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brianbkny

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 27, 2004
67
0
im looking to buy an external HD for movies and music. ive heard good things about g-drives, drobo, OWC and western digital. ive heard bad things about lacie (although they were my first choice until i read reviews) and seagate.

im leaning towards the WD mybook studio II because of the price and no fan. the gdrives and owc both have fans which might be noisy. the drobo is super expensive and might be a better buy down the line.

anyone have any recommendations or input?
 

techound1

macrumors 68000
Mar 3, 2006
1,977
7
Get a refurb Lacie. The issues that reviews are complaining about get taken care of in the refurb process. This I know. I was in the same place about 6 months ago, read the reviews, and took a shot on a refurb RAID 0 device from them. It's worked like a charm since I've had it.
 

gothamm

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2007
844
3
Get a refurb Lacie. The issues that reviews are complaining about get taken care of in the refurb process. This I know. I was in the same place about 6 months ago, read the reviews, and took a shot on a refurb RAID 0 device from them. It's worked like a charm since I've had it.

what are some of those issues?
 

techound1

macrumors 68000
Mar 3, 2006
1,977
7
what are some of those issues?
You can see them in the user-based product reviews on sales sites like amazon. Basic HD bitting the dust, hardware failures, stuff that really can't go back out the door as "refurbished" unless it's fixed.
 

jcosmide

macrumors member
Mar 7, 2008
46
0
Actually another vote for LaCie here. I've had a 160gb Lacie d2 for 5 years now and it is great. No issues whatsoever.
 

MovieCutter

macrumors 68040
May 3, 2005
3,342
2
Washington, DC
I used to be a big Lacie fan...until I had 5 die on me in a year. Never again will I trust that brand. I buy WD or Seagate drives and put them in an enclosure now. I've been running Seagate drives in enclosures for 4-5 years now without a single hiccup. I just bought 4 of the new 1.5TB Seagates for my Drobo and I expect to have the same luck.
 

brianbkny

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 27, 2004
67
0
is the drobo worth the money?

i heard something weird about a finder issue that if you have like 4x1tb drives, the finder will only display up to 2tb available and the only way to get an accurate reading of whats left is to use the drobo utility.
 

brop52

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2007
1,620
3
Michigan
OWC is always good. Buy the drive and enclosure separately. Pick the connection you want to use with your computer whether it is firewire, eSATA, USB, or a combo.
 

mac.by.jake

macrumors member
Nov 30, 2008
60
0
I'm relatively new to macs and having been looking into 1 TB drives. Any thoughts on whether you would or wouldn't buy on ebay?
 

jhu2

macrumors member
Nov 6, 2007
90
0
I just got a My Book Studio 1TB with the black friday sales. Got it for $150 after shipping and tax, thought it was a great deal. I love the thing so much more than my My Book Essentials. Firewire 800 is great!
 

brianbkny

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 27, 2004
67
0
I'm relatively new to macs and having been looking into 1 TB drives. Any thoughts on whether you would or wouldn't buy on ebay?

i would definitely buy off ebay, especially with the 25-30% cashback thats going on right now. just make sure its from a reputable seller. most of them are electronics stores selling off their stock.
 

dubhe

macrumors 65816
May 1, 2007
1,304
10
Norwich, UK
I have a four year old 320GB Lacie that is still going strong (attached to my Time Capsule as a media server at the moment) and I just bought a WD Elements 1 TB drive, which is so much better than I thought it would be. And despite contrary website claims it does sleep with my computer, so I can't see any difference between it and a MyBook.

Cost me £89.99 from PC World. In answer to the OP question of 1 or 2 TB, would 2x1 TB be cheaper?
 

mac.by.jake

macrumors member
Nov 30, 2008
60
0
i would definitely buy off ebay, especially with the 25-30% cashback thats going on right now. just make sure its from a reputable seller. most of them are electronics stores selling off their stock.

Thanks brianbkny - I recently bought a ScanSnap S510 off of eBay and didn't get a 25-30% cashback. Did i miss something? I tried to use a friends 10% off coupon but it didn't work. Do I need to have a code to realize the cashback for my next purchases?
 

brop52

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2007
1,620
3
Michigan
Thanks brianbkny - I recently bought a ScanSnap S510 off of eBay and didn't get a 25-30% cashback. Did i miss something? I tried to use a friends 10% off coupon but it didn't work. Do I need to have a code to realize the cashback for my next purchases?

First, you have to use live.com for the cash back. For the 10% coupon you need to have received a message from ebay for that.
 

brianbkny

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 27, 2004
67
0
you would have had to gone to live.com did a search for "nintendo wii" and then clicked the link that said "30% cashback on ebay.com", then it goes to ebay and then search for something, use buy it now and then you would get anywhere from 20-30% cashback.
 

mscriv

macrumors 601
Aug 14, 2008
4,923
602
Dallas, Texas
I have a 4 year old 250gb Lacie external with FW400 that works great. In the past two years I've added 400gb and 750gb Seagate externals. None of the drives have ever given me a problem. Keep in mind that most drives today will come with some kind of warranty. Seagate for example has a standard 5 year warranty. Your connectivity choice will have an impact on your price point. If you want firewire or esata you will pay more. Buying a bare drive and separate enclosure is not always cheaper, but may provide you with more options depending on your specific situation.
 
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