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Portable Hard Drives - Tell us about yours!

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macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 13, 2007
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Earth
Any of you guys out there use a portable hard drive with your MB/P?

A little research shows that the Western Digital Passport seems to be the best out right now - only needs one USB port for both transfer and power (a lot of portable drives seem to need two).

Anyone with a WD Passport care to share your experiences?

Also, if you use a different portable drive, please tell us what it is and how it performs (be sure to mention if it needs to be plugged in via AC and USB, or 2xUSB, or just one USB)
 
have a passport 120gb and it's wonderful. i use it with a powered usb hub, so it doesnt pull any power from my macbook. works awesome with timemachine.
 
I've got a WD MyBook. I've had no problem whatsoever with it, it can use FW or USB, and it's AC powered.

It was my portable until I got leopard and now it's my TimeMachine Backup.

No complaints.
 
Modified WD Passport 250 GB

Wanting to take advantage of TM while waiting for Apple to update Leopard to enable smarter use of network attached storage, when available, I've decided to go ahead and modify my MacBook Pro - by attaching a WD Passport 250 externally.

My Passport drive is now attached to the back of my laptop display, on the left side with the USB cable connecting easily next to the power connector. Works really wall, adds very little weight, continues to fit nicely in my Tom Bihn Sling.

Very sweet inexpensive improvement. As a professional writer, having access to my backup's is just about the most important thing I could get.

Now if only I had a preview mode for my many Avenir files...
 
why not order a laptop hard drive from newegg and get a case enclosurer from other world computing and save some money. :confused:
 
I really like the look of the Passport too.. really nice.

Most 2.5" externals are BUS powered, it's the bigger 3.5" that need their own power supply.

I was looking at getting a Passport to put my music on, and a MyBook for time machine.
 
I just received my 160GB bus-powered G-Drive mini. It's great. Comes with it's own leather case, and I attach it to my MBP via FireWire. Loving it so far (Use if for Time Machine backups).
 
Mine sucks. coolermaster casing with a 100gb samsung 2.5inch hdd. looks cool outside but sucks inside. Only work well with Intel mbp but not my G5 Mac. G5 can only detects it at USB 1.1 speed:(
 
I have a Passport 160 that I love and I just bought a My Book Home 500 for my iMac to run with time machine. Haven't had a chance to test out the My Book yet but the Passport is wonderful. Easy to transport, runs great, very quick even though only USB, and doesn't seem to pull too much power. I highly recommend it.
 
comptr said:
why not order a laptop hard drive from newegg and get a case enclosurer from other world computing and save some money. :confused:
Click to expand...

If you did this, would it be able to run off of only one usb port? I'm not into having a portable drive that takes up both of my USB ports, which are on opposite sides of the MBP.
 
I use a 100GB Seagate that I got for $35 at a CompUSA that was closing. I haven't had any problems with it in 6 months of pretty constant use. At one point I had it connected to my AEBS for a network drive. It only uses one USB port on my MBP, but the cable has 2 USB just in case it needs the extra juice.
 
I put my factory 160GB in an OWC On-The-Go case - FW800/400/USB2. Bus power on single USB (and, of course, off of FW).

Also have a 100GB in a Speedzter FW400 case.
 
After working at a campus computer store and seeing the luck they had with Lacie drives, I bought my 160GB Lacie Brick about 2 years ago. This summer I bought a 500GB Lacie Porsche something or other. Both work awesome, although I wish they had FW400/800.
 
WD Passport problems

Can anyone who got the WD Passport 250GB to work with Time Machine, please tell me how they did it? How is it formatted?

I kept getting errors that the device hadn't been properly removed when it was still attached and hadn't been removed at all.

There's been some suggestion that the key is in the formatting, but I've tried several different formats and nothing seems to work. The drive is recognized but I can't get Time Machine to use it to make a successful copy.

Thanks for any help.
 
