Really confused about external hard drives Help!!

[medicarcher]

First let me introduce my self and say hi to everyone and say that I have been reading this forum for a few months now and it has helped me incredably! Now to my problem. I really could use some advice about an external hard drive. I just purchased my first Mac, a macbook pro 13" (love it!!). I want to use the Time machine feature and don't have an external hd to back up to, so I went looking. I thought I knew what I was looking for, but as time went on and I read more about it I just got all turned around. I read the External Hadr Drives Guide (wonderful BTW), I did numerous searchs on this forum and others about which one to get, how many, if it will work with TM or not, is it formated for a Mac, if not how to do it, and tons of other stuff! I even looked into a RAID set up and searched about how to do this on this forum and others. I have more or less dismissed this because I have no idea how to set something like this up and and am not sure I could esspecially on a Mac that I just bought and am still in the learning curve of how to use.

Well after all that I guess what I am saying is that I need help. All I want is an external HD that is formated for Mac and will work with TM. I was thinking of 1tb, but not even sure if that will be big enough as I have read that sometimes TM can fill them up very quickly, although I have also read that, that is mostly with Windows on a Mac and I don't have that on this one, nor do I plan on it.

I guess I just need to talk with someone who has a better handle on this than I do. I differ to your infinate knowledge on this

Thanks

 

[spinnerlys]

Every HDD currently made that uses the P-ATA (IDE) or S-ATA interface is compatible with Mac OS X. You can format HDDs that came with NTFS (Windows file system) yourself via Disk Utility and then use Mac OS Extended as Format (the word Disk Utility uses to mean file system).

HDDs that come pre-formatted with Mac OS Extended (HFS+) are just a waste of money, unless you're interested in the accompanying software of the HDD vendor, or you have no problem spending another 20€ for work you could have done yourself in one minute.


Also search before you post something that has been posted several times already.
MRoogle is quite a good tool to search this forums.

 

[popaboucher]

Hard Drives

OWC has a nice line of external drives. I have had an On-The-Go Pro with FW 800 for a couple of years now. FW really is the best way to go. However, you can use any usb drive as well. You may have to erase and format drives using Disk utility. Not a big deal.
The On-The-Go Pro does not require external power so your mobile. Most 2.5" external drives also will run off MacBook power as well.

I also have a Mercury Elite-AL Pro configured for Raid 0 for maximum speed. Use Raid 1 if you want redundancy using 2 drives.

 

[Cave Man]

Questions for you:

1. What is the capacity of your MacBook's hard drive?
2. Do you want to store other things on the external drive, such as movies or other large-sized files.
3. Do you want wired or wireless access to the drive?
4. How much are you willing to spend?

 

[bobfitz14]

Questions for you:

1. What is the capacity of your MacBook's hard drive?
2. Do you want to store other things on the external drive, such as movies or other large-sized files.
3. Do you want wired or wireless access to the drive?
4. How much are you willing to spend?

not to steal the thread but i'm going to be in the market for an external HD in the coming months...i would want one around 500GB for less than $200 (doable?) that would connect to the current 13" MBP. any suggestions? feel free to PM me if needed.

 

[spinnerlys]

not to steal the thread but i'm going to be in the market for an external HD in the coming months...i would want one around 500GB for less than $200 (doable?) that would connect to the current 13" MBP. any suggestions? feel free to PM me if needed.

Have a look here: http://guides.macrumors.com/External_Hard_Drives

Most 500GB 2.5" HHDs cost less than 90€, with 3.5" it should be less than 50€.

 

[bobfitz14]

Have a look here: http://guides.macrumors.com/External_Hard_Drives

Most 500GB 2.5" HHDs cost less than 90€, with 3.5" it should be less than 50€.

how is this one? 500GB G-drive Mini Triple

* Brand Name: G-Tech
* Model: 909106-01
* Hard Disk Size: 500 GB
* Warranty: 3 years warranty
* Hardware Platform: PC, Mac
* Hard Disk Description: External hard drive
* Form Factor: 2.5"
* Hard Disk Rotational Speed: 5400
* Buffer Size: 8 MB
* Width: 3.2 inches
* Depth: 4.9 inches
* Height: 1 inches
* Weight: 8.8 Ounces

 

[georgegarrigues]

Questions for you:

1. What is the capacity of your MacBook's hard drive?
2. Do you want to store other things on the external drive, such as movies or other large-sized files.
3. Do you want wired or wireless access to the drive?
4. How much are you willing to spend?

Medicarcher, these are very good questions. (I am sorry this thread got off topic.) You should probably get an external drive that holds three times as much as you have on your internal drive (just my own opinion, with nothing really to support it; others may offer different advice). I have a very small Rocstar that fills the bill for me. Do you have movies and/or a lot of photos? Maybe then you would need something larger. I didn't spend more than $100 on this little drive and it is just fine. The important thing is, make a purchase and see if it satisfies you. Don't anguish any more!

Sincerely, your friend, George