 800 on a drive twice the size looks awesome. But don't get it from the WD site: Best Buy has the 500gb for about $20 cheaper, albeit with a 1-2 week delay.
 
Nate025 said:
Yeah that drive looks great, Sparkie. I have an old 250gb passport and it's been a sturdy addition. The firewire 800 on a drive twice the size looks awesome. But don't get it from the WD site: Best Buy has the 500gb for about $20 cheaper, albeit with a 1-2 week delay.
Click to expand...

me too (250GB WD Passport) but it was only USB interface.

problem is Best Buy is in the US. I'm in the UK :( and No one here stockes the 500GB Passport Studio. Its too new here, or the UK suppliers want to run down their older 320 and 250 GBs.. problem is these models only go up to FW400. No FW800 at all.

Looks like the 500 triple interface is a HOT item. its sold out or backordered Everywhere in US.

Anyone know here in the UK that could source one easily?

I'd order from BB, but its back ordered
 
I bought a refurb OWC firewire800/usb 2.5" enclosure.

It was about 60$, and well worth the hassle I went through. They originally sent me the right enclosure, and card, but not the right end cap. They fixed it pretty fast, but still had to explain to the guy on the phone the situation a few times. They ended up sending an entire different replacement, which also had the heatsink on the bottom, like it showed in the pictures.

Overall very happy. Still never recieved my fw800 to fw400 cable with it, but still well worth the 60$ vs 100$ new.

I get about 40-50MB/s sustained transfers on FW800. USB i get about 25MB/s.

this is with the stock 200gb 5400 from my MBP inside the enclosure.
 
I've got a reply and a question.

Personally, I have a WD 320gb external with it's own power supply. I mainly use it for storage of things that I don't need to have with me all the time. (I.e., movies I don't want all the time, projects from the past...) It's ok, but the transfer rate could be better. I get about 2mb/s.

My friend owes a SeaGate 250gb. This bad boy had two USB ports on it that plugged into the two on my MBP. I was getting crazy rate. 1GB/S. It was Very nice.


Now a question. I'm asking within a thread since a lot of people seem to know about HDs in this one. Is there any chance of a 1TB HD for the MBP within the next 6 months? Reasonable price?
 
fleshman03 said:
I've got a reply and a question.

Personally, I have a WD 320gb external with it's own power supply. I mainly use it for storage of things that I don't need to have with me all the time. (I.e., movies I don't want all the time, projects from the past...) It's ok, but the transfer rate could be better. I get about 2mb/s.

My friend owes a SeaGate 250gb. This bad boy had two USB ports on it that plugged into the two on my MBP. I was getting crazy rate. 1GB/S. It was Very nice.


Now a question. I'm asking within a thread since a lot of people seem to know about HDs in this one. Is there any chance of a 1TB HD for the MBP within the next 6 months? Reasonable price?
Click to expand...

If you want the fastest transfer rate, get a drive with FW800 (but make sure it also has USB). That should be the fastest transfer rate available.

As for the 1TB question, I doubt it in the next 6 months. 500GB drives still aren't too common or cost-efficient, and I doubt they would be able to double the capacity that quickly. 750GB drives are the next step (that's where the big drives went). Boosts in capacity don't seem to jump quickly on HDDs much. I think 1.5GB is the largest single drive you can get (those 2TB models have two drives in them).

What you will start to see is a space race on who can get SSDs into the affordable range and then they'll start racing to bump that storage up. SSDs are probably a year or two from really really making an impact in computers due to the speed, power, and durability components. Notebook users can get such an easy battery-saver from them, and they're quite a green product.

So for right now, just make with what you've got. I would also suggest the route of networked hard drives or USB-powered small HDDs to take with you for external needs. The networked ones transfer stuff SLLLOOWWLLY, but they're really storage and not active use.
 
well the western digital ones arnt that big but this is what i did

i have a external drive enclosure. i bought a 500GB SATA internal drive for computers and put it in the enclosure. there are 1TB SATA internal drives so you can pop one into the enclosure and use that asa portable drive. the problem is that your going to need a power source so its not exactly 'portable'
 
thomahawk said:
well the western digital ones arnt that big but this is what i did

i have a external drive enclosure. i bought a 500GB SATA internal drive for computers and put it in the enclosure. there are 1TB SATA internal drives so you can pop one into the enclosure and use that asa portable drive. the problem is that your going to need a power source so its not exactly 'portable'
Click to expand...


How did you connect it to your laptop (i assume). Through the Express port via an eSata card? If so, I thought you could possible get drives which power off the bus without the need for a separate power source
 
fleshman03 said:
I've got a reply and a question.

Personally, I have a WD 320gb external with it's own power supply. I mainly use it for storage of things that I don't need to have with me all the time. (I.e., movies I don't want all the time, projects from the past...) It's ok, but the transfer rate could be better. I get about 2mb/s.

My friend owes a SeaGate 250gb. This bad boy had two USB ports on it that plugged into the two on my MBP. I was getting crazy rate. 1GB/S. It was Very nice.
Click to expand...

Problem with this is it uses up all/most of your USB ports


Now a question. I'm asking within a thread since a lot of people seem to know about HDs in this one. Is there any chance of a 1TB HD for the MBP within the next 6 months? Reasonable price?
Click to expand...

I'd rather have 2x500GB internal HDs, setup as a Raid array.

or even better 2x super fast SSDs with very fast write speeds set up as an array
 
fleshman03 said:
My friend owes a SeaGate 250gb. This bad boy had two USB ports on it that plugged into the two on my MBP. I was getting crazy rate. 1GB/S. It was Very nice.
Click to expand...

What a PC kludge instead of FW800 or eSATA.
 
i ended up getting a G-Drive Mini from G-Technology. This drive rocks. Its tiny, made of Aluminum, has no fan, therefore near totally silent, has a heat sink. 500GB capacity and three ports, FW800, FW400 & USB2.0. It wasnt the cheapest. But its the best on the planet. :D:D;)
 
vga4life said:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11087

Lacie Little Big Disk Quadra. Dual 2.5" 500GB drives in a 1TB RAID 0 configuration with Firewire 800, eSATA, and USB interfaces. Bus-powered on Firewire, no AC adapter needed.
Click to expand...

I used to buy mostly Lacie drives, but I've given up on them. I've had every drive I've bought from them fail anywhere from 3 months up to 1 1/2 years after purchase. For the last repair it stated I had to ship the original box and materials to them. They sent it back to me in a beat up old box with everything missing but the drive.

I will never ever buy another product from these guys.
 
bcaslis said:
I used to buy mostly Lacie drives, but I've given up on them. I've had every drive I've bought from them fail anywhere from 3 months up to 1 1/2 years after purchase. For the last repair it stated I had to ship the original box and materials to them. They sent it back to me in a beat up old box with everything missing but the drive.

I will never ever buy another product from these guys.
Click to expand...

I checked that drive out before I went for the G-Drive. The lacie was quite small for a 1TB, but it was heavy. And I have heard of Lacies poor reliability reputation also.

The other drive a strongly considered was the Western Digital My Passport Studio drives. They are the smallest lightest 500GB drives on the market, triple interface. I probably would have got it but its not available here yet in the UK. But I'm very happy with the G-Drive. Its a better build and I believe has one of the best reputations in the industry for reliability, design and performance. It is the industry standard for video professionals. Not that I use it for video, but if its good enough for them, it'll be good for almost anyone else as video editing & storage is some of the most demanding across almost any industry
 
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