Please help me manage my external HDs for my new Mac setup!

[zub3qin]

I am upgrading to a new mac and want to pick the right ext HD for

a) Time Machine
b) external HD for more space
c) what to put in the old macbook I am giving to my parents who need NOTHING but Firefox

I have the following HDs at my disposal:

1) Old black Macbook's current internal HD (I upgraded 1 yr ago)- 320 GB Western Digital- only 160GB is being used.

2) External 120 GB USB HD in a tiny enclosure - (this is the original installed Black Macbook HD- Toshiba) so it is 4 years old.

3) Current Time Machine HD- 250 GB Seagate ST325082 in a BIG paperback sized enclosure. This is probably 4 years old.

4) a relatively new Seagate 500GB FreeAgent GoFlex ext HD in a tiny enclosure

Can people advise me on what HD I should put in the old Macbook for the parents, what I should use for Time Machine with the new computer, and do I need another HD for more storage?

Is it a mistake to put the original Toshiba HD back in the macbook because it is 4 years old? It really is all my parents need.

My new mac is a 13 MBA with 256SSD. I will likely only have 150GB on it to be honest.

thanks!

 

[deadwulfe]

I'd probably leave the old Macbook the way it is. Use your current Time Machine as the external for more space and make the new GoFlex the new Time Machine to backup your computer AND the external drive for more space. Then the old 120GB one can be an emergency one or you can put it back into the old Macbook and use the newer 320GB as the emergency one, but then you're looking at a potential reinstall after a year. That's my opinion.

 

[zub3qin]

I'd probably leave the old Macbook the way it is. Use your current Time Machine as the external for more space and make the new GoFlex the new Time Machine to backup your computer AND the external drive for more space. Then the old 120GB one can be an emergency one or you can put it back into the old Macbook and use the newer 320GB as the emergency one, but then you're looking at a potential reinstall after a year. That's my opinion.

Thanks for the tips!
1) You said "a potential reinstall after a year" re: the 4 yr old Toshiba 120GB HD. Is that because these things last 5 years and then die?
2) You said to make the GoFlex 500GB my time machine AND the ext drive.
But if I partition it that way, will it back up the external drive partition to the Time Machine partition? Is that even possible? If so, that seems like the best solution. If not, isn't it dangerous to store anything on it without backup?

 

[deadwulfe]

1) I think HDD warranties are a good sign of when to expect failures to occur. Actually repairing things under warranty cost companies more money, so they tend to not offer warranties beyond their expected lifetime of working properly.

2) Yeah, TM can backup an external drive, but thinking about it now, it might be better to partition the GoFlex into 2, a TM space for your computer and then to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to backup the external drive onto the second partition of the GoFlex.