WD My Book, Time Machine and more Q

[greg555]

Hi all,

I wasn't paying close attention to Time Machine and didn't realize that my used hard drive space has increased to the point where it is equal to my TM space. Thus my oldest backup is yesterday. (I have 187GB used on my internal 250GB drive and my TM partition on my external drive is only 160GB.)

So I need to buy a bigger external drive very soon. I'm thinking of getting the 500GB Western Digital My Book because the price is right and it has Firewire. Have people used this drive successfully with Time Machine?

Once my internal drive fills up I plan to connect my old external drive up and move my iTunes or iPhoto library to it. Right now they are both about 50GB. Does one of these work better (less bad?) on an external drive than the other?

I'd actually prefer to have a bigger HD in my iMac but I guess that would be expensive and involve sending it away to get upgraded. Does anyone know how much Apple or authorized service centers charge? (I don't want to void my warranty).

Thanks - Greg

 

[soccersquirt82]

Just wanted to say that I have a 500GB WD MyBook. I got it about a year ago and have had no problems with it.

 

[greg555]

Thanks for the post.

Are you using it for Time Machine or regular data?

Thanks - Greg

 

[soccersquirt82]

I have it partitioned, but I mainly use it for Time Machine. I only have 20GB for storage, and the rest is for backup. I've had no problems with it (the backup fails maybe once a month at most, but I just try it again and it works, no biggy).

 

[danny_w]

I have 2 WD MyBooks, a 500GB USB2 model at work and a 750GB USB2/FW/eSATA model at home. Both have worked great and are almost silent. I have the 750GB plugged into my AEBS currently and it is working well for Time Machine, but I previously had it hooked up via Firewire and it worked great that way too (and it went to sleep when inactive - it stays alive on the AEBS though). I bought the 500GB model when I bought my iMac at work in January and it sits hidden on the back of my desk, almost forgotten. I heard that the older MyBooks were noisy, but any of the v2 models seem to be quiet.

 

[wngraham]

FWIW, I use a 500GB WD MyBook for Time Machine and was having constant issues. Failed backups, corrupt data, unable to restore files, etc. Almost anything bad that can happen with a backup plan happened.

After some quick Googling, I switched from FireWire to USB, and it's been flawless ever since. Not sure why it wouldn't work equally well with FireWire, but that was mine (and others) experience.

 

[greg555]

Thanks everyone. I went and picked up the 500GB My Book this morning. I have it connected via FireWire. It's about half done backing up 156GB.

Hopefully the FireWire will work for me since the USB ports are always busy.

Cheers - Greg

 

[pogochamp113]

I just got a 1TB My book Home edition HD. How does the eSATA work? Is it practical? I have a macbook pro, so i'd have to get a eSATA adapter. Is it worth it? Will it work with Time Machine? Which is the best connection for a mixture of backup and storing? sorry for all the questions...