Best External Drive for iMac?!?!?! Post it here. ;)

[Orange™]

I've got a Refurbished 2009 27' model. Looking for a snazzy external hard drive for time machine.

Since my iMac has Firewire 800, that's the best route. It's also 2 TB's so that's the storage I'm looking for.

How does this look:
http://www.google.com/products/cata...log_result&ct=image&resnum=5&ved=0CEEQ8gIwBA#

As iMac users, our time machines are always exterior so let's post 'em here!

Any drives complement the iMac's simplistic design? Feel free to post you time machine here.


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On another interesting note, does anyone here use a hard drive cage? Feel free to post those as well.

 

[Hellhammer]

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/ME8SRS20TB64/

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEAQ7H20TB32/

OWC drives match up with Macs pretty well

 

[Orange™]

Wow.

The first one is Beautiful, wow. Mac Pro-esque cage with my iMac?

Will look into RAID, thanks a lot Hellhammer. You make these forums awesome with your contributions.

Feel free to keep 'em coming people. There's room for everyone!

 

[Scuby]

I went a slightly different approach - doesn't look as nice, but i have mine attached to the rear of the stand of my iMac, so it's hidden and always connected (perfect for Time Machine).

Any Fw800 2.5" drive will do (so it's bus powered, and no faffing with extra cables etc) - i've got a WD Passport, but they're currently limited to 500GB in the FW versions, so just got a 1TB Seagate GoFlex Portable. Nkt as nice looking as the WD drives, and surprisingly quite a bit bigger, but as it's hidden i don't mind too much.

I've attached my drives using webbing loops and very strong tape on the back of the stand, so the drives slide in (a deliberately very tight fit) and out if i do ever need to remove them, but generally just remain attached.

David

 

[GGJstudios]

Searching the forum with MRoogle will usually find answers to most of your questions:

Mac Guide on External Hard Drives

[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/904281/[/url]
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/899614/[/url]
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/883573/[/url]
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/875630/[/url]
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/861006/[/url]
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/824809/[/url]
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/849529/[/url]
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/847438/[/url]
[url=https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/834250/[/url]
... and many, many others.

 

[spinnerlys]

12 of the Best Looking Hard Drives

found via ugliest external hdd

 

[rkaufmann87]

I'd recommend any one of these:

OWC Mercury Elite Pro series

Lacie Quadra D2 Series

G-Tech G series


Google any of them to see pictures.

 

[The.316]

I have two of these, for now. They are 2tb each.

 

[spinnerlys]

I have two of these, for now. They are 2tb each.

Beware the WD MyBook Studio 2TB External HDD

 

[The.316]

Beware the WD MyBook Studio 2TB External HDD

There is a way to remove the software that the HD installs on the Macs. It was very simple to do, and its actually on WDs site. I have no problem with either of my 2tb drives.

 

[GGJstudios]

Beware the WD MyBook Studio 2TB External HDD

You can easily reformat any drive you get, erasing any software that was included with the drive.

 

[aliensporebomb]

Glad this thread is here...

Well, my G5 looks to have crapped out late last night so I need an enclosure for the two 1.5 TB drives that were inside it (I was accessing it via gigabit ethernet and firewire 800 but will have to go FW800 I guess from now on).

I was looking at this purely for the cheap factor:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/EZ Q...medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=googlebase

Still hurts a bit to know a $2500 computer only lasted little more than 5 years
which means it was about $500 a year. Ouch.

 

[mangrove]

I have the OWC Mercury Alu cases and they are very well built and accept 2.5" bare drives. I won't use anything less than FW800 so they are prefect for my needs.

Also have LaCie enclosures 4 big quadra (currently maxes out at 8TB) and I have the 2 big (maxes out at 4TB). I like their expandability for when new, larger drives come out you can use them, not to mention the RAID aspects. You do not have to use their software-just let finder do its job.

 

[richpjr]

I sure wish the iMac supported esata drives.

 

[meb91]

I use a Sans Digital TowerSTOR TS2CT enclosure with two 1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F3s in a RAID 1, so it's like two backups in one. Connected with FW800 of course. I'd highly recommend this enclosure to anyone looking into a RAID backup.

http://www.amazon.com/TowerSTOR-TS2...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1284492683&sr=8-10

 

[mulo]

I love my 2TB G-drive

 

[bobr1952]

My vote goes to the Iomega eGo 1TB--I have it connected to my Firewire 800 port--a very nice drive.

http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-FireWi...=UTF8&coliid=IEK13ICJB23Y8&colid=G05ESO7QMR04

 

[mangrove]

I sure wish the iMac supported esata drives.

I just saw an option OWC is offering which is just that-ESATA.

 

[RDM]

Don't know much about this stuff, but I use this: http://www.simpletech.com/parts/spu35500.htm

Looks killer, works perfect.

 

[symbology]

I just ordered one of these from OWC based on their recommendation. I ordered it along with 16GB of NuRam.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/raid_1/Gmax

The original 1TB drive and another (spare) 1TB drive will go in this enclosure, and I will be installing two SSD drives in the same location as the original drive. A 128GB for the OS and Apps, and a 256Gb as a working disk for photoshop and lightroom work. Once I am done with a project, or batch of photos they will be moved, or "archived" off to this external chassis.

For eSata, I never liked it. The speed is great, but keeping drives connected after entering "sleep" mode is a pain and requires a rescan of the Sata devices, or a reboot. The USB and FW connected drives are much better in that regard. The will wake up and sleep with the machine.