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kikobarbada

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 28, 2007
195
0
Hello. I have some questions about 1TB external drives.

1. For time machine (will backup my 160gb internal and two 250gb externals), is FireWire any useful or should I use USB?

2. What is the best/cheapest 1TB external drive from a local store (no online store) in Orlando?

3. Many 1TB external drives are really two 500gb drives with one USB cable to connect to your mac. When I connect this type of drive, will it show as one drive or two drives (if so, how can I make it show as one)??

Thanks.
 
The forums have been down from about 2 minutes after your first post to a few minutes before your second post, so no one has seen your question yet. Now that the forum is back up, you should get some answers.
 
Disk Utility

You can use Disk Utility to create a RAID set, that will combine the two disks. Firewire works as well as USB, but is usually a little more expensive, and not really necessary. I have 2 500GB MyBook USB Drives in a 1TB RAID set and it works great.
 
Just got myself 1Tb WD Home ed., for 299$ @ Costco (Sunnyvale, YMMV)
It's got USB, FireWire400 & eSATA.

Don't think you can find any cheaper both online/offline.
 
1. For time machine (will backup my 160gb internal and two 250gb externals), is FireWire any useful or should I use USB?

Firewire, definitely Firewire unless you can't afford it. It maybe slower than USB (400Mbits vs 480) but it can maintain that speed for longer.

3. Many 1TB external drives are really two 500gb drives with one USB cable to connect to your mac. When I connect this type of drive, will it show as one drive or two drives (if so, how can I make it show as one)??

Please don't get one of these drives. If one of the two drives inside that enclosure fails, you lose all your data across the 2 drives with a very limited chance of recovery. It might be worth it just to get 2 500gb drives..
 
$400 (or less) Hitachi Easy Hard Drive 1TB USB 2.0 at Best Buy.

It is small and very quiet. It is a single drive, I know some of the WD "MyBook" 1TB are actually 2 500GB drives which makes them heavier/bigger.
 
Just got myself 1Tb WD Home ed., for 299$ @ Costco (Sunnyvale, YMMV)
It's got USB, FireWire400 & eSATA.

Don't think you can find any cheaper both online/offline.

I have the exact same external hard drive, although I got it for $330 from another online retailer. It's a single 1 TB hard drive, and works fine.

It would be a better choice to use FireWire instead of USB, since either flavor of FireWire (400/800) is faster than USB 2.0.
 
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