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what external harddrive do you use with your MBP?
- Thread starter DKatri
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Not happy with external drives
I found both firewire and USB external drives to be a PITA. Over the long run with all of my machines, the 17" uMBP included, I have found a SAMBA LINUX server with Gig-E interfaces on all machines to be the most convenient solution to external storage. And I can use it wireless also.
Just a thought.
Neil
I found both firewire and USB external drives to be a PITA. Over the long run with all of my machines, the 17" uMBP included, I have found a SAMBA LINUX server with Gig-E interfaces on all machines to be the most convenient solution to external storage. And I can use it wireless also.
Just a thought.
Neil
I use a Western Digital MyBook 500GB Studio Edition.
I like things to match, and the lighting effects are actually really cool looking.
Plus, the Firewire 800 port ain't bad. I've been meaning to get a SATA cable and try that out, too.
I like things to match, and the lighting effects are actually really cool looking.
Plus, the Firewire 800 port ain't bad. I've been meaning to get a SATA cable and try that out, too.
I use an iMac with a 1TB LaCie and a 250GB LaCie 
The smaller one is for traveling and backup of some of my important stuff. The big one is for everything apart from apps on my iMac even though my iMac has 1TB of memory so I don't clog it up and it runs fast forever!!!
The smaller one is for traveling and backup of some of my important stuff. The big one is for everything apart from apps on my iMac even though my iMac has 1TB of memory so I don't clog it up and it runs fast forever!!!
http://www.g-technology.com/Products/g-drive.cfm
One of the best designed HD I ever used. Built out of solid aluminum.
One of the best designed HD I ever used. Built out of solid aluminum.
Nice, I have the 1TB model for all my stuff and a smaller 250GB model (with the pull out USB cord) for on the road =)
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What do you mean by solid?
If you mean that they work on mac + they utilize the full speed of 2Gps of eSATA (on MBP) instead of the 480Mb/s then there are a few good ones for less than $20. IDK if you are referring to some kind of special characteristic but check it out if you want.
I've got a rockfish 2.5" enclosure which does allow what you are describing (to be totally honest I thought all eSATA/USB enclosures would allow that, but now I am not so sure.) This enclosure is like $50 off BestBuy which is unacceptable, I bought mine "refurbished" (tough besides the torn manuals everything was in like new condition) and paid like $9 shipped. My only complaint is that the eSATA cable is very thick and long an not very flexible which makes it a bit hard to connect, then I mostly use it under USB and only use eSATA if I want to boot off the external drive or copy large amount of files.
I will fix it.
I need to know the opinions, whether or not you would recommend them, not just that you own it... Thanks.
I just bought this drive (Verbatim 500GB 3.5" USB drive) yesterday at Staples. Works like a charm with Time Machine.
Now I have a question: what speed do you have with USB drives? I get about 30MB/s, which is only half of the advertised speed for USB 2.0 . Is it normal?
Now I have a question: what speed do you have with USB drives? I get about 30MB/s, which is only half of the advertised speed for USB 2.0 . Is it normal?
I think i'm gonna go for either a USB or one with both. I'm not really gonna have any massive files to transfer over only really word documents and probably bits of music, so i dont really need lightning fast transfers. At the moment the Lacie is looking like the front runner.
I use a USB/Firewire Buffalo Drive station. It's great.... Really quick, easy to use and was very cheap!
I use a Western Digital MyBook 500GB Studio Edition.
I like things to match, and the lighting effects are actually really cool looking.
Plus, the Firewire 800 port ain't bad. I've been meaning to get a SATA cable and try that out, too.
I heard these fail alot?
USB stats are based on burst speeds. Firewire is constant. The stats you mentioned are highly misleading.
USB relies on CPU power, Firewire does not.
Even Firewire 400 outperforms USB 2.0 in high-bandwidth applications such as external HDs. Considering Firewire 800 is twice as fast as 400 it totally smokes USB. There is no comparison.
You will notice a huge difference between Firewire 800 and USB 2.0 in regular usage of an external HD.
Good to know my backup drive fails a lot, after I specifically asked the Apple salesperson for the one with the best longevity.
Thanks for throwing that out there!
check out the burst speed of USB so you see what you said is inaccurate. Of the two test the more "steady" (and you can see this by the narrow min/max speeds) one was actually USB because the limiting factor was actually the port itself. In eSATA the speed varied considerably due to the transfer being limited by the HDD itself. Also in real life situation the access time becomes important as well, narrowing further the advantage of FW. Again FW does outperform USB but thats beside the point because it depends on what you are using the HDD for, for backup you need no lightning fast speeds specially if its more expensive. Now if you were to install applications, boot off the drive, move/copy lots of large files, or you got too much money then yes, but if you are just going to copy 50GB of music, 20GB of video and Time machine which you only do ONCE and then just bit by bit "update" your data every other day, then it makes little sense to spend all that much on extra speed.
