anyone recommend a good external hard drive?

[northzax]

for backup purposes? I need about 100gb, I figure, to account for growth, and am running a iBook G4. I really should do this, all the stories of dying hard drives scare me.

thanks-

[NV Whino]

1. I got a LaCie pocket drive

from MacConnection. The key words are "pocket drive." Really small. They come with USB or Firewire or both connections. Go for Firewire if you choose only one. It's a faster connection. Depending on GBs about $139 to $179.

[alfredo]

2. I bought a firewire enclosure then put a Maxtor 7200 in it.

It works pretty good. I just backed up my primary and secondary drive today. Used Apple's Backup 3.

[politicat]

3. We have 4 LaCies, and a couple of homebuilds....

The LaCies are more reliable. We've had some problems with the home builds.

So I'd suggest LaCie.

[Angry Girl]

4. LaCie drives are great and they have refurbished ones too

http://www.lacie.com/shop/
We have two of them. My husband's video editing prof highly recommends them (used them for years) as well as their refurbished drives. Make sure to get the new high speed ones if you can.

[myomy]

5. Really like my Seagate 200GB

it's both USB 2 and Firewire and comes with easy to use "BounceBack" backup software that will update at the push of a button on the external HD itself.

[northzax]

6. ok, got this one for christmas

now another question: if I want to auto backup two machines to it, and use it for storage, should I partition it? or is it smart enough to figure that out for itself?

[reprobate]

7. I partitioned my Maxtor Ontouch II with four partitions

One for each of my Macs and a fourth 50MB partition for software downloads I want to save--just in case.

How you partition is your choice, but I would definately give each machine it's own B/U space. Just label each partition with it's own mac name--mine is labelled 'iMac, Mini, and iBook'.

[faithnotgreed]

8. i was leaning towards the iomega black series

possibly with triple interface (both firewire speeds + usb)

the only reason is that i have read that for macs it is best to get the triple instead of dual (400 firewire + usb)
is that accurate

basically i need an easy to use and reliable hard drive
it has gotten uniformly good reviews
i want to store my music collection which is/will be extensive + movies and tv shows

i had read varying reviews on lacie so wasnt going to get one but given that several people here use them i will have to reconsider

thanks for any guidance

on edit - i would like one that is approx 250gb

[yellowdawgdem]

9. I'm looking for an ext hd too

I'm in a similar situation, looking for a mac compatible ext hard drive to use for video editing. So I guess it needs to be at least 160 gigs +. I've heard that La cie is good, but was wondering if seagate or fantom or others would work for video. Also does anybody know how impt it is to get the higher firewire.

[benburch]

10. Don't buy one ready-made!

They are very easy to put together!

Here is what you need;

A Case

The Drive

Just put one inside the other. Takes about 5 minutes, a single screwdriver, and no special skills. With this case, the 3.5" drive would just sit in there... So no rough play with the assembled bits.

If you wanted to securely fasten it, you would need 3.5" to 5.25" adaptor rails from any computer store.

If your Mac has USB 2.0, you might choose a USB-only case (above is USB/Firewire dual case);

USB Case

Which is cheaper. These links are for Computer Geeks, which is an affiliate store I use all the time. This is all basically surplus, so the actual stuff changes all the time, but I am usually able to find a Firewire case and a drive when I need storage. In fact I bought two of the above dual firewire/USB cases and two 250 GB drives just last week and am using them now.

Hope this helped!

-Ben

[enough]

12. Ben, you are making me wonder if there is hope for a broken LaCie

that I have given up on.

The drive had been working perfectly for a couple of years, but then the fire-wire connections seemed to wear out (the place where the firewire plugs into the case).

First the connections were unreliable (they didn't always work and had to be positioned very carefully) and then the connectors actually fell out of their places in the metal case and were rattling around inside. We opened the case and found that the connections between the plugs and the green circuit board inside the case were broken.

I had thought the best thing would be to purchase a replacement circuit board from LaCie with the firewire connectors in place, or send it back to them to have them re-attached, but they are not set up to do either of those things.

Is there any hope for this? I only need to get at it once more to transfer the stuff to another drive.

I hope this question is intelligible. You can see that I'm describing something I don't really understand.

Thanks.

[benburch]

13. Yes, you can do that.

Sorry I did not see this sooner, but this should be quite simple to do, and should cost less than $30 if you buy the firewire enclosure in the right place.

I recommend geeks.com (use the link on White Rose and I'll earn a few cents on it...)

[politicat]

17. Don't get cheap enclosures, though...

We have two enclosures that cracked within 60 days of build, and they cracked in the same place - along the edges where the two halves of the clamshell click together. They were plastic tabs glued on to the aluminum body, and of course, they only had a 30 day warranty.

We rebuilt the cases using legos and glue and the firewire guts. But I won't buy cheap cases again.

We're using the ones that OtherWorld Computing sells now, as well as the 4 LaCies, and so far, so good.

So many gigabytes, so little time.

[LifeDuringWartime]

11. OWC makes good drives

I have two firewire hard drives - one of them firewire 800 based. it's a screamer.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/

[Ezlivin]

14. I second your recommendation

And, gee, isn't this an old thread?

[northzax]

15. hey, it's by far the oldest thread I still have on a front page anywhere!

and there's some great advice here, as well. I'm setting up a Mini as a DVR/media center, so the storage ideas are great!

[Imalittleteapot]

16. Just the info I was looking for.

I knew I could get some good advise from a DUer. Going to buy one today!

Thanks.

[onehandle]

18. I have a half dozen of their firewire drives.

From 120GB to 500GB. Digital video is captured to them through my PowerBook and Final Cut Pro without a single dropped frame.

They are fast, quiet as heck, and have never given me a single problem.

[Imalittleteapot]

19. Hooked up my new OWC externals today. Thanks for the

recommendation. Great looking and quiet.