Whats best tiny ext hd for base mid 2010 mba

[Nychot]

I just got a new 2010 mba 11 with 64 gb. What do you recommend for a very small external hd. 500 gb would do and i can use it with my 2010 mac mini. The western digital passport seems nice. Any thoughts most appreciated.

 

[divinemercy]

Get this one!!! It's absolutely awesome. Just got it to go with my mac Its SUPER slim (like I was amazed). And it matches the air perfectly with the aluminum and black trim!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1B2PBZSDJ37KT6WD7J68

I mean we're talking like... you could put this in your back pocket slim. Check them out at best buy.

 

[ZBoater]

Yes, that is very nice, but for the same price you can get a 1TB WD passport. Only marginally thicker and twice the space.

 

[kwajkat]

You can't get any smaller than this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Oyen-Digital-500GB-External-Portable/dp/B001HO59WM/ref=pd_sim_e_4

Personally I have a Iomega ego helium and a Toshiba that I like. I have noticed that if you get the Mac specific, they cost more for some reason. Also the smaller they are the more they cost.

 

[divinemercy]

Yes, that is very nice, but for the same price you can get a 1TB WD passport. Only marginally thicker and twice the space.

From what I could tell by just looking, the passports were at least twice as thick as the gdrive slims. Im really particular about what makes it in to my bag, and one of the Passports would end up in a drawer in my desk instead.

But you ARE paying a premium for the Gdrive, so per gig its not the best price.... But as macbook air owners aren't we used to paying more for less thanks to slimness??? haha

 

[JayMysterio]

If your main concern is size factor over everything else, I'd recommend looking at Seagate's GoFlex Slim. It's only 320GB, but it's a 7200 RPM drive. It can also use Seagate's attachments so if someone has an '11 Air, when the Thunderbolt attachment is released they can use that.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-GoFlex-Performance-External-STBE320100/dp/B004SGJCCO/ref=sr_1_15?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1314108618&sr=1-15

I have one for my air, and enjoy it greatly. It's super thin, it's pretty much a drive with a plastic cover around it.

 

[ZBoater]

From what I could tell by just looking, the passports were at least twice as thick as the gdrive slims.

Yeah, just about, but small nonetheless.

G-Drive Slim 500GB: 5.063" x 3.23" x 0.39"

WD Passport 1TB SE: 4.3" x 3.2" x 0.70"

Seagate GoFlex Slim 320GB: 4.91" x 3.07" x 0.354"

(The size specs at the Amazon site are wrong. These are from the respective manufacturer's sites).

I unfortunately could not fit all my movies into 500GB. And once I decide to carry anything, it goes into my laptop bag, so .31" is not going to make a lick of difference. 500GBs will.

 

[misterneums]

I just got a new 2010 mba 11 with 64 gb. What do you recommend for a very small external hd. 500 gb would do and i can use it with my 2010 mac mini. The western digital passport seems nice. Any thoughts most appreciated.

I have a 750GB version of that it and it is plenty small enough for me. I've actually lost it twice now :-\

 

[divinemercy]

Whichever you choose private message me your email and i'll send you a 10% off coupon for best buy. they have sales, and with that coupon it should be a decent price.

 

[xkmxkmxlmx]

If you have any spare laptop HDD's around, or you if you can find one for cheap, you can get one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/SATA-Hard-Dri...VA08/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1314119148&sr=8-2

They are cheap little usb enclosures that fit like a glove and work exactly how they say they will.

I had HDDs just laying around. For $10, I now have an extra 2 externals.

 

[richpjr]

One other nice thing about the Seagates is that they come with an NTFS driver, if that is important to you. Since I move back and forth between a Windows machine at work and my Macs at home, it is nice to not have the FAT32 limitations.

 

[ZBoater]

One other nice thing about the Seagates is that they come with an NTFS driver, if that is important to you. Since I move back and forth between a Windows machine at work and my Macs at home, it is nice to not have the FAT32 limitations.

Format your external USB drive in exFAT format. Works on both Windows and OS X.

 

[Ampidire]

Format your external USB drive in exFAT format. Works on both Windows and OS X.

If you frequent older machines, the ExFAT driver for WinXP is an optional install, so I've found it nice to keep a tiny partition with the XP driver file so I can install it if I need to.

 

[ZBoater]

If you frequent older machines, the ExFAT driver for WinXP is an optional install, so I've found it nice to keep a tiny partition with the XP driver file so I can install it if I need to.

Oh, good to know. Had not thought of that. Great idea!

 

[jimboutilier]

Passport Essentials

It drives some folks nuts but the security partition on the WD unit allows you to keep the drive locked and encrypted until you enter your credentials, after which the main drive is mounted.

The size and security offered by this unit won over some thinner units for me. Allows me to have a local secured copy of all my data, music, pictures, movies etc if I can't access my home server when traveling.

 

[ZBoater]

You bring up a good point. With these drives being smaller and smaller, encryption is key. I use a Seagate Blackarmor 320GB for work. It is hardware encrypted, and it is slightly larger than the passport, but protecting that data is key. If you are going to be carrying around personal data (like your Quicken checking file) either on the laptop or the external hard drive, I'd suggest encryption.

If all you plan to do is keeping media (movies, songs, etc.) not so much. Pictures, meh, not sure I'd care but some people might not like a thief to be able to see their pictures. This should be a consideration when making portable storage decisions.