Help me choose an external hard drive!

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hey everyone, I've been looking for a good external hard drive recently, and I've come back with two results:



My Book Pro 500 GB, which can be seen at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136047



AND



The 500 GB Big Disk Extreme, which can be seen here:

http://www.macconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=6006770





My question for you guys: have any of you owned either of these drives before? Any advice on which one to pick? Maybe even a completely different drive? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

-flinch13

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    mordakmordak Posts: 168member
    I will personally never buy another Western Digital HD in my life.
  • Reply 2 of 20
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mordak


    I will personally never buy another Western Digital HD in my life.



    Could you elaborate?
  • Reply 3 of 20
    LaCie one has a better fire wire chip set
  • Reply 4 of 20
    mordakmordak Posts: 168member
    I've also heard many LaCies fail--unfortunately, I have a 250GB externaly LaCie lol



    @flinch13: I've had 2 WD's fail on me, and one of the guys in the department I work in has had 4 or 5 WD's fail on him as well. I just plain won't touch the damn things.
  • Reply 5 of 20
    imacfanimacfan Posts: 444member
    There's a seagate one, and that even goes up to 750GB. But I'm not sure if it does FW800, and it does look butt ugly.



    David
  • Reply 6 of 20
    mordakmordak Posts: 168member
    Seagate and Maxtor I like alot... very high-quality
  • Reply 7 of 20
    flinch13flinch13 Posts: 228member
    Hmm... thanks for the info guys, though I could still use a little bit more. I'd really like a drive with fw800, at least 500 gigs, and under $300. Honestly, from what I've researched, I've heard much worse things about the LaCie drive than the Western Digital one... but I'm not talking about real world experience. Can anyone suggest a specific alternative model with the features I'm looking for? Anyone personally own a My Book Pro?
  • Reply 8 of 20
    flinch13flinch13 Posts: 228member
    Anyone??
  • Reply 9 of 20
    imacfanimacfan Posts: 444member
    Unless you're daisychaining 20 of them, does FW800 really give any benefit over FW400?



    David
  • Reply 10 of 20
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    In the case of drives, I think it's only a real advantage when it's one of those LaCie drives that are actually two physical drives.
  • Reply 11 of 20
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Placebo


    In the case of drives, I think it's only a real advantage when it's one of those LaCie drives that are actually two physical drives.



    Actually, I don't think this is correct... this merely means that there are two 250 gb drives RAIDed together, so the possibility of failure is effectively doubled (correct me if I'm wrong). Having a single 500 gb drive is is better, unless you'd like to use redundant backup over two 250 gig drives (which I don't want).
  • Reply 12 of 20
    halsehalse Posts: 53member
    I like the mercury elite from OWC. lots of options

    http://eshop.macsales.com/
  • Reply 13 of 20
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by halse


    I like the mercury elite from OWC. lots of options

    http://eshop.macsales.com/



    Duly noted, I'm checking them out now and they look pretty good, though a bit pricey.
  • Reply 14 of 20
    flinch13flinch13 Posts: 228member
    Hmm... it seems the OWC hard drives, though about 40 bucks more, look pretty good. It's bigger, and has a fan, so it's probably noisier. Also, it has a 2 year warrantee, as compared to WD's 3 year warrantee (see picture... it's curious, but I haven't really found any options with as good of a warrantee period).



    Thoughts? Same capacity, same interface.



    Benefits of WD drive: Quieter (I'm assuming, as it's fanless), less expensive, better warrantee.



    Personally, I'm leaning toward the WD drive. I'd say they wouldn't offer a 3 year warrantee on their product if they didn't stand by it.







    So... what does everyone think?
  • Reply 15 of 20
    Can anyone give me the green light on the WD drive? Better question: any horror stories about high-end WD drives you've owned in the past?
  • Reply 16 of 20
    is it possible to connect an external drive to OSX and windows at the same time? and share the drive?
  • Reply 17 of 20
    gene cleangene clean Posts: 3,481member
    If you're looking for high-end drives, Samsung makes the best drives out there.
  • Reply 18 of 20
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    If you're looking for the best compromise between price, speed, quietness and reliability, I fully agree with Gene Clean.
  • Reply 19 of 20
    Just my 10pence:



    I bought a Lacie 250Gb D2 external a year and a half ago and it failed quite recently- an awful clicking noise when it tried to access the data then nothing. It wouldn't even mount onto the desktop.



    As I scoured the web for a solution, I found out that Lacie drives do indeed have a wee bit of a bad rep at the moment. So never again, until they clean their act up.



    My friend recently bought an external Maxtor drive (200Gb). It was very quiet (unlike the turbine-like Lacie) and appeared to be quite rugged and well designed. Only time will tell, however, if this has been a better purchase.
  • Reply 20 of 20
    flinch13flinch13 Posts: 228member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Chucker


    If you're looking for the best compromise between price, speed, quietness and reliability, I fully agree with Gene Clean.



    I checked out Samsung to see what they offer, and they don't have external hard drives, nor do they have capacities over 400 GB...



    What do people think about buying a standalone hard drive and an enclosure and doing this whole think on my own? If in favor, want to suggest a model?
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