Western Digital 2TB MyBook Mirror RAID USB vs Seagate 1TB FreeAgent Xtreme USB/FW

[ptjh]

Backup Hard Drive (For Mac & PC)

Must be extremely reliable. My files are very important to me. I notice the seagate drives are available in mac and pc versions. Does this mean that they are not cross compatible or can I format them as FAT 32 to run on both or create a partition for each?
I know RAID 1 only protects you from physical failure but that's better than nothing right?

Thanks

 

[O. Frabjous-Dey]

The FreeAgent Xtreme comes preloaded with backup software. That's probably the difference you're seeing. I have the basic version that doesn't come with anything, and I was able to reformat it any way I liked.

I have a WD and a Seagate and both have been very reliable. Seagate's warranty is longer and it seems to be less prone to spin-down.

 

[ptjh]

The FreeAgent Xtreme comes preloaded with backup software. That's probably the difference you're seeing. I have the basic version that doesn't come with anything, and I was able to reformat it any way I liked.

I have a WD and a Seagate and both have been very reliable. Seagate's warranty is longer and it seems to be less prone to spin-down.

Thanks for your reply. I've had a WD mybook for 3 years and it''s been fine but i've read very good and very bad things about them. Would a seagate be as safe as a WD with raid 1 though? It'd be cheaper lol

I've also seen this but its very expensive and ome mac formatted hen I only have a pc at the moment. It would be easy to reformat though wouldn't it?

Western Digital MyBook Studio Edition II 2TB Firewire 400 / 800 & eSata External Hard Drive

 

[O. Frabjous-Dey]

Sorry, can't really speak to your RAID setup since I don't know too much about it. If you're backing up regularly (like if you have Time Capsule doing it every day), it's pretty unlikely that both the original copy on your hard drive AND the external backup will fail at the same time. In my opinion, just having one normal external hard drive is a sufficient solution, but I also understand if you want something more hardcore.

Yes, it's easy to reformat. If you reformat as FAT32, both Windows and OS X can read and write to it.

 

[ptjh]

Sorry, can't really speak to your RAID setup since I don't know too much about it. If you're backing up regularly (like if you have Time Capsule doing it every day), it's pretty unlikely that both the original copy on your hard drive AND the external backup will fail at the same time. In my opinion, just having one normal external hard drive is a sufficient solution, but I also understand if you want something more hardcore.

Yes, it's easy to reformat. If you reformat as FAT32, both Windows and OS X can read and write to it.

Thanks. I won't be able to have a backup external on a 1B HD though. I'm not to familiar with using 'ghost' backup style software. What size of backup image could I roughly expect from a 100GB HD? What effect does compressing the image have on the quality of your files when you recover them? If it degrades my .WAV / FLAC music files then I wouldn't accept it - what would an uncompressed image file size be for a 100GB HD or a 1TB HD for instance?

 

[ptjh]

Anyone got advice on 1T raid drives vs normal 1TB drives for backup and useage? I think my WD is about to die...it was being wierd yesterday and has had alot of use over the years....I need to buy now.

 

[shen]

the WD drive name says it. raid 1 mirrors the drive. all you do is write to the disk, and it copies itself on a second disk all by its little lonesome. it is like having the ghost software another poster mentioned built in.

i am in the market for a raid 1 right now myself, but the WD mirror is too large (physically) for the space i have to put it in. i am considering the guardian right now. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/GM8U27E10G64/

no good raid system are particularly cheap, but they seem to be very safe for your data.

good luck!

 

[ptjh]

the WD drive name says it. raid 1 mirrors the drive. all you do is write to the disk, and it copies itself on a second disk all by its little lonesome. it is like having the ghost software another poster mentioned built in.

i am in the market for a raid 1 right now myself, but the WD mirror is too large (physically) for the space i have to put it in. i am considering the guardian right now. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/GM8U27E10G64/

no good raid system are particularly cheap, but they seem to be very safe for your data.

good luck!

I bit the bullet (ouch) a WD Raid it is...I love my data! Thanks guys

 

[3121]

cool nice choice! I was thinking of getting the WD 2 TB raid. Let us know how it is.