External Advice choices and suggestions?

[maddagascar]

what's that supposed to mean?

like, she was telling me that the western digital isn't capable of customizing folders, like folders in folders, like sub-folders i guess?

cause i want to be able to organize the photos as well and have different things moved around. she was saying that the western digital just backs it up but you can't really access it as freely.

i'm gonna go with the seagate..lol.

 

[Razeus]

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. LOL.

 

[Ruahrc]

Don't get the WD Passport Studio. I have one and while it's a good drive (I really like the compact size and connectivity) the FW seems to be sketchy on Macs. I used to be able to use it all the time no problems with the FW800 on my old PBG4, but when I upgraded to my MBP, I would get issues where the drive would stop responding, and the mac would hard-lockup shortly thereafter. Now I only use it on USB which seems to work reliably with no issues.

I put it on my iMac at work using the FW800-FW400 cable and it works fine.

So in my experience the FW is sketchy enough on Macs that I would not blindly trust it to work all the time. I'm actually looking for a replacement candidate for the drive so I can use FW800 again.

Ruahrc

 

[wheelhot]

Don't get the WD Passport Studio. I have one and while it's a good drive (I really like the compact size and connectivity) the FW seems to be sketchy on Macs. I used to be able to use it all the time no problems with the FW800 on my old PBG4, but when I upgraded to my MBP, I would get issues where the drive would stop responding, and the mac would hard-lockup shortly thereafter. Now I only use it on USB which seems to work reliably with no issues.

I put it on my iMac at work using the FW800-FW400 cable and it works fine.

So in my experience the FW is sketchy enough on Macs that I would not blindly trust it to work all the time. I'm actually looking for a replacement candidate for the drive so I can use FW800 again.

Thanks, I guess that rules out WD (and it seems other users have similar issues, check out the comments in Engadget latest post bout the new Western Digital Passport Studio *on a side note: I hate the new e-ink display on WD Passport Studio, looks ugly in my humble opinion)

Anyway, I mentioned before about the interface is being the