External Advice choices and suggestions?

[wheelhot]

Hello,
I am thinking of buying a portable external hard disk so I can place my growing Aperture libraries inside of it.

Here are my choices so far, feel free to give comments or suggestions.
Western Digital My Passport Studio 500 GB

LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 500 GB

Seagate FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac 500 GB

All 3 of them has FW800 and are about similar in specs except for the Seagate which I think is 7200RPM.

Now, I am looking for these drives (feel free to provide more options if you feel like it) cause my MBP (my one and only main machine) only left 1GB and my Aperture library is taking 50GB of space (original files are residing in my 1TB external desktop hard disk). I am planning to transfer that library to my external portable drive, create a new library and within a couple of months or so, transfer those library to my portable external drive (hopefully able to merge them with only 1 mac, is that possible with Aperture 3?)

 

[wheelhot]

No replies yet? Oh and it seems, from a number of reviews I've read, there is a handful of users whos portable drive ended up failing in a couple of months anyone care to comment bout this?

 

[dazey]

How do you backup? Have you considered using referenced files instead of splitting your library? Lets you keep your entire aperture library on your laptop (just with previews) and connect to your masters when you need.

For drives, I would get one of these:
http://www.CalDigit.com/CalDigit_VR/

or if you really insist on small drives:
http://www.CalDigit.com/VR_mini/

They let you have RAID for drive redundancy. I actually store my masters on a server mirror raid and then have a separate off site backup

 

[wheelhot]

How do you backup? Have you considered using referenced files instead of splitting your library? Lets you keep your entire aperture library on your laptop (just with previews) and connect to your masters when you need.

Hmm, currently all my master files are in my 1TB external hard disk (except my most recent projects), the library in my MBP hard disk right now is mostly previews and some masters (very few amount). The current library takes 50GB from my MBP available space so I was thinking of placing that library into an external hard disk (have to be reliable since I am expecting to bring it everywhere with me).

And since in A3 you can merge libraries (it's for those who have 2 Macs), what I am planning was to actually create a new library on my MBP to store my photos and when everything is done, merge it with the library in my external disk. By doing this, my MBP hard disk will have lots of space and not to mention it will speed Aperture up since I wont have a lot of photos in it.

What do you guys think?

 

[mattyb240]

I would suggest backing up your main photo library (your external) to another external. If that goes boom then your stuck with no photos!

 

[wheelhot]

I would suggest backing up your main photo library (your external) to another external. If that goes boom then your stuck with no photos!

Yeah, thanks for reminding, I'm planning to get another hard disk to duplicate my current 1TB hard disk. The reason I plan to transfer my current Aperture library to a external hard disk so that it wont fill up my hard disk space and now I will have a dedicated hard disk just to store my ever growing Aperture library.

 

[kyzen]

I heartily recommend network storage arrays for photo backups. The convenience is superb - when I'm plugged into my gigabit network the speeds are excellent, and when I'm kicking back on the couch I can still access the drives over the wireless.

I use a NAS that has 2 bays with the option of disk mirroring, or disk spanning. I use mirroring on my 2 1TB drives, so one of the drives can fail and I wouldn't lose anything. As a further level of paranoia, I also have a 1TB USB drive plugged into the NAS, with a weekly backup to that drive (a scheduled task on my home server).

So my pictures live in 4 places - on my computer, on each of the mirrored drives, and on an external drive. I'd have to get really, really unlucky to lose all my data

(I had a bad experience with Windows Vista SP1 a couple years ago where I lost 8 months worth of pictures, after that I've been stupidly paranoid about protecting my data).

 

[joaoferro37]

How do you backup? Have you considered using referenced files instead of splitting your library? Lets you keep your entire aperture library on your laptop (just with previews) and connect to your masters when you need.