I have tiger osx and want to upgrade to leopard.
But i want to backup tiger since im afraid if anything goes wrong i have my things backed up like my apps emails etc etc.
Now i want to buy an external backup drive like Western digital,however can i use the same drive for backing up my tiger stuff and then using time machine from leopard....iwhen upgrade is successful .
It shouldnt erase anything off the xternal drive once i activate time machine? and all my apps on it from tiger etc would it?
 
cpnotebook80 said:
I have tiger osx and want to upgrade to leopard.
But i want to backup tiger since im afraid if anything goes wrong i have my things backed up like my apps emails etc etc.
Now i want to buy an external backup drive like Western digital,however can i use the same drive for backing up my tiger stuff and then using time machine from leopard....iwhen upgrade is successful .
It shouldnt erase anything off the xternal drive once i activate time machine? and all my apps on it from tiger etc would it?
Click to expand...

It should work fine, assuming you have enough disk space left on the external drive. Time Machine creates a separate folder for its backup files.
 
rdjames said:
Wanting to take advantage of TM while waiting for Apple to update Leopard to enable smarter use of network attached storage, when available, I've decided to go ahead and modify my MacBook Pro - by attaching a WD Passport 250 externally.

My Passport drive is now attached to the back of my laptop display, on the left side with the USB cable connecting easily next to the power connector. Works really wall, adds very little weight, continues to fit nicely in my Tom Bihn Sling.

Very sweet inexpensive improvement. As a professional writer, having access to my backup's is just about the most important thing I could get.

Now if only I had a preview mode for my many Avenir files...
Click to expand...

RDJAMES, Can you tell me how you got the WD Passport 250GB to work with Time Machine? How is it formatted?

I kept getting errors that the device hadn't been properly removed when it was still attached and hadn't been removed at all.

There's been some suggestion that the trick is in the formatting, but I've tried several different formats and nothing seems to work. The drive is recognized but I can't get Time Machine to use it to make a successful copy.

Thanks for any help.
 
A LaCie 250 gb, which has served well, a Maxtor 80 gb, and my present favorite, a SmartDisk Firelite 160 gb which is very portable and useful.
 
kingofsquid said:
It should work fine, assuming you have enough disk space left on the external drive. Time Machine creates a separate folder for its backup files.
Click to expand...

thanks.
Also i know theres been talk about firewire vs usb but for backing up purposes does it really make a diff.
I can get a 500gb WD external for like 180$.So just wondring since its USB should i care..
if not ill go get it.
 
cpnotebook80 said:
thanks.
Also i know theres been talk about firewire vs usb but for backing up purposes does it really make a diff.
I can get a 500gb WD external for like 180$.So just wondring since its USB should i care..
if not ill go get it.
Click to expand...

PS: update
I went and bought a 500gb mystudio WD with firewire/USb etc and guess what..the firewire worked on TIGER when i backed things up and when i upgraded to leopard the firewire didnt work.Im using 400 FW btw.
Im now on USB for timebeing.
Anyone expereince the firewire cables not working on the leopard OS with Western digital equipment?


PS: I spoke to customer support and the guy said to connect the adapter to a wall outlet as opposed to a surge protector when using firewire ports. Seems to give it more power. Which makes no sense since It was connected to surge protector when in tiger.
Mmmmm.....Ill have to try it when i get home.Anyone can confirm this .
thanks
 
I, too, am interested. I'll be looking at it for doing Time Machine backups on my 60 GB hard drive, as well as storage for movies and file room for Photoshop and audio editing. So I'm looking at the 200+ GB range, or maybe a 160 if I get a smoking deal.

I see very large disparities in prices, though, especially on 250 GB models. I can get a WD Passport 250 for $150 from Best Buy, or spend twice as much for a new G-Tech mini 250. Is it worth the price difference? I suppose I could do the enclosure + hdd route and maybe save a couple bucks. I really only want USB and FW400, so the G is probably overkill, but I'm worried about latency and performance running USB while I'm recording audio live.
 
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