What external hdd do you use for Time Machine?

I had been using a 500GB WD MyBook FireWire to back up my iMac until it crashed hard and died. It worked well right up until the end.

Now I am using the OWC Mercury Elite Pro "Classic" 1TB USB drive. It also works well. I've never had any disks get auto ejected as you describe on any of my Macs.

 

I'm using two:

Western Digital - My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive
Western Digital - My Book 500GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive

Never had issues with either.

 

WD MyPassport 1 TB. I use half of it for backups, the other half for contents. And it's self-powered via USB.

No issues.

 

I bought my Mac User friend this for his Birthday, and he loves it, mainly because it blends in with his Apple Gear,

http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/external-hard-drive-desktop/ultramax-minimax/minimax800/?partner=4760

Firewire 800, Gigabit Ethernet Port, USB 2.0

Comes in 2TB or 1TB sizes. Time Machine compatible.

 

I have the Western Digital Elements 1.5 Tb. It sits just to the side at the rear of my iMac stand and runs like a champ. I hardly even know it's there.

 

1.5TB WD MyBook connected via USB 2.0.

 

I use a 1tb time capsule for mine. I haven't had a problem, and I now use it in place of my wireless router as well.

 

How old is the drive?

 

I have had really good luck with my Seagate 1TB FreeAgent drive. I've had it for about 3 years with no issues.

 

Is there a min storage capacity requirement for Time Machine? I was planning on using an old 250GB seagate when i bought my MBP. Would this work?

 

I have an external Seagate which is a 2T HDD. So far, it runs just like clockwork.

Regards

 

I use a Seagate Agent 500GB. I don't like TM. I use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC).

 

My primary backup drive is a G-drive Mobile. I haven't had any problems with it. Mine is Firewire but I think they have a USB-only one as well.

I have it partitioned and use TM on one half and SuperDuper on the other.

 

I took the OEM 320GB Hitachi drive that came with my uBMP, slid it into a $9.99 Vantec aluminum hard drive enclosure, and like magic I have a perfect Time Machine drive.

For viewing pleasure..

 

WD Passport SE 750GB. I've had good experience with WD Passport drives.

 

I use a Western Digital My Passport SE 750 GB external hard disk for Time Machine, works great and provides enough capacity to archive data for years to come.

 

Western Digital for me too, a 1TB USB2 drive that I had lying around. Only down side is it is mains powered

 

I have a Time Capsule but now that it's a couple of years old (and had to be replaced once), I am using a Synology DS1511+ for my backups. Will a RAIDed solution be a more secure backup? I don't know but I do feel better about it. If nothing else, I will have more time to recover the backup if any of the drives fail.

 

NO, there is no minimum size. Yours will work assuming the items you are backing up are smaller than 250GB. Otherwise TM will give you an error.

Ideally, you want 1.5 times your hard drive's size as the Time Machine backup so you can store the entire contents of the drive, and have plenty of room for the multiple incremental backups. I would say you, at the very least, want a drive that is minimally, the size of your internal hard drive.

BTW: A 500GB drive can be had for around $50 these days and my latest 1.5TB purchase was around $100.

 

I use a 1TB iomega eGo. Went for $80 at Staples.

 

A cheap Lacie 500gb, works fine.

 

An older Western Digital My Book 320GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive. Nothing special.