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Recommended External Hard Drives?

Sbrocket

Sbrocket

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 3, 2007
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Which brand/specific external hard drives do you recommend? I'm in search of a 500gb external drive to go with my new SR MBP, and while I can find plenty of them from various online stores...everyone seems to have a different opinion as to which is the most reliable. I'm planning to use as half TM backup and half extra external storage. It'll be sitting in my dorm room almost 24/7, so portability is no requirement.

I'm leaning towards the LaCie 500gb d2 Quadra right now, especially since its quad-interface and still less than $200 on Newegg. Seems like a good deal to me, but how's the reliability of LaCie drives? I've seen a few posts about fast-faulting circuitry between the multiple drives in the housing.

What would you suggest?

:apple:


Yes, this is a repost. Somehow the first one ended up in the MB&MBP forum. Hopefully they'll ignore it.
 
I have an Other World Computing 160 gb AL Mercury enclosure and a 2-drive 320gb each AL Mercury enclosure and I love them.

Nothing negative so far, and they are extremely sexy and match my MBP and 23" ACD :)
 
I have seen a few problems with LaCie drives on this forum. I would suggest a Seagate as far as reliability, and warranty are concerned.
 
macfanboy said:
i don't know about seagate, but most of western digital's externals have backup software, something useful before time machine comes
Click to expand...

I'm not worried about needing backup software before Time Machine. Just pure hardware performance.

I think I'm gonna go with a quad-interface external enclosure from OWC paired with a Seagate 500gb 7200.10 drive from Newegg. That way I can replace the drive as I need, get the 5 year warranty from Seagate, and don't have to worry about sending it in if it ever breaks.
 
JHacker said:
I have an Other World Computing 160 gb AL Mercury enclosure and a 2-drive 320gb each AL Mercury enclosure and I love them.

Nothing negative so far, and they are extremely sexy and match my MBP and 23" ACD :)
Click to expand...

Hey, I have a question for you...I'm looking at buying that enclosure (the dual drive one) and dropping my own drive into it. How is it for noise? Is it loud? I see that it has a fan built in, so I'm curious.

It's a damned sexy enclosure, though.
 
I reccomend Western Digital, but make sure it has FireWire capability. FireWire 800 would be even better.
 
I've got a couple of Western Digital MyBooks. Both have been very good - fast & reliable.
 
Dimwhit said:
Hey, I have a question for you...I'm looking at buying that enclosure (the dual drive one) and dropping my own drive into it. How is it for noise? Is it loud? I see that it has a fan built in, so I'm curious.

It's a damned sexy enclosure, though.
Click to expand...

The single enclosure is dead silent because there's no fan. The dual enclosure has a fan, so you can hear whooshing air, obviously, but it's not really that loud or obtrusive at all. You can come to expect that though, when there IS a fan. I bought the 160 single with a drive already in it, and I put my own Seagate 320gig drives into the dual.

They're so nice on my desk next to my 23" ACD :)
 
JHacker said:
The single enclosure is dead silent because there's no fan. The dual enclosure has a fan, so you can hear whooshing air, obviously, but it's not really that loud or obtrusive at all. You can come to expect that though, when there IS a fan. I bought the 160 single with a drive already in it, and I put my own Seagate 320gig drives into the dual.

They're so nice on my desk next to my 23" ACD :)
Click to expand...

Good to know, thanks! Sometimes, fans can get really loud. But for a good HD enclosure, it shouldn't be that bad. I'm going to get a Seagate 500GB for $109, so that will work perfectly with this enclosure.

Thanks!
 
would you consider buying your own case and internal harddrive? they are very effective and rather cheap.. i prefer seagate mainly for the warranty, WD is also really good tho
 
Can anyone recommend a good enclosure with FW800 (and eSATA is a plus, but not required) for a Seagate SATA drive? Not gonna be carrying it around, so doesn't have to be mobile. I was looking at the OWC enclosures if anyone likes those.
 
Sbrocket said:
Can anyone recommend a good enclosure with FW800 (and eSATA is a plus, but not required) for a Seagate SATA drive? Not gonna be carrying it around, so doesn't have to be mobile. I was looking at the OWC enclosures if anyone likes those.
Click to expand...

i would HIGHLY recommend "ice cube" external. they have a lot of choices, esata w fw400/800 + usb2 if i memba correctly. fairly expensive but great if theyr just sitting in one spot
 
eyebeaz said:
I have seen a few problems with LaCie drives on this forum. I would suggest a Seagate as far as reliability, and warranty are concerned.
Click to expand...

You fail to mention all of the positive posts about LaCie drives. I have many of them and they have been solid performers and 100% reliable. There are a great many solid choices available to we consumers. LaCie has been as good as any. OP, this poster is reporting what he has read, and I am offering you first-hand knowledge. This subject seems to come up more than once a week. I suggest you do a quick forum search. There is a wealth of information easily obtained.
 
SMM said:
You fail to mention all of the positive posts about LaCie drives. I have many of them and they have been solid performers and 100% reliable. There are a great many solid choices available to we consumers. LaCie has been as good as any. OP, this poster is reporting what he has read, and I am offering you first-hand knowledge. This subject seems to come up more than once a week. I suggest you do a quick forum search. There is a wealth of information easily obtained.
Click to expand...

It's odd, because I have an older LaCie drive and I love it. But, I had an Apple Credit and needed to get a larger HD, so I went into the Apple store and the LaCie and the Western Digital that they had in store are very, very similar. Yet, I asked an Apple Store employee which I should purchase and he said that both of them performed similiarly, but this specific model: I believe its the D2 Quadra or Quadra Extreme, had had some reported issues about its reliability on Apple's website and from in-store customers. I explained that I had another LaCie drive and he had said that he another one, but would advise me to buy the Western Digital because that's what he was now using and had been using for over a year and a half.

For my expereince, both LaCie (160gb Porsche F.A. Drive) and Western Digital (My Book Pro 500gb) are great drives. No problems with either, both have fast transfer rates and my LaCie is over a year old with no problems. I doubt that any product especially that is mass produced like these hard drives is perfect or defect free.
 
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