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What portable external hard drives are you using with your MBP?

B

Bertiewooster

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2010
6
0
I've had a LaCie Porsche Design for the last 6 years with no problems but with the upgrade to a MBP I'm looking to get a new portable hard drive (LaCie or another brand). My old LaCie was FW400 so I'd be looking at FW800 now.

Which make and model do you use and are you happy with it's performance?

I've looked at tons of reviews for various makes but all are mixed so I'd be grateful for any advice.
 
I used to use LaCie, then the quality went downhill. Now I use Western Digital, they are great. Fast firewire, quiet and cool. I'm completely satisfied.
 
I have 2 of these fw800 2.5" enclosures + 2 wd scorpio blue 500GB drives. The enclosures run hot... real hot, as you can tell by the reviews. What I did was drill quite a few holes in the sides, top and bottom and it runs a lot cooler now.

I've had them for about 9 months now. The upside to this it that you can choose which hd brand and quality you want to put in the enclosure.
 
I have WD 500GB too. Good to hear it works fine with a Mac. I'm still waiting for my first MBP however... ever since ordering it on April 14th...:(
 
I have two Lacia Quadro 1TB external HDD's in a software based mirrored raid. I love this setup for backup works wonderfully! Before I put them into a raid I texted the speed with xbench and I got read speeds of 75MB/s pretty damn fast over FW 800 much faster then FW 400. I have been a fan of Lacie for a long time I used to own the same on that you did and mine lasted about 6 years as well. With these new drives I have had them for about 1 year and not a single problem so far, very happy :)

Also maybe I just had bad luck but I did also own a WD 750GB external HDD ( I think it was a My Book ) and it died after only 1 Year of use....
 
2 x 320 GB WD My Passport Studio with "e-label"

They go great with the MBP and the e-label is a nice gimmick.
I labeled one "TIME MACHINE" for use exclusively with TM and the other one "MEDIA" for general backup purpose (photos, videos, music, DMGs, etc)

Looks like this:

wd-passport-studio-e-label.jpg
 
I'm using my stock 500gb 5400rpm drive in a USB 2.0 enclosure because I installed a 320gb 7200rpm drive into the MBP.
 
Thanks for all the responses and advice! I would like to stick with LaCie but I've read quite a few tales of woe from owners with LaCie drives giving trouble.

I managed to pop down to the Apple store this lunchtime and a salesguy recommended either the Western Digital My Passport (probably the same as in the pic from Dragonforce) or the G-Technology G Drive in preference to LaCie drives.
 
I have an OWC mercury FW800 (2.5") external and couldn't be happier. You can buy the enclosures stand alone and fit whatever drive you prefer inside. I've had mine for probably 2 years now and it's been rock solid :)
 
Dragonforce said:
2 x 320 GB WD My Passport Studio with "e-label"

They go great with the MBP and the e-label is a nice gimmick.
I labeled one "TIME MACHINE" for use exclusively with TM and the other one "MEDIA" for general backup purpose (photos, videos, music, DMGs, etc)

Looks like this:

wd-passport-studio-e-label.jpg
Click to expand...


Did you uninstall the Western Digital software? And if so does the e-label still work?
 
square one said:
i use a silver seagate freeagent go for time machine and media storage. looks nice with the mbp.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeA...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1273502569&sr=8-2
Click to expand...

I use the same thing and have found it to be very dependable. However, I've been having some issue with it all of a sudden on my new 2010 17" i7 . . . when running on battery power the drive, connected via FW800, will sporadically disconnect. When running on AC, it works fine. This is something that only happens with my new MBP and does not happen on my '06 MBP.

Anyone else have this issue?
 
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jonesjb said:
Did you uninstall the Western Digital software? And if so does the e-label still work?
Click to expand...

E-label won't work without wd smart drive. They updated firmware and software* so that vcd drive can be disabled.

* Doesn't apply to My Book Studio.
 
Had a LaCie rugged 500 GB but it constantly ejects itself and is unusable. Dealing with LaCie support has been frustrating. I know the drive is bad, they know the drive is bad, but they are being really stubborn about having me return it. Hopefully they'll change their mind soon.

In the mean time I picked up a G-technology external (G-drive mini) and will be receiving it shortly. I owned one in the past and had absolutely no problems with it. I'm looking forward to moving back to a more reliable drive. This lacie has been an absolute nightmare.
 
MBHockey said:
Had a LaCie rugged 500 GB but it constantly ejects itself and is unusable. Dealing with LaCie support has been frustrating. I know the drive is bad, they know the drive is bad, but they are being really stubborn about having me return it. Hopefully they'll change their mind soon.

In the mean time I picked up a G-technology external (G-drive mini) and will be receiving it shortly. I owned one in the past and had absolutely no problems with it. I'm looking forward to moving back to a more reliable drive. This lacie has been an absolute nightmare.
Click to expand...

How are you connecting it to your mac. I had the same problem only on USB 2.0. It works fine plugged straight into USB2.0 port on my macbook pro. But if its in a hub, even a powered hub, you need to plug in the usb power cable also. Or else it randomly ejects and reconnects.
 
WD 1.5 TB Elements. USB 2.0. Runs cool, and has been problem free. No WD software installed on it. 1 TB partition for OSX, 500g partition for Win 7.

Simple, reliable, priced right. Once you get past the initial slowness of the 1st backup with USB 2.0 speed is not an issue for me for every day backup.

Firerwire 800 drives are too much $ for me. If you need speed however, get a firewire 800 drive.:apple:
 
milkybrainuk said:
How are you connecting it to your mac. I had the same problem only on USB 2.0. It works fine plugged straight into USB2.0 port on my macbook pro. But if its in a hub, even a powered hub, you need to plug in the usb power cable also. Or else it randomly ejects and reconnects.
Click to expand...

It's the USB2-only model and I'm connecting it to my new Core i7 MacBook Pro directly; no hubs or anything.

I'm not new to bus-powered mobile drives (I've got a few lacie's and haven't had an issue with them until this one.)

The extent to which lacie is making me troubleshoot this is laughable though. Been working through it with them for a week. You'd figure trying it on multiple different computers running different operating systems and even using the supplemental USB power cord would have been enough evidence that something's wrong!
 
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