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thinking of buying external hard drive

A

acidrock

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 30, 2004
254
0
The Evergreen State College
hey I'm thinking of buying an external hard drive. It doesn't have to be the latest model but I'd like something to back up all my music on, the one I have in my computer is getting full. I have the originoal G4, but I am also thinking of upgrading to a laptop in the fall/ winter quarter and selling my studio display. I do have firewire capability. I looked at macconnections website but it seemed that even when I did searches for mac it only came up with drives for PC's don't know why, maybe that was on sale? Any advise please, something a student could afford would be good? I"m looking for maybe 120-160 GB, I have 80 now and it's filling up with iTunes! ah! I would buy an iPod but it's to much, and I don't want to risk it being stolen.

nathan
 
We loooove...

...our new Lacie Big Disk 320gb.

FW 800 & 400, USB 2, solid case, nice design, all cables, silverkeeper software...

Data transfer like greased lightning – a quality piece of gear.

(Our previous Lacie stuff has lasted – we still have a working external 2gb SCSI drive about 7-8 years old attached to a beige G3)
 
The Lacie hard drives are great. I have the 120GB d2 hard drive. With a little searching you can probably find one for a good price. Last year Apple had a nice discount on those at the education store, I believe they were only $129, that same deal isn't there now, but you can probably find them somewhere else for a good price.
 
acidrock said:
hey those look really good and in my price range! thanks, do you know anything about the brands?
Click to expand...


Haven't heard of Fanton, but the 160 Gb is a Western Digital.
Western Digital is known to produce very good hds,
maybe not the most silent ones, but among the fastest.
Never used their externals.
I've got a two friend who has external maxtors (5000 DV i think)
and they couldnt be happier. They've had them for about 2 ears now..
no problems
 
i have a phaanton drive it goes s good with my powerbook and my g5 i luv it its fast as heck intil u start trying to transfer more than one folder at a time. i also have used lacie but they are a little pricey. you do not need drivers for the phantom for osx either.
 
Lacie Drive

I have been looking into buying an external hard disk drive too. What I wanted was a reasonably priced external FireWire 800 200+GB bus powered portable hard drive. Unfortunately they don't exist (yet :rolleyes: ).

So back in the real world:
As size was the most importanat factor (followed by performance) I had to skip the bus powered drives (max = 80GB). I was also determined to put that FW800 Port on my powerbook to good use too.

I read a lot of reviews and Lacie drives are the ones that seem to be the ones get get the best review scores, etc.

I am looking into getting one of their Big Extreme FW800 models (320GB version) - this drive rocks!! It also fits in with my budget of £200.

Lacie's Website for Big Disk Extreme

The above link has a quite amusing Quicktime Video link to a part of a Final Cut Pro User Group Tech Demo. Its worth a look as it demonstartes what's possible with the Lacie Drives. :cool:
 
Usually you can buy a standard hard drive and a separate Firewire HD enclosure for less money. I have seen 250 GB drives at $150 after rebate thru retail channels. I bought one enclosure that didn't allow for the heat to escape and it was very hot after a hour of use. So I took the cover off as I backup and placed a large fan over it. It keeps it cool and I don't worry about damaging it. It also works with USB 2.0.
 
crazzyeddie said:
I've always had great luck with OWC. They are Mac specific and have awesome support, not to mention great prices and FAST drives.
Click to expand...

I second the recommendation for the OWC Mercury Elite. I purchased mine in July 2002 MWNY. It was recommended by Dr. Mac, Bob Levitus.
 
noise/ discounts

hi ! Thanks for all the responses, Someone made a comment about the sound? Are external drives really loud? I can't have things that are two loud because I want to play music at night before I go to bed and am not sure if the drive would go to sleep when my computer does. I know it depends on the brand etc. let's talk about lacie sp and Fantom, but any info would make good conversation.

oh and about the discounts, I tried looking at apple's website, but couldn't find anything, I will look again, I am a student right now but I am also employeed by the UW and can take advantage of the discount there too, so I wouldn't have to pay for shipping. maybe I'll go by the stores today and see what they have. There are apple stores in Seattle too, but I think I will go by the UW one first. I'm not going to buy yet but am thinking of it before I go back to school.

hey are these drives really big also? I know that on the web external cd burnners look really small, but when I got my yamaha one I was so surprised at how huge it was! That probably depends on the model but I'm probably not going to get more than a 160 one.

What do you guys do with your hard drives? Are you storing music on them? I go back and fourth between getting an iPod or a drive, but I think a drive would be a couple houndred cheaper, surprisingly!

Any plans for the big holdiay weekend? thank god for a day off on Monday, I get to go to a huge concert in Seattle, Built to Spill are playing! -nathan
 
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