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What's the Best External Hard Drive?

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Jul 8, 2009
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So I've expecting to buy an iMac pretty soon and I have a question, what is the best external hard drive for the Mac? I'm looking for at least a 1TB external hard drive that supports FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 that's cheap and reliable. I'll be using this for media storage (pictures, videos, school docs) and Time Machine. For Time Machine, do you have to have a hard drive that is bigger than that current hard drive in the iMac? Or are you fine with something smaller? Curious on that question. Also, I keep on hearing that Western Digital hard drives like to fail... Is that true?

Other than that, what hard drive would you recommend?

Thanks!
 
http://guides.macrumors.com/External_Hard_Drives

GGJstudios said:
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anyonecould recommend a good external hard drive for the imac? Thinkingabout Purchasing a sleek reliable External Hard drive Bestformat for external drive readable in OS X and Windows? Whichexternal hard drive should I buy - Seagate vs. LaCie vs ????
Click to expand...

I have dozen WD drives at work, and they seem to be very robust. Just Beware the WD MyBook Studio 2TB External HDD.

And you can use a smaller HDD for TM, unless you actually have more than 1TB of data to backup.
 
Another vote for WD here. I have a MyBook studio 1TB, bought it 2 years ago now and had only one issue that was fixed in a firmware update.
They come with 5 years warranty too so hold on to your proof of purchase.
 
I've been thinking of the LaCie Quadra 1TB External Hard Drive with Firewire 800. It's cheaper than the WD's and they seem to have a good build quality. What do you guys think?
 
I don't like LaCie personally but that's just because of some bad experiences I had with the F.A. Porsche model.

It comes down to chipset usage. I can't find out exactly what LaCie uses in this drive but it should be one of the "oxford" chipsets (which are considered the best for firewire).

I'd go with a g-tech or OWC drive myself.
 
If I'm just going to connect it to an Airport Extreme for Time Machine backups, is there any particular reason why I would need a more expensive Studio with all the bells and whistles over the relatively cheaper Mac Edition, or even the Elements Desktop?
 
timmy1234s said:
I've been thinking of the LaCie Quadra 1TB External Hard Drive with Firewire 800. It's cheaper than the WD's and they seem to have a good build quality. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I've got a 2big 2TB set to RAID 1 since over the years I have had many HD's fail (Not LaCie). Now since I have many videos which I backup I've just got a 4 big Quadra 8TB set to RAID 1. I could not be happier. Got the last one as all those videos where really causing a beach ball a lot. Now no spinning wheels.

I advise you to think about 2 or more drive units since all drives eventually fail. Just recalled I have 4x1TB never used brand new LaCie drives available for anyone which I took out of the 4 big Quadra since I decided to go with 4TB of storage RAID1.
 
mangrove said:
I've got a 2big 2TB set to RAID 1 since over the years I have had many HD's fail (Not LaCie). Now since I have many videos which I backup I've just got a 4 big Quadra 8TB set to RAID 1. I could not be happier. Got the last one as all those videos where really causing a beach ball a lot. Now no spinning wheels.

I advise you to think about 2 or more drive units since all drives eventually fail. Just recalled I have 4x1TB never used brand new LaCie drives available for anyone which I took out of the 4 big Quadra since I decided to go with 4TB of storage RAID1.
Click to expand...

Really? I've been thinking of the RAID route, but my dad (and also my budget) doesn't recommend going the RAID route considering I'm not doing studio-serious production.

Speaking of the 4x1TB LaCie drives, I'm actually really interested. What's your offer?
 
timmy1234s said:
Really? I've been thinking of the RAID route, but my dad (and also my budget) doesn't recommend going the RAID route considering I'm not doing studio-serious production.

Speaking of the 4x1TB LaCie drives, I'm actually really interested. What's your offer?
Click to expand...

To your RAID comment. Don't know if you've ever had a HD go out. Ever since it happened to me I have said to myself I want a mirrored setup always.

I just have so many videos that are irreplaceable that I want that peace of mind knowing they are in my system if I should need them in the future.

I sent you a pm reply.
 
mangrove said:
To your RAID comment. Don't know if you've ever had a HD go out. Ever since it happened to me I have said to myself I want a mirrored setup always.

I just have so many videos that are irreplaceable that I want that peace of mind knowing they are in my system if I should need them in the future.

I sent you a pm reply.
Click to expand...


Well, I've never had a hard drive go out on me. I've been using my laptop for about 4 years and its going fine and my SimpleTech 160GB Hard Drive is still going well!

Maybe in the future when I have more money, I'll be able to afford a RAID setup!

Thanks for the reply too. Read it and sent back a reply.
 
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