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Need help finding a portable external HD

I've experienced an external hard drive failure. It fell off my desk (didn't realise it was still plugged into my laptop...duh, and when I plugged it in it failed to mount (it made an odd noise when trying to mount - like a relay switch, but very faint).

I thought it might be the interface that was messed, so took the hard drive out and plugged it into my PC. No luck, same problem.

That's where SSD's would be useful!
 
A question related to external HDs-

When a HD is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) can it be read by a Windows PC?
 
So if I want to use 1 external HD to do both a bootable backup of my Mac and to be able to connect it to my mate's Windows PC to copy his stuff, what is the best course of action? Thanks!
 
danielhayter said:
Cmmiserations PimpDaddy. In your place I would definitely write a letter to their complaints/customer services department expressing your disappointment with the durability of the HD.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? ;). I don't think that HD was made to be thrown of chairs :)
 
danielhayter said:
So if I want to use 1 external HD to do both a bootable backup of my Mac and to be able to connect it to my mate's Windows PC to copy his stuff, what is the best course of action? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Get a big external drive, format part as a Journaled HFS system. The other part as FAT32.

Then you can copy stuff to your FAT32 partition and read it in Windows and Mac OS.
 
PimpDaddy said:
Are you serious? ;). I don't think that HD was made to be thrown of chairs :)
Click to expand...

I am serious! Though of course I agree HDs aren't made to be thrown off chairs. If that is the case, don't overly stress this point in your letter. But I have written numerous letters complaining about things breaking too easily for my liking and have a high success count ranging from full replacement to posting me store vouchers.
 
whateverandever said:
Get a big external drive, format part as a Journaled HFS system. The other part as FAT32.

Then you can copy stuff to your FAT32 partition and read it in Windows and Mac OS.
Click to expand...

I've got a 120gb external HD, and my iBook internal drive is 60gb. I want to do a full bootable backup. So I could partition 60gb of my external drive as Mac Journalled and the other 60gb as MS-DOS? Both partitions readable/writable in Mac and just the MS-DOS partition readable/writable in Windows? Thanks!
Also - all of this can be done in Disk Utility?
Thanks or the help pal.
 
Slightly different question, but same...im looking for 80-120 gigs, small, bus powered, under ~$125 and plug and play for my mbp (some ones ive seen need to be reformatted for macs). I suppose its ok if it looks nice too...any suggestions?
 
danielhayter said:
I've got a 120gb external HD, and my iBook internal drive is 60gb. I want to do a full bootable backup. So I could partition 60gb of my external drive as Mac Journalled and the other 60gb as MS-DOS? Both partitions readable/writable in Mac and just the MS-DOS partition readable/writable in Windows? Thanks!
Also - all of this can be done in Disk Utility?
Thanks or the help pal.
Click to expand...
yup can pretty much be done in disk utility, formatting as fat32 can sometimes be difficult from what ive learnt. like ive had to format the fat32 part as free space, then format it in windows,.. i donno its wierd.


PURCELL429 said:
Slightly different question, but same...im looking for 80-120 gigs, small, bus powered, under ~$125 and plug and play for my mbp (some ones ive seen need to be reformatted for macs). I suppose its ok if it looks nice too...any suggestions?
Click to expand...

the lacie ones are really nice. also there are those ones by maxtor and there are alot of custom made ones. or make one urself (get ur own case + own drive)
 
OWC Mercury On the Go 500GIG Or WD Passport for best Portable hard drive option?

Hi,
I need a portable hard drive to backup video files and it has to be 500GB and Firewire 400/800.
I am debating between the OWC Mercury on the Go:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MS8U5500GB8/
and the WD Passport:
http://www.macmall.com/ttsvr/p/Western-Digital-External-Hard-Drives/product~dpno~7691859~pdp.fbfggig

Here's what I'd like to do, ideally. First, have my editor backup some video files from a Mac. Then I'd like to use the drive with my PC to backup some more files on the space left over, if that's a possibility so I can actually use that drive, not just shelve it with the backed up footage.

I'm not very well versed with these things, so here are my questions:
1) Will I be able to use the hard drive with a PC even though I've backed up originally with a Mac?
2) Which one of these two options would you recommend over the other?

Any help is appreciated, I need to purchase this in the next week or so. Thanks!
 
With the WD external drive, at least you know what brand HD is inside... that's the one I'd probably go with. Check out Newegg.com also... good prices and return policy.
 
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