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WD My Book Studio 500 gig drive good for time machine

redsteven

redsteven

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 22, 2006
561
7
So I was looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136182&Tpk=WDH1Q5000N because I want to take an external drive to school with me in September so that I can use it for time machine backups (I'm currently not using anything for time machine, but since I have an imac at home, as well as my macbook pro, that means I've already got a local backup of my data).

I know that a lot of people suggest buying an external enclosure and then buying an internal drive separately, but for $110 this seems like a really good deal.
 
my internal drive is 320, and i gave a little over 80 gigs to a Windows partition. That leaves the mac partition at slightly under 220. I was afraid a 320 time machine drive could be a bit small, so I'm gonna go with a 500.

That means it'll be large enough that I can partition some of it (if needed) for extra storage for either the mac or windows partition. And it would be pretty fast for that, too (firewire 800 to a 7200rpm drive).

How do you think the price of this compares to an internal drive + enclosure though?
 
redsteven said:
my internal drive is 320, and i gave a little over 80 gigs to a Windows partition. That leaves the mac partition at slightly under 220. I was afraid a 320 time machine drive could be a bit small, so I'm gonna go with a 500.

That means it'll be large enough that I can partition some of it (if needed) for extra storage for either the mac or windows partition. And it would be pretty fast for that, too (firewire 800 to a 7200rpm drive).

How do you think the price of this compares to an internal drive + enclosure though?
Click to expand...

I looked at that and unless you're putting your current boot drive (the one in your computer) inside an enclosure, it is a lot cheaper do just buy a ready-made external.
 
Shake 'n' Bake said:
I looked at that and unless you're putting your current boot drive (the one in your computer) inside an enclosure, it is a lot cheaper do just buy a ready-made external.
Click to expand...

Alright. Thanks for the advice guys. I'll probably place an order on it tonight.
 
Since your getting a laptop why dont you get the portable 500gb version? they could be had for ~110
 
gan6660 said:
Yes but I was talking about the portable version.
Click to expand...

oh, thanks for the advice.

Well, I looked at the My Passport Studio, and it's certainly nice that it's bus-powered by firewire, so i wouldn't need an AC adapter.

However, the AC adapter wouldn't be that big a deal for me. The drive would stay in my dorm/apartment – I wouldn't use it to store data that I need to bring with me.

The passport is also a 5400 rpm drive, whereas the my book is a 7200 rpm. Since I'm using it for time machine (and since my internal drive is only 5400 rpm anyway), it's really not that big a deal, but I'm just pointing it out..

The main factor looks like the price though. I haven't checked ebay (i don't know if western digital would honor the warranty if i bought it off ebay), but all the other locations on the web look like the passport is more expensive (above $130).

Where did you see it for 110?
 
well my iMac is a 320 gig. i have a 500 gig time capsule. my time capsule now has like 4 gig left in space. i wish i went with the TB but im just gonna pick up another drive. id be careful after a few months of use.
 
redsteven said:
oh, thanks for the advice.

Well, I looked at the My Passport Studio, and it's certainly nice that it's bus-powered by firewire, so i wouldn't need an AC adapter.

However, the AC adapter wouldn't be that big a deal for me. The drive would stay in my dorm/apartment – I wouldn't use it to store data that I need to bring with me.

The passport is also a 5400 rpm drive, whereas the my book is a 7200 rpm. Since I'm using it for time machine (and since my internal drive is only 5400 rpm anyway), it's really not that big a deal, but I'm just pointing it out..

The main factor looks like the price though. I haven't checked ebay (i don't know if western digital would honor the warranty if i bought it off ebay), but all the other locations on the web look like the passport is more expensive (above $130).

Where did you see it for 110?
Click to expand...


Best Buy has them on sale pretty much every week for this price.
 
Well, it would have to be one of the ones with firewire 800.

BTW, would read/write to an external drive running at 7200 rpm over firewire 800 be faster than read/write to my internal 5400 rpm drive?

And if I do purchase the drive from ebay or some other "unauthorized dealer," will Western Digital still honor the warranty (i mean, i wouldn't TELL them I got it from an unauthorized dealer... i'd just say it was a gift or something)
 
yes it will be faster through firewire 800 than the internal drive. I have a firewire 800 drive that runs my parallels image and it flies off of the external.

also, warranty will be just fine.
 
So i actually never made the purchase.

I realized that since I'm not leaving so school until late August, there's really no reason for me to buy a hard drive now unless an AMAZING deal pops up.

I've also been thinking about something else.
I find that many more drives have eSATA ports than firewire 800 ports. If I could pick up a cheap eSATA card, it might actually pay to buy an ESATA/USB 2 harddrive.
 
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