Best external hard drive for back-up purposes?
I have a Powerbook and I would like to buy a high-quality, easy-to-use external hard drive for back-up purposes.
Does anyone have some suggestions on which manufacturer makes the best external hard drives and which ones come with the best back-up software for the Mac?
I’m highly considering Seagate over LaCie, Maxtor and Iomega because I’ve heard they make the best drives. How is their back-up software though?
Does anyone have some suggestions on which manufacturer makes the best external hard drives and which ones come with the best back-up software for the Mac?
I’m highly considering Seagate over LaCie, Maxtor and Iomega because I’ve heard they make the best drives. How is their back-up software though?
Comments
I have a Powerbook and I would like to buy a high-quality, easy-to-use external hard drive for back-up purposes.
Does anyone have some suggestions on which manufacturer makes the best external hard drives and which ones come with the best back-up software for the Mac?
I?m highly considering Seagate over LaCie, Maxtor and Iomega because I?ve heard they make the best drives. How is their back-up software though?
I like and have used for a year or two now the One Touch series from Maxtor. One button and it's a full, bootable backup. Saved me when the iMac drive took a dive.
An all-in-one big backup drive might be nice and sexy but may only have 1 or 2 year warranties on it. After the warranty runs out, you gotta trash the whole thing or dig inside to try and rescue it. If you use a regular hard-disk drive, that's 5-year warrantied by Seagate, then you can swap and change the enclosure as your needs dictate. Also if you get a RAID enclosure later on if you are running say 2 Seagate drives in RAID0 or 1 or 0+1 etc.
As far as the software goes, if you just want a complete image of your currrent hard drive, then you could easily using something like rsync. It's a command line tool that syncs two folders (in this case it would be the root directories of each drive). I know that there is at least one GUI wrapper for it called rsyncX. You could look into it.
If you completely want a hands-off approach, then you should just look into something like the Maxtor One-Touch series, but as nvidia2008 mentioned, you'll probably have to settle for a shorter warranty period on that drive. You'll just have to weigh the pros and cons of the 'hands-off' approach with a shorter warranty versus as longer warranty with more hassle on your part.
I need an external harddrive, but here's my question:
"What is the best hard drive that suits Macs?"
I know that most external hard drives won't come with a FAT32 format. Are there any external hard drives that come with the FAT32 format to work well on both macs and PCs?
I had this impression that LaCie drives are mac-friendly. Do those come with the FAT32 format?
I also have the same question as the initial poster.
I need an external harddrive, but here's my question:
"What is the best hard drive that suits Macs?"
I know that most external hard drives won't come with a FAT32 format. Are there any external hard drives that come with the FAT32 format to work well on both macs and PCs?
I had this impression that LaCie drives are mac-friendly. Do those come with the FAT32 format?
You can simply format them as FAT32 yourself, so that's no issue at all.
You can simply format them as FAT32 yourself, so that's no issue at all.
is that possible without a special program? Can I do that on my mac right away?
1. Seagate drives.
2. A usb2/ Firewire 400 external box. (if one interface fails, you've still got the other, & usb2 can be used on PC's if formatted in Fat32)
3. Use the freeware Carbon Copy Cloner to make bootable & incremental backups.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Regards
Santa
G-DRIVE QUAD INTERFACE
Everybody has their favorites when it comes to drives. Seagate usually is considered one of the better brands, while it's been report that Maxtor has had problems lately.
I'm not sure but I think the "One Touch" software that comes with most drives is Windows only.
Besides CarbonCopyCloner which has already been mentioned, SuperDupper is good and perhaps easier to use. Both have free trial versions.
I have three more questions
1. Many people around me use LaCie. How does it fare to...say....Seagate which some of you seem to approve.
2. I live in NYC. I can go to Tekserve and get one there, but can also order online for a lower price. Which way would you recommend?
3. Is formatting into a FAT32 easy?
THIS IS YOUR BEST BET:
G-DRIVE QUAD INTERFACE
that sounds really nice. But it's a little bit heavy in price for what I was thinking for now.
How would you say Western Digital's MyBook series/ LaCie/ Seagate series do compared to G-Drive. I haven't seen many G-Drive ones around me.
I just found a deal online that's has a Fantom Titanium II 500GB for $149. It doesn't have the firewire support, but everything else seems nice. Should I go for it?
that sounds really nice. But it's a little bit heavy in price for what I was thinking for now.
How would you say Western Digital's MyBook series/ LaCie/ Seagate series do compared to G-Drive. I haven't seen many G-Drive ones around me.
I just found a deal online that's has a Fantom Titanium II 500GB for $149. It doesn't have the firewire support, but everything else seems nice. Should I go for it?
G'day
You should try and stick out for Firewire. It has a higher sustained transfer rate than usb2, and is ideal for saving movies straight to disk. A Firewire 800 is faster (double) the FW 400 but usually more expensive, and harder to find.
