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What size external HD to get? 1TB or 2 TB? Help please...

G

Greenone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 19, 2005
405
0
Hello -

I have a new Macbook Pro version 10.6 and have been trying to find a Mac-friendly external HD that has:

- a good reputation for not dying too soon or having too many isuses, including 3-year or more warranty
- 2 drives (I just lost the data on TWO different Macs, a week apart from each other...so now I'm definitely in the category of paranoid)
- firewire 800
- the ability to back up data automatically
- a price tag of considerably less than $500 (i.e. isn't for professionals only)

So far all I could find were these two options:

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11158

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=409

From reading various posts, it seems Western Digital has a better reputation?

If I've missed anything or if you would recommend one of these two over the other, please share. Thanks!
 
I recommend the La Cie D2 Quadra, not WD My Book.

The WD MyBook series are decent hard drives encased in a flimsy and cheap snap-together plastic housing. They are more compact than a D2 Quadra, but that's the only nice thing about them.

The LaCie D2 Quadra has an outstanding solid-feeling metal housing, a high-quality power adapter and cables, and a very useful "Auto" function that shuts the drive down when you shut down or sleep the computer.

The only downside to LaCie is their selection of hard drive vendors / models.
They do not stick to a single vendor like G-Tech or WD who choose cool-running drives from a single supplier.

Both of my LaCie drives (D2 Quadra and 2Big Triple) came with noisy and hot-running Seagate drives. Other people have gotten different brands in their LaCies.

When I wanted more space, a switch to larger 1TB WD Green Power drives made things cooler and quieter.

That's another great thing about LaCie- you can easily replace the drive inside when you want more room or if one should fail.

In retrospect, if I were to do it again, I would have bought G-Tech. But LaCie is still second place.

The WD MyBook, with its non-replaceable hard drive would be my last choice, behind the DIY stuff.
I had one once and didn't like it.
Yes, I know some people manage to get those thing open and back together again but they were not intended to disassembled, merely discarded.


Have Fun,
Keri
 
What size external HD to get? 1TB or 2 TB? Help please...

I think I've finally figured out which external hard drive I'm getting:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=410

The problem is I really lack an understanding of what size is most appropriate for me and I'm hoping that's where you guys can help?

My new Macbook Pro has approximately 500gb of storage. My old Powerbook G4 had 80gb and I'm going to transfer all that data over. In 4 years of using my Powerbook before it died, I used all 80gb without needing to go much over that - but I didn't have the camera I have now. With the nice dSLR I now have, I might start using RAW format which will take up more space. I might also transfer home videos so the computer to watch - or do some stop-motion animation w/ my kids - so that will burn through those GB pretty quickly. Nonetheless, these are still just "mights" and it's just home/family stuff - not pro. I'm CLUELESS as to what size external HD to get. Any thoughts?

Isn't it most efficient to have one external HD per computer (unless one is networking the computers together wirelessly, like w/ a Time Capsule, which we're not going to be doing)? It's probably not good to move HD's around a lot, right?
 
A 1 TB drive should suffice for your needs now, especially as the drive you linked to is more expensive than two 1 TB drives of the same series (without the RAID of course).

You can always expand your storage with adding new drives when needed, especially with Firewire, as you can daisy chain up to 63 drives on one bus/port.

I have several external drives, 13 or so, and I move them around a lot.
What you shouldn't do is move them around while they are on, you can sometimes even feel their spin when you move them around while they run.

At work I have several 12-15 of those WD My Studio drives in the 1 TB version.
While they are not the best ones you can get, they are quite capable for their price and even sturdy. I managed to drop several of them once, and they are still functioning.
 
Thanks Keri!

Hmmm...read the 5th product feature down on the list here:

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=410

Is that what you were referring to? Maybe this one is a newer version than the one you were thinking of or am I misunderstanding something? Flimsy housing ain't great but it's definitely not a deal breaker for me if all else looks good. ??

KeriJane said:
I recommend the La Cie D2 Quadra, not WD My Book.

The WD MyBook series are decent hard drives encased in a flimsy and cheap snap-together plastic housing. They are more compact than a D2 Quadra, but that's the only nice thing about them.

The LaCie D2 Quadra has an outstanding solid-feeling metal housing, a high-quality power adapter and cables, and a very useful "Auto" function that shuts the drive down when you shut down or sleep the computer.

The only downside to LaCie is their selection of hard drive vendors / models.
They do not stick to a single vendor like G-Tech or WD who choose cool-running drives from a single supplier.

Both of my LaCie drives (D2 Quadra and 2Big Triple) came with noisy and hot-running Seagate drives. Other people have gotten different brands in their LaCies.

When I wanted more space, a switch to larger 1TB WD Green Power drives made things cooler and quieter.

That's another great thing about LaCie- you can easily replace the drive inside when you want more room or if one should fail.

In retrospect, if I were to do it again, I would have bought G-Tech. But LaCie is still second place.

The WD MyBook, with its non-replaceable hard drive would be my last choice, behind the DIY stuff.
I had one once and didn't like it.
Yes, I know some people manage to get those thing open and back together again but they were not intended to disassembled, merely discarded.


Have Fun,
Keri
Click to expand...
 
thegoldenmackid said:
Western Digital, LaCie's quality is not the greatest.
Click to expand...

Based on what?
You see, I actually don't disagree with you HOWEVER, I find that you make random, ill-researched remarks that makes me wonder if you're basing this on use or just by what you read on the internet. You state your opinion as facts, which is a characteristic seen here before and it didn't go over well, when they're opinions.


I vote WD because I have had two Lacie drives fail on me in the first year. Lacie refused to replace both, one had the receipt the other did not and both failed under normal use. Lacie may be great for some but for me WD gets my vote based on the # of drives I've had (over 15) that have yet to fail. *knocks on wood*
 
I feel like a tool - this post was meant for its own thread. I guess I accidentally copied/pasted it and put it here!

Greenone said:
I think I've finally figured out which external hard drive I'm getting:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=410

The problem is I really lack an understanding of what size is most appropriate for me and I'm hoping that's where you guys can help?

My new Macbook Pro has approximately 500gb of storage. My old Powerbook G4 had 80gb and I'm going to transfer all that data over. In 4 years of using my Powerbook before it died, I used all 80gb without needing to go much over that - but I didn't have the camera I have now. With the nice dSLR I now have, I might start using RAW format which will take up more space. I might also transfer home videos so the computer to watch - or do some stop-motion animation w/ my kids - so that will burn through those GB pretty quickly. Nonetheless, these are still just "mights" and it's just home/family stuff - not pro. I'm CLUELESS as to what size external HD to get. Any thoughts?

Isn't it most efficient to have one external HD per computer (unless one is networking the computers together wirelessly, like w/ a Time Capsule, which we're not going to be doing)? It's probably not good to move HD's around a lot, right?
Click to expand...
 
Thank you!

spinnerlys said:
A 1 TB drive should suffice for your needs now, especially as the drive you linked to is more expensive than two 1 TB drives of the same series (without the RAID of course).

You can always expand your storage with adding new drives when needed, especially with Firewire, as you can daisy chain up to 63 drives on one bus/port.

I have several external drives, 13 or so, and I move them around a lot.
What you shouldn't do is move them around while they are on, you can sometimes even feel their spin when you move them around while they run.

At work I have several 12-15 of those WD My Studio drives in the 1 TB version.
While they are not the best ones you can get, they are quite capable for their price and even sturdy. I managed to drop several of them once, and they are still functioning.
Click to expand...
 
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