If you going for a FW version (I would not due to what I just wrote above, but thats your choice) make sure at least its the 7200rpm HDD, as I said the 5400rpm on FW is just like 10Mbit/s faster due to it being limited by the HDD speed and not by the port (in fact unless you buy a velociraptor all HDDs will be the limiting factor for FW, the port should be able to max the HDD speed.)
I see a lot of people have recommended 3.5" drive (all of which require a DC adapter) did you change of mind on the matter? because if you did, it does worth checking eSATA/FW HDDs because those drive do can do ~100MB/s and you can get 1TB. Else I'd go for a Seagate 500gb version or WD 500Gb version.
If these are the accurate prices for the lacie HDD, then I'd advice against them since they are expensive. $140 for a 500Gb USB alone is expensive, $250 for a USB/FW combo is a ripoff!
@DKatri OK so I just realized that your MBP got a 160GB 5400rpm, whatever the case is, I am pretty sure that HDD will be the limiting factor (or very close) and since the data you write to the external HDD must be read from the internal then thats the max speed you'd be able to transfer files. I reckon that your HDD will max at about ~40-45MB/s (mine 200GB max at 50MB/s but yours should be a couple of MBs slower due to lower density) and some of that bandwidth will be "reserved" by the system. At this point I really don't advice on anything faster unless you are planning on using the HDD in a different computer most of the time, or you are planning on upgrading your internal HDD.
I use a Western Digital MyBook 500GB Studio Edition.
+1, but I just got this today so I can't comment on it's reliability or durability. It was pretty easy to set up and I was able to clone about 180 gigs in a little under two hours using firewire. This was about an hour and a half quicker than it took when I did this over USB. Drive does look nice, lights are kinda cheezy but I like the design.
On a side note, I don't mean to hijack but how long does it generally take for Time Machine to make its first back up? I have about 180 GB of stuff I was backing up and it was only about 35% done after 3 hours. Is that normal?
Yes, if all you're after is minor file storage and the sustained throughput speed of transferring large files is not in the least bit important to you then I suppose USB 2.0 is worthy of consideration to save a few bucks.
For me, the real beauty of a Superduper or Carbon Copy Cloner backup to a Firewire 800 external HD is that it is fast enough to boot from and run off of comfortably should your internal HD fail. Oh, well you can't boot off USB period so there's no comparison there.
Yep, if all you want is a drive to backup the occasional photo to then maybe USB would be a decent route to go. Even there, if you have a large number of files that you want to transfer at a time you'll appreciate Firewire big time.
I am constantly recommending this Icydock enclosure ($62.99 after rebate). I popped in a Seagate 1.5TB drive about a year back and it's been rock solid for me. You can install any SATA drive you like. It also has a really cool tray-loading system so you can slide drives in and out for quick replacement. Oh, and it looks cool next to an aluminum iMac too. I keep both a full Superduper clone as well as Time Machine in separate partitions on it.
I highly recommend using enclosures but even many of the new prepacked externals have Firewire in addition to USB.
Why limit yourself?
RX81-MP-SC- SLV - it has 2 firewire 800 ports, 1 firewire 400 port, esata, and usb 2.0. i can fit any 3.5" sata hard drive and it works perfectly with time machine. right now i have a 400GB sata drive in there using firewire 800. i got mine from newegg for $40, because of a limited time promo. a bonus was that it came with all of the cables so i didnt need to get any off monoprice!
for my storage drive, i use the vantec nexstar 3 usb/esata enclosure. it was $20 at my local frys, and it works perfectly for me. i have put my 1.5TB drive in there and no problems so far. osx detects both partitions on it just fine.
for my storage drive, i use the vantec nexstar 3 usb/esata enclosure. it was $20 at my local frys, and it works perfectly for me. i have put my 1.5TB drive in there and no problems so far. osx detects both partitions on it just fine.
I have 3 external HDs. I am a big fan of the Western Digital Passport Studio. It is 500GB, has FireWire 800/400 and USB. I got it for $100 last year on eBay. Best drive I have owned. I just recently got a WD MyBook Home with FireWire 400 and eSata. Works pretty well, but it does make a lot of noise. The fan is always on, but I dont really notice it when I have my music up. And last, a 4 year old 120GB WD Passport. Simple USB drive, use it with my Xbox.
Thats exacly what I meant. Head to head FW wins, but if you take into considerations the usage it will be given by the OP, makes little sense to go that route, spending more money for some bandwidth he will rarely use.
I do exacly the same. I installed a 128GB SSD drive, and my 200GB HDD I partioned it in 30GB partition + ~150GB partition. Then I cloned my system (clean install) partition in the 30GB one and the 150GB one for Time machine. I got myself a quasi perfect backup system, since under eSATA the HDD is bookable in case of corrupting the OS (not that its likely to happen, but when I bought the SSD I was not 100% confident of its reliability) I can still boot + have my data.
I also highly recommend icydock products. I'm using this lovely enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198010 with a 1.5tb WD caviar green drive.
You get much more flexibility (at the cost of a higher price) when you go with a quality external enclosure. Then YOU get to decide what type/speed hard drive goes in there. In addition, when the drive dies you can just pop in a new one instead of having to buy a whole new drive/enclosure combo.