Western Digital 500GB My Book PRO

[shiunn]

Does anyone know if this drive can be used in a Mac as a boot up drive?
Thanks
a link here if it helps to differentiate between the different models in the my book range
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-500GB-Triple-interface/dp/B000G12W3Q/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201847703&sr=8-1

 

[prostuff1]

Does anyone know if this drive can be used in a Mac as a boot up drive?
Thanks
a link here if it helps to differentiate between the different models in the my book range
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-500GB-Triple-interface/dp/B000G12W3Q/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201847703&sr=8-1

If you are talking about using it to boot as an external then yes you should be fine. If your talking about taking it apart and putting the bare drive IN the mac then your better off to just get a bare drive (which needs to be SATA depending on the age of the mac)

 

[shiunn]

thanks prostuff1
I was talking about the drive itself, not just the bare drive. I've swapped a 160 into it long ago.

What about this drive? the WD Studio Edition? Can you use this external to boot up?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Studio-Firewire-External/dp/B000W9KI42/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201909719&sr=8-1

I'm leaning towards the Studio edition at the moment.

 

[overanalyzer]

thanks prostuff1
I was talking about the drive itself, not just the bare drive. I've swapped a 160 into it long ago.

What about this drive? the WD Studio Edition? Can you use this external to boot up?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Studio-Firewire-External/dp/B000W9KI42/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201909719&sr=8-1

I'm leaning towards the Studio edition at the moment.

Should be fine too. The criteria for booting as an external drive is having (and using) a firewire connection.

 

[prostuff1]

Should be fine too. The criteria for booting as an external drive is having (and using) a firewire connection.

overanalyser is correct. If the computer in question is a PPC based mac then you most certainly have to be on a firewire connection to boot form it. If it is a current Intel based mac then you can boot from the external via USB but i don't recommend it. It will be slower as firewire can sustain much better speed.

 

[shiunn]

sorry guys, I should have explained the reason why I was skeptical about the bootability of this drive.
Regarding the Studio edition, one user posted on Amazon.com that this drive can't be used as the bootup drive via firewire in a mac.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Studio-Firewire-External/dp/customer-reviews/B000W9KI42/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_3?ie=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=byExactRating%5F3&customer-reviews.start=1&qid=1201909719&sr=8-1#customerReviews

Could he be wrong? I'm like a consumer in denial...

 

[itickings]

sorry guys, I should have explained the reason why I was skeptical about the bootability of this drive.
Regarding the Studio edition, one user posted on Amazon.com that this drive can't be used as the bootup drive via firewire in a mac.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Studio-Firewire-External/dp/customer-reviews/B000W9KI42/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_3?ie=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=byExactRating%5F3&customer-reviews.start=1&qid=1201909719&sr=8-1#customerReviews

Could he be wrong? I'm like a consumer in denial...

Most likely the reason he couldn't boot from the drive is the partition table used.

Granted, I haven't tried to boot from my Studio, but from what I can see the factory default is "Apple Partition Map" which can't be used to start Intel macs. The partition scheme can be changed through Disk Utility.

 

[prostuff1]

Most likely the reason he couldn't boot from the drive is the partition table used.

Granted, I haven't tried to boot from my Studio, but from what I can see the factory default is "Apple Partition Map" which can't be used to start Intel macs. The partition scheme can be changed through Disk Utility.

itickings is right. I think the older PPC macs used the Apple Partition map scheme to boot but the new intels ones use GUID. Just make sure when you set up and format the drive that it is set to GUID.

Also if your planning on making bootable backups look at Carbon Copy Cloner. Should make it a little easier.