Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Suggestions for External Hard Drive

M

motownflip

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 24, 2007
136
0
Looking to purchase around a 500 GB hard drive. Going to take advantage of the Time Machince app on Leopard. What do you guys suggest? 400/800/esata? I really don't even know what that means. Anyways, I'll be using it to keep all my docs, music, movies, and time machine backups. Links would also help. Thanks for your input. I would prefer buying one that I wouldn't want to upgrade in a year or two if thats possible.

Also, is it possible to store all my stuff and run time machine on the same HD?
 
I'm using a Pro Audio Elephant Firewire drive. I highly recommend you get one if your doing audio production with your computer. f not I have heard the lacie usb ones are nice as well as the western digital my books.
 
may I suggest buying a case from icydock (their cases just look awesome) and putting in a HD that you have bought separately...I for myself like the spinpoint series by samsung.
 
I've got a Bytecc HD enclosure and a Bytecc eSATA expresscard that I just started using for Time Machine. Works great, and eSATA is amazingly fast when compared to usb 2. I also did a Video project in iMovie + iDVD and I couldn't work on it when it was hooked up to usb 2, but eSATA worked flawlessly.
 
originalcliche said:
I'm using a Pro Audio Elephant Firewire drive. I highly recommend you get one if your doing audio production with your computer. f not I have heard the lacie usb ones are nice as well as the western digital my books.
Click to expand...

Don't get a MyBook... there are many problems with them an Macs. I have had 3, and none of them worked on my MBP and firewire. USB2 was fine though.
 
Yeah, I totally agree. I'm still stuck in the Tiger era, but my 100 GB Seagate works great to back up my Docs and Music. Just the essential stuff.
 
Fuchal said:
I can not recommend Seagate FreeAgent Desktop enough.
Click to expand...
Yup. That's the kind I have and I quite like it. BTW, if the orange light is a bit much for some of you, I was handed a nifty tip-- some black electrical tape does the job quite nicely. So now only a small portion of the light shines and it's subtle.

I chose one w/ FW400 as well because let's face it, FW is so nice to have. :eek:
 
motownflip said:
Looking to purchase around a 500 GB hard drive. Going to take advantage of the Time Machince app on Leopard. What do you guys suggest? 400/800/esata? I really don't even know what that means. Anyways, I'll be using it to keep all my docs, music, movies, and time machine backups. Links would also help. Thanks for your input. I would prefer buying one that I wouldn't want to upgrade in a year or two if thats possible.

Also, is it possible to store all my stuff and run time machine on the same HD?
Click to expand...

Your best bet, in addition to buying your own 500GB drive and enclosure separately and then putting them together, is to use a Firewire800 (or 400 if that is too expensive) as the connectivity of choice. It is much faster than USB, and that frees up your USB ports for stuff like mice, printers... you get the idea.

What you can do when you get the drive is to partition the drive, maybe 200GB for files, and the rest for Time Machine. Time Machine will use all the space that it can on the partition that you give it, so you have to be judicious.
 
pastorjay said:
Don't get a MyBook... there are many problems with them an Macs. I have had 3, and none of them worked on my MBP and firewire. USB2 was fine though.
Click to expand...

Mine works flawlessly so far. It's the "premium" edition. 149 for 500Gb at costco.
 
thanks for the help all. Seagate seems to be popular. Thanks for helping me spend my money:D

Any drives you can recommend with firewire or e-sata? Is e-sata a good thing? better than firewire?
 
I just got a Seagate Freeagnet pro USB/eSATA. You can get them really cheap (just search for some deals, like at fatwallet). the firewire version will be more expensive. I plan on getting an esata expresscard so I can use it in eSATA, which should be pretty sweeeeet.

So far, i haven't had a problem with it. time machine crashed the system the first time i tried to back up. I restarted, formatted the drive again, and tried again. just some advice, don't try to use your computer or run any programs during that first backup. after that, I don't even notice the hourly backups at all.
 
1) Mods, could you please move this into the peripherals forum? This isn't really related to the Macbook & MacBook Pro.

2) I just ordered myself a WD MyBook Pro, 500 GB. I chose it over the competition for several reasons. There is a 500 GB Lacie (Porsche design) for around $50 less, but I decided to get the MyBook Pro because I've read many more complaints about the Lacie than the MyBook. Also, both of my Macs have FW800, so it should be nice. It also seems to be the best (and nicest) designed out of all of them. The Seagates seem great (VERY few complaints) but they only have FW400 and I detest the design.
 
pastorjay said:
Don't get a MyBook... there are many problems with them an Macs. I have had 3, and none of them worked on my MBP and firewire. USB2 was fine though.
Click to expand...

I've been using a MyBook Essential Edition 160 gig drive (for Time Machine) on my MBP and it seems to be working allright, though I would love to find a good drive or case that has firewire 400/800.
 
queshy said:
1) Mods, could you please move this into the peripherals forum? This isn't really related to the Macbook & MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

If you would like to bring something to the attention of the Mods the most effective way to do so is to use the Report feature, i.e. the icon right beside a user's status.
 
~Shard~ said:
If you would like to bring something to the attention of the Mods the most effective way to do so is to use the Report feature, i.e. the icon right beside a user's status.
Click to expand...
Yes, but then won't the OP obtain negative status for having been "reported"? It's not like it's an offensive post or anything. I just want to confirm they won't be reprimanded before I do so.
 
No worries, post reporting isn't always a negative thing; as can be seen with this thread. ;) I hadn't even noticed it was in a different sub-forum.

Please, the mods cannot see and read every single post, we rely on the community as a whole to report rule/policy issues whether they be insults or something as simple as a thread that might belong in a different sub-forum. :)
 
check out slickdeals.net oh and also newegg, i find to be a good deal, and a pretty trustworthy source, as the ppl regularly post comprehensive reviews
 
there is also a german hd seller (www.formac.de) that has some very nice HDs you might want to check out. the displays also look very slick.

edit: I see you own a MBP...in my opinion they would go great with them also but the perfect match would be a macbook i guess (colorwise)
 
queshy said:
1) Mods, could you please move this into the peripherals forum? This isn't really related to the Macbook & MacBook Pro.

2) I just ordered myself a WD MyBook Pro, 500 GB. I chose it over the competition for several reasons. There is a 500 GB Lacie (Porsche design) for around $50 less, but I decided to get the MyBook Pro because I've read many more complaints about the Lacie than the MyBook. Also, both of my Macs have FW800, so it should be nice. It also seems to be the best (and nicest) designed out of all of them. The Seagates seem great (VERY few complaints) but they only have FW400 and I detest the design.
Click to expand...

I just ordered a 500GB MyBook Premium Edition (USB/Firewire) from Costco.ca last night, $169 plus free shipping..It's a great deal..The Lacie was $20 less, but it was USB only...Future Shop Canada was selling a MyBook Essential 250GB USB for $199.99..so I was quick to snatch up the Costco deal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back