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What's the best firewire hard drive for booting os off?

cherrybomb

cherrybomb

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 11, 2008
149
0
Hey all, I have a little enquiry (if this is in the wrong section, please excuse me and point me in the right direction).

I have a powerbook which I've been told can only boot it's OS through firewire only. My question is can any of you recommend an external firewire hard drive? I'm after a 1TB of storage as anything smaller isn't ideal. I don't want to spend bucket-loads, but I know that the option of firewire costs more, so I'm prepared for that. I've been told not to buy any Western Digital drives as they don't like to be used as a booting drive (for older macs I think anyway) so I guess that's out of the question.

I also wanted to know, could I used the hard drive to boot my OS from and also use to to save additional files, or is that a disaster waiting to happen?

Any help at all will be appreciated!

Thanks

Cherrybomb ^_^!
 
Pick up a 2.5" bus-powered Firewire Hard-Disk-ENCLOSURE and put an Intel x25-m 160gb SSD inside, you will go blazing fast.

Then pick a big and slow (compared to the SSD) mechanical hard disk for your storage needs. No need to have both (speed and capacity) on one single disk. Wise people nowadays use a fast+small SSD for booting and a big+slow HDD for storage.

If your PB has 2 Firewire ports, use both.

If not, daisy chain the 2 disks on 1 port.

20100222-cdxbgnkrcf6w3igwjhkeygarc5.jpg



So to answer your main question, the best DRIVE for BOOTING OS OFF is (by far) a good SSD no matter what interface you use (Firewire, USB, eSATA, SATA).
 
Thanks again!

Thanks for such speedy reply it truly is most appreciated!

@ginaly85: That such a great idea, I like it a lot. One thing though, I tend to use the powerbook on my lap pretty much because I don't have a desk, will I have problems moving about using my hard drive to boot my OS, are SSD as sensitive as the rubbish 5400RPM drives they put in computers?

Do you have any rough price outlines, or is it a 'bargin hunters' affair?

Sorry for all the stupid questions, although I've had this laptop for ages, I'm pretty new in attempting to maintain it any further (please bear with me)...
 
cherrybomb said:
will I have problems moving about using my hard drive to boot my OS, are SSD as sensitive as the rubbish 5400RPM drives they put in computers?
Click to expand...

There are no moving mechanical parts in SSDs (imagine a big USB thumbdrive), so they're completely shock proof, you could shake them all time while using them.

Do you have any rough price outlines, or is it a 'bargin hunters' affair?
Click to expand...

I'm not much into the US market (I'm in EU), but these prices look fine:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/2.5/Intel_X25

(I strongly advise you to take an Intel, they're the best bang for the buck)

You can buy the empty firewire enclosure from OWC. They also offer pre-assembled firewire SSD solutions.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEQMSSD200/

20100223-86k38npmqbu7jw9nb891be8yqk.jpg
 
gianly1985 said:
Pick up a 2.5" bus-powered Firewire Hard-Disk-ENCLOSURE and put an Intel x25-m 160gb SSD inside, you will go blazing fast.

Then pick a big and slow (compared to the SSD) mechanical hard disk for your storage needs. No need to have both (speed and capacity) on one single disk. Wise people nowadays use a fast+small SSD for booting and a big+slow HDD for storage.

If your PB has 2 Firewire ports, use both.

If not, daisy chain the 2 disks on 1 port.

20100222-cdxbgnkrcf6w3igwjhkeygarc5.jpg



So to answer your main question, the best DRIVE for BOOTING OS OFF is (by far) a good SSD no matter what interface you use (Firewire, USB, eSATA, SATA).
Click to expand...

That is a very nice enclosure! Where did you get it?
 
Thank you. The OWC enclosure is nice and would probably be pretty much perfect with a fast SSD boot drive for anyone with an iMac.
 
Ok cool!

Thank you gianly1985 for all your help, I'll get right on to it! I'm based in the UK so EU prices are perfect, thanks again!
 
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