what external HDs are you using with your Air?

There are no consumer Thunderbolt drives out yet (just a $2000 RAID tower). The Air is USB 2.0, so USB 2.0 drives are your only options for now. That may change over the next 6 months now that the entire Mac line (apart from the Mac Pro) has Thunderbolt ports.

 

I use the WD Elements 1TB. It's really small in person and weighs very little. It's also self powered via usb so no need to carry around a AC adaptor and such. Here's a link to best buy

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western...rive/9875576.p?id=1218187077427&skuId=9875576

Also wanted to mention, I created 2 partitions in the HD. One at about 70GB for time machine (Depends on your SSD model / size) and the rest for files.

 

WD My Passport SE 1TB: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...8D8I/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1311787509&sr=8-9

 

+1

I formatted it HFS but am thinking going to NTFS. The purpose of the drive is to handle media which I keep on a PC. But if I do that I will only be able to read it from my MBA. That may work though...

 

If you want something that works across the network instead of USB, you can always look into a NAS.

WD makes the My Book Live which is easy enough. I wanted something more robust, so I bought a Synology DS211j. I will use it to serve all my photos and put my iTunes library on there. Takes two drives so the data is protected in case one drive crashes.

 

I have the Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB (silver - no fingerprints like the glossy black ones). The price fluctuates for the silver every now and then. I was able to get mine for $85. Note that this is the newer USB 3.0/2.0 version.

Don't let the "Mac" version of these hard drives fool you. They all work on the Mac. The "Mac" versions are sometimes more expensive.

If you're in a PC and Mac environment like I am, I'd suggest using Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility) and format the hard drive as exFat. This gives you native read/write support on Mac OS X 10.6.5 and above, as well as Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 (and higher), and Windows XP SP3 with a Microsoft provided update. I believe the Xbox 360 can read it as well.

All the current Macs can't take advantage of the USB 3.0 speeds, but the PCs I use do. There may be a future option for a Thunderbolt->USB 3.0 dongle. Since you can find the USB 3.0/2.0 drives just as cheap as the USB 2.0 drives, I suggest going for the newer USB 3.0/2.0 ones.

 

I can recommend the G-Technology G-DRIVE slim

It matches the design of the MBA pretty well, is very light and USB powered. Just perfect for on the go....it's available in 320 and 500GB versions....

 

I just bought the Buffalo Couldstor 2TB drive which uses PogoPlug to create a media library available to all of my families iPad's and all of our laptops, including my new Air (which I LOVE). Its the reason I didn't spend the money on the 256 GB drive. I will store my entire iTunes library on it so I can have it anywhere I go.

If I am anywhere without internet access, the world has ended, so I thought it was a good move.

 

anyone have the Seagate Satellite wireless? thoughts?

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/external-hard-drive/goflex-satellite

 

CBA Digital

 

Does the Air Index the external drive each time you plug it in?

 

Some WD notebook drive plugged into my AirPort Extreme.

 

Shame my nice new USB3 2.5" enclosure will be to waste when used with the Air

Hopefully someone will come out with a Thunderbolt -> USB3 adapter.