For drives, I would get one of these:
http://www.CalDigit.com/CalDigit_VR/

or if you really insist on small drives:
http://www.CalDigit.com/VR_mini/

They let you have RAID for drive redundancy. I actually store my masters on a server mirror raid and then have a separate off site backup

I would not use CalDigit. I first have my clients using CalDigit S2VR HD and they phased out the product.
That leave my clients no upgrade options but force to buy higher price HDPro.
They also phased out FireWire VR after an year and leave no support again.
I do not have any confidence on the VR and since it is using the Oxford 936 chipset, I would suggest using
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816142003
or
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEQX2KIT0GB/
These solutions provide RAID instead of RAID 1.

 

[dazey]

One word against RAID 5. In a mirror array like the Caldigit (or equivalents), if the enclosure craps out you can just take the disks and put them in a tower to get the data off. The same is not true in a RAID 5. Mirror raid is more reliable (but at the cost of storage and speed). I decided against RAID 5 for my needs.

 

[joaoferro37]

One word against RAID 5. In a mirror array like the Caldigit (or equivalents), if the enclosure craps out you can just take the disks and put them in a tower to get the data off. The same is not true in a RAID 5. Mirror raid is more reliable (but at the cost of storage and speed). I decided against RAID 5 for my needs.

Agreed and if $$ is not an issue, I would choose RAID 1 using SSD but not caldigit.

 

[dazey]

Fair enough. To be clear for the thread, you probably know more about the enclosure than I. I don't use caldigit, they were just what I was proposing to buy when I was looking at moving my server from a MDD to a Intel Mini. In the end I decided that the electricity savings were not worth the cost of the Mini so I stuck with the MDD.

 

[wheelhot]

Whoa, loads of replies. Thanks guys.

For now since my MBP (I should upgraded to the largest hard disk at the beginning I guess) is losing hard drive space pretty quickly. My best bet is to split my Aperture library and only keep in my MBP those images from recent projects.

 

[maddagascar]

in the same boat as you..but i might get a 500gb IOMEGA..i read the great and it's firewire too, as sometimes i'll be using my usb ports and what not.

but i would definitely love a TB instead of 500gb's..but it has to be portable drive though.

 

[wheelhot]

in the same boat as you..but i might get a 500gb IOMEGA..i read the great and it's firewire too, as sometimes i'll be using my usb ports and what not.

but i would definitely love a TB instead of 500gb's..but it has to be portable drive though.

Yeah, would love 1TB but it got to be portable (unless we wait longer), so I guess as others thing in life, we have to make a compromise.

Hmm, I'm still looking at other portable drive options though cause I heard some has reliability issues? (like drive failing after a year or FW stop working).

Checking on Iomega now, care to tell why you are leaning towards the Iomega?

 

[joaoferro37]

wheelhot,
what about getting a 2 bay 2.5" JBOD enclosure, put your MBP internal drive and a 500G SATA and upgrade your MBP to SSD.
Unleash the power of MBP.

A 4 bay USB/eSTA
http://www.xpcgear.com/raidon-j5-5s-sb2-storage-enclosure.html

 

[wheelhot]

wheelhot,
what about getting a 2 bay 2.5" JBOD enclosure, put your MBP internal drive and a 500G SATA and upgrade your MBP to SSD.
Unleash the power of MBP.

A 4 bay USB/eSTA
http://www.xpcgear.com/raidon-j5-5s-...enclosure.html

Thanks, that's a way but I don't feel comfortable upgrading my MBP hard disk (mine is the first MBP with multi touch trackpad, and upgrading the HDD on that model is not straight forward) and also having to reinstall everything (+ my windows stuff) will not be a pleasant experience, although the read and write speed of a SSD is really compelling (besides the price that is).

So, anyone know among, Iomega, Lacie, Western Digital, and Seagate portable drives which one is the most reliable? Value for money isn't a huge concern for me. I'm mostly concert with reliability (cause I'll be bringing it a lot with me) and it must have FW800.

