Recommendations for an external backup HDD sought

[TrollToddington]

Hi guys,

My external HDD, which I used for my Time Machine backups, has become faulty. It's an Seagate GoFlex 500GB USB 2.0. I used it for nearly 2 1/2 years. I used to take it in my backpack whenever I went to - I wouldn't leave my backup drive at home because some unpleasant people might break into my flat and possibly take it, together with my iMac - I live in an area with a higher crime rate.

That's why I ask you to give me some recommendations as to what reliable external HDD I should get. My hard drive is 500GB and I've used ~160GB out of it. So I think a 500GB backup drive should be enough, preferably an USB 3.0 for future proofing. My iMac is a 2010 model and have only USB 2.0

There was an occasion where the backup drive saved my data as I had to reinstall the OS due to faulty RAM which messed up my HDD. So I think having a backup drive is an absolute must.

Thanks,
Troll

 

[Mike Oxard]

You can relatively easily fit a new drive into the GoFlex enclosure. I have 7 GoFlex Desk drives, 5 if which I bought the empty enclosure from ebay and fitted my own drive. Quite a bit cheaper than a new GoFlex.

 

[Weaselboy]

The WD My Passport series of drives are cheap and work well. You can find them on Amazon or just about any electronics store.

 

[Bear]

Check the price differences between a 500GB drive and something larger. Especially with USB 3.0. It might not cost anything more to go with a larger drive.

 

[Baconstripss]

The WD My Passport series of drives are cheap and work well. You can find them on Amazon or just about any electronics store.

With a WD My Passport 1 TB would I then be able to make two partitions? One for time machine for my iMac and MacBook Pro and one for "normal" external hdd use?

 

[Bear]

With a WD My Passport 1 TB would I then be able to make two partitions? One for time machine for my iMac and MacBook Pro and one for "normal" external hdd use?

Remember that the "normal" partition won't have a backup. In general I find it best that backup drives just have backups that way if there is a disk failure, it's clear cut as to what was lost and needs recovering.

 

[Weaselboy]

With a WD My Passport 1 TB would I then be able to make two partitions? One for time machine for my iMac and MacBook Pro and one for "normal" external hdd use?

Sure... you will be able to do that with any drive you buy. Just use Disk Utility to make the partitions.

 

[Mike Oxard]

Remember that the "normal" partition won't have a backup. In general I find it best that backup drives just have backups that way if there is a disk failure, it's clear cut as to what was lost and needs recovering.

Can you partition a drive in two formats? It'll have to be HFS+ for Time Machine and exFat for use on both mac and PC.

 

[bp1000]

I have 2x buffalo ddr drive stations.

I'm not sure the die hard data archivers would like these due to unrecoverable data in the buffer if the power fails. Up to 1gb can be lost in a copy so it is very unlikely but slightly more prone than normal drives.

I'm happy with it and the write/read is very quick. I have a 2TB drive with data and a 3TB drive for backing up the 2TB and imac SSD.