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Portable Harddrives?

J

Johnbmx26

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 30, 2004
17
0
Hello,
I have an Ibook G4.. with a 30GB HD :(
I've been looking for an external HD. About 80-100 GB.
I was wondering if there were any down sides to them? Do they eat away you battery real quick? Also, I plan on running Logic, and Garage Band with all the extra Jam Packs from the portable HD. Is this possible? Would it be to slow?

Thanks
John
 
Not sure about the battery issue. I think most portable drives require external power adapters. If there are ones that can get the power from the USB or FireWire port, then I am sure it will drain your notebook's battery.

As to the speed question... if the drive is 7200 RPM then it will actually be faster than the drive in your iBook now.

Yes, you could run all that apps and jam packs from the drive too.
 
make sure to get one that uses FW 400 if you are going to run apps off of it, USB 2.0 while having a higher transfer rate in theory, can only reach those speeds in burst, while FW can sustain its top speed without any issues, so it is much better for any prolonged usage.
 
iomega and lacie make portable hard drives that don't need external power sources but you will pay for this premium technology, similarly, if you want a drive that runs both firewire and usb, be prepared to pay a little extra.
 
Johnbmx26 said:
Hello,
I have an Ibook G4.. with a 30GB HD :(
I've been looking for an external HD. About 80-100 GB.
I was wondering if there were any down sides to them?
Click to expand...

I havn't had any... I have a 200G FireWire external HD that I purchased from a local retailer "Melrose Mac" in Burbank, CA.

Johnbmx26 said:
Do they eat away you battery real quick?
Click to expand...

Don't know... I always use the powersupply.

Johnbmx26 said:
Also, I plan on running Logic, and Garage Band with all the extra Jam Packs from the portable HD.
Click to expand...

Jus' curious... what kind of music do you do that you'd need all that?

If you're in need of a FREE, Cross-Platform Sound Editor, check this out

Johnbmx26 said:
Is this possible?
Click to expand...

Yes, at the moment, I've got Panther on the PB HD, then Tiger on the external HD. It runs flawlessly, I'm sure those Apps would run with no problem. You'd just have to tell you Mac which drive you want to boot up.

Johnbmx26 said:
Would it be to slow?
Click to expand...

You should MAX OUT YOUR RAM... ;)

Johnbmx26 said:
Thanks
John
Click to expand...

Hope this helps...
 
Johnbmx26 said:
I have 1.25 GB of ram.
I still get that damn beach ball a lot..

John
Click to expand...

Aah... That sucks!

How many tracks are you using at one time?

Sometimes my iB will do that when I got 3 or 4 tracks going.

Maybe try freeing up some HD space by saving some data onto CD, then deleting it.

Good luck!
 
You won't want to drag an external around all the time, that defies the point of a laptop. Upgrade the internal, you'll be happier, trust me.
 
fw drive

i bought a 120 gig fantom fw harddrive from macmall for 80$ which was one of the best deals i found on the net. I think thats what they ares still selling for, and its been on for about a month and a half straight with no problems. so if your looking for a good option i might take that.
 
rainman::|:| said:
You won't want to drag an external around all the time, that defies the point of a laptop. Upgrade the internal, you'll be happier, trust me.
Click to expand...

Would this effect the battery? And would it mean that the fan his a higher chance of coming on more often?

Thanks
John
 
Anyone use the Iomega black Triple Interface drives? I could definitely use the FW 800 capability on them. If so, do they make any noise? It'd be a drag to have a completely silent, gorgeous setup, then add in a noisy external HDD.
 
I have a 200GB external with USB/FW that I assembled using a PPA Int. 1943 enclosure from Newegg and a cheap Maxtor drive that I found through dealnews.com. Total cost was about $120. I use it for storing ripped DVDs.
 
rainman::|:| said:
You won't want to drag an external around all the time, that defies the point of a laptop. Upgrade the internal, you'll be happier, trust me.
Click to expand...


I second that. Get a larger internal HDD for your iBook. I do have an external HDD but I never lug it around with me(just for backup purpose)
 
I use Lacie mobile external HD 100 GB (Porsche brand) as it gets power from the firewire (ie. no power brick). It is very small and light and I can carry it in my computer bag with the rest of the gear.

Ideally, the internal HD should be large enough so that I don't have to tug this external one along with me. But, Apple made upgrading the internal HD for the current lines of PB and iBook so damn difficult (I looked at PBFixIt web site for the diagrams). I hope they will re-design the HD location for the future models so that end users can upgrade it relatively easily. I was able to change my Ti PB's internal HD in less than 30 minutues today as I upgraded it to Seagate 100 GB 5400 rpm from the original 20 GB IBM Travelmate HD.

For home use, I have a bunch of Lacie and Maxtor desktop external HDs. They are too heavy and large for carrying them around on the daily basis.
 
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