As for using Carbon Copy Cloner vers. SuperDuper, CCC is Freeware and does an excellent job.
Regards
Santa
G'day
You should try and stick out for Firewire. It has a higher sustained transfer rate than usb2, and is ideal for saving movies straight to disk. A Firewire 800 is faster (double) the FW 400 but usually more expensive, and harder to find.
As for using Carbon Copy Cloner vers. SuperDuper, CCC is Freeware and does an excellent job.
Regards
Santa
Thanks for the help.
I'm definitely considering the FireWire 400 and 800 too. I'm giving extra points for the ones with all 3 (USB2, FW400, and 800).
Since I'm looking for portable ext. hard drives too, I'm also giving higher points for the ones that have a 7200 RPM over 5400 RPM. For some reason, it's very hard to find small portable external hard drives that have a 7200 RPM in the United States. In East Asia it's actually harder to find anything slower than 7200 RPM nowadays.
I found a Western Digital model called Extreme Lighted http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...028183-4503153
Does that only run though the AC adaptor and never alone with the computer? It does say "Hot-Swappable – Connect and disconnect without powering off the computer. " but I don't know what "hot-swappable" means. Can it still be powered by the computer? or does it have to have the AC adaptor?
thanks guys I'm getting all your advices.
I have three more questions
1. Many people around me use LaCie. How does it fare to...say....Seagate which some of you seem to approve.
2. I live in NYC. I can go to Tekserve and get one there, but can also order online for a lower price. Which way would you recommend?
3. Is formatting into a FAT32 easy?
1. I used to use a fair bit of Lacie like 2-3 years ago. It is good. But the problem is some of the Lacie backup stuff, it's hard to access and change the drives inside the units themselves. Plus you may only have 1-2 years warranty. The Seagate-within-an-enclosure gives you more flexibility and more peace of mind, if you have more warranty. Lacie and WesternDigital all-in-ones are convenient, but 3.5" drives in enclosures is something worthwhile, and easy to figure out.
2. Yeah try your local store, they might have some advice, easier to return/ service stuff, no wait for postage to and from the dealer/ manufacturer.
3. So easy you wouldn't believe it. Yeah, it's easy. 8)
4. You need a bit more research to find out the tricky bits of when and when not you need an external AC power adaptor. And whether you can live with it or not (carrying an AC adaptor around).
It depends on what you want. As others have said, Seagate makes the most reliable drives (used to be IBM with their Deskstar series, until a rash of failures... see 'click of death').
Ah yes, rapidly became to be known as the "DEATHStar" series. Mmmm... the dreaded "click of death". Hitachi bought IBM drive business. I'd never touch a Hitachi disk drive again for quite some while. Western Dig, Maxtor, Seagate.
4. You need a bit more research to find out the tricky bits of when and when not you need an external AC power adaptor. And whether you can live with it or not (carrying an AC adaptor around).
so I guess the above model cannot operate without the AC adapter.
I had this slim external harddrive that died recently. The computer just can't recognize the drive. I think it's the enclosure that's the problem, and I'm trying to buy the enclosure to make it myself.
The hard drive itself says Samsung MP0804H/DOM (80GB/5400rpm/8M/PATA)
which encolsure should I be getting to fit this model?
Would these work?
http://tmg4apc.com/product_info.php?...products_id=51
http://www.shopxtreme.com/catalog/pr...a4f4f9804725fb
The drive was formatted as FAT32, and had some files in it. So It's not empty. When I build the enclosure around it, do I have to do something else other than just physically building it? Or can the enclosure work fine with the already formatted to FAT32 drive?
Thanks nvidia2008 you've been of much help.
Thanks, I try and be useful, also I am interested in some of these areas.
so I guess the above model cannot operate without the AC adapter.
Yeah, it is confusing. I think if FW400 is used it can operate without the AC adapter, if using USB2.0 you may need the power adaptor (FW400 usually supplies more power than USB2.0) AFAIK. It is confusing for me.
I had this slim external harddrive that died recently. The computer just can't recognize the drive. I think it's the enclosure that's the problem, and I'm trying to buy the enclosure to make it myself.
The hard drive itself says Samsung MP0804H/DOM (80GB/5400rpm/8M/PATA)
which encolsure should I be getting to fit this model?
Would these work?
http://tmg4apc.com/product_info.php?...products_id=51
http://www.shopxtreme.com/catalog/pr...a4f4f9804725fb
The drive was formatted as FAT32, and had some files in it. So It's not empty. When I build the enclosure around it, do I have to do something else other than just physically building it? Or can the enclosure work fine with the already formatted to FAT32 drive?
Hi, yes, if you have this Samsung 2.5" drive, try getting one of the simple USB2.0 enclosures above. Just take the drive out of the old enclosure, put in new enclosure. No need AC adapter in this case.
If the drive is still "alive" then when you connect to your Mac or PC it *should* recognize the FAT32 drive and see all the files there with no problems.