 

[dlegend]

They do make a portable 1tb one.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1267100473&sr=8-1

 

[wheelhot]

They do make a portable 1tb one.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...7100473&sr=8-1

Thanks for the suggestion, but you missed my last point, it must have FW800

 

[dlegend]

Sorry about that, I swore they had them with FW800 but now I can't find them anywhere.

 

[maddagascar]

that was what i saw too, that 1Tb, hard drive, but it didn't have firewire soo i wasn't feeling it. and it looks like it got lousy reviews..


but the reason i was leaning towards IOMEGA, was that it's the biggest one i've seen with a portable drive and great ratings.

http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-FireWi...TF8&s=electronics&qid=1267163251&sr=8-1-spell

its got 500GB of hard drive, and it's portable WITH FIREWIRE 800!!

sooo i mean, it seems to be the one i'll get, especially with the great price!

i just have tooooooo many photos i don't want to lose and i'm getting scared..and photos will be the only thing that will go on it.. soo i'm very excited. i don't have much important info on the maccy, except photos, so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[wheelhot]

maddagascar, have you checked these yet? Any opinions?

Western Digital My Passport Studio 500 GB

LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 500 GB

Seagate FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac 500 GB

 

[maddagascar]

maddagascar, have you checked these yet? Any opinions?

i looked at the western digital studio before, nooo goood. all i see are bad reviews on it about the firewire 800, and a mac rep at the apple store said that you can't even customize the folders inside. to me, i gotta do that and not just back up the photos.

i'm not feeling the lacie for the design.

the seagate looks awesome, wish it came in different colors. i mean at 500gb, at 7200RPM, but seems good for 139 and a 5year warranty.

i read more on the iomega, not a bad unit at all. it got editors choice on CNET. soo i mean, it did something right. but many people say it does tend to get hot. so i mean, i still see people with it going strong.

soo it just comes down to the iomega and seagate, its about a 30dollar difference for almost the same specs. just longer warranty with seagate, and 7200RPM compared to 5400RPM

http://www.macworld.com/article/142158/2009/08/iomega_ego.html

http://gizmodo.com/5301930/seagate-...00rpm-500gb-drive-with-firewire-800-happy-now

 

[wheelhot]

thanks for the opinions, that's why for me beside FW800, reliability is an issue too cause like you mentioned, I heard stuffs like FW failing and etc.

Regarding the iomega getting hot, one solution for me is to buy one of those CaseLogic casing for the portable hard drive, that way if it ever fell, the chance of the casing cracking is less.

I guess it's now down to either iomega or seagate.

About the 7200 vs 5400rpm, I heard that the limit of transfer and read speed is now the interface (FW800/USB2.0), so there is not huge difference between 5400rpm or 7200rpm for external portable hard disk. Correct me if I'm wrong about this.

 

[maddagascar]

thanks for the opinions, that's why for me beside FW800, reliability is an issue too cause like you mentioned, I heard stuffs like FW failing and etc.

Regarding the iomega getting hot, one solution for me is to buy one of those CaseLogic casing for the portable hard drive, that way if it ever fell, the chance of the casing cracking is less.

I guess it's now down to either iomega or seagate.

About the 7200 vs 5400rpm, I heard that the limit of transfer and read speed is now the interface (FW800/USB2.0), so there is not huge difference between 5400rpm or 7200rpm for external portable hard disk. Correct me if I'm wrong about this.

i'm not too sure on that one. but you sound right, but you would think the higher the number the better.

it's also between seagate and iomega for me. i'm reading on the seagate website about it, and it's the same price for 139.99..and the iomega is 106.

i just want to make sure i can access and customize the folders within' them. but yes, we all do want a reliable external hard drive. soo i mean, if money's an issue, go with the iomega. if not, the seagate seems like an awesome choice as well.

 

[toxic]

and a mac rep at the apple store said that you can't even customize the folders inside. to me, i gotta do that and not just back up the photos.

what's that supposed to mean?