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Please help me pick the right EXTERNAL 1TB HARD DRIVE

I

Ivo10

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 23, 2008
20
0
I'm looking to purchase a 1TB External Hard Drive to use with my PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz, 2 GB DDR SDRAM. The hard drive needs to be both Windows and Mac compatible, as I may need to access files on both types of machines.

I haven't been able to find any good round-ups of all the 1TB externals for comparison.

I'm not interested in elaborate back-up software or any other add-ons. If they're included, it's fine. My biggest concern is STORAGE SPACE and RELIABILITY. Of course, USB 2.0, Firewire, and SATA are nice features to have also, but I'm assuming that any hard drives of the 1TB caliber would have all this. In this particular situation, I'm not concerned with price - just the best drive.

Currently I'm looking at the AcomData 1TB Pure Drive. I have only found positive reviews of this hard drive. Also, I've been using two AcomData 250GB E5 series drives for the past 2 or 3 years with no problems or data loss/corruption whatsoever. What do you guys this of this drive? Good choice? Are there better ones out there?


Thanks in advance!
 
I'll suggest the drive i just got, a seagate freeagent, their pretty well priced, so far no problems, and its very quiet, which is nice since my main concern was that i'd end up with a jet engine on my desk. Also, they come configured for only pc but all i had to do was open the hard drive folder and click the set up to format it for mac, havent had a chance to try it with my vista laptop yet.
 
I vote for these drives over at OWC:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

I really love the case design, it is pretty quiet and their service has been excellent if I have any problems or questions. Plus, the drives come with a pretty sweet warranty and the FW800 is blazingly fast.

I have two of the 1TB drives and have had them for a little over a year with no problems!

My only issue is that it does have a very bright blue LED light on the front of the case. It would only be annoying if you keep your external on your desk I suppose or in your line of sight.
 
macworkerbee said:
I vote for these drives over at OWC:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

I really love the case design, it is pretty quiet and their service has been excellent if I have any problems or questions. Plus, the drives come with a pretty sweet warranty and the FW800 is blazingly fast.

I have two of the 1TB drives and have had them for a little over a year with no problems!

My only issue is that it does have a very bright blue LED light on the front of the case. It would only be annoying if you keep your external on your desk I suppose or in your line of sight.
Click to expand...


WD MyBook??? YUCK! Another vote for OWC Elite drives. OWC drives are in another class compared to WD MyBook.
 
I have a MyBook and a FreeAgent. I don't know where all the "EW MYBOOK STINKS" comes from - I think it's just people being fanboys - because both of them work exactly the same.

The only difference is that the MyBook likes to go to sleep if you don't use it for a while, and then you have to wait 5 seconds for the drive to spin up again if you need to get something from it. On the other hand, it's drawing less power.
 
Macpower quad interface case is well made. I also have an OWC Elite Pro (PATA, non quad), and I find a bit tricky to screw in the hard drive.

The Macpower has no problem with the 3 Gbps factory configuration of the Samsung F1 (dense, fast, and cheap).
 
Thanks again. The OWC drives look nice - seems to be a favorite around here?

Does anyone have experience with the AcomData drive I mentioned in my first post?
 
Ivo10 said:
Of course, USB 2.0, Firewire, and SATA are nice features to have also, but I'm assuming that any hard drives of the 1TB caliber would have all this.
Click to expand...

Not true, a lot of 1TB drives are USB 2.0 only.

For HDD's, my favorite brands are Western Digital and Seagate. Check Best Buy ads :p.

J The Ninja said:
One of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148274



And throw it in an external enclosure you like.
Click to expand...
That drive is 3.5", wouldn't the enclosure draw too much power and need an external power source other than the bus of the computer?
 
winninganthem said:
Not true, a lot of 1TB drives are USB 2.0 only.

For HDD's, my favorite brands are Western Digital and Seagate. Check Best Buy ads :p.


That drive is 3.5", wouldn't the enclosure draw too much power and need an external power source other than the bus of the computer?
Click to expand...

All 1TB drives are 3.5 as far as I know. Well, there's always RAID 0 if 2.5 double-height suits your fancy, but I think that would require external power as well.
 
I have a WD mybook premium. It's 1tb, but it's 2 500gb drives set up in a raid. I run fire wire 800, and it fliesssss. I would def. suggest it. If you ever want to up grade, the enclosure can support up to 2gb. The price is much lower now too. I've had mine for 2 years, and love it. Also, don't PC externals have to be formatted in FAT 32? I know that mac can read FAT 32, but i don't think windows can read OSX Journal partitions. I could be wrong...
 
The interesting thing about OWC is that when you buy a ready-made external drive, not the case alone, is the software bundle that you get.

Usually the drive itself is not the model I want, and then there's the expensive international courier shipping, so that's how I ended buying the Macpower case instead, and I'm very happy about the product.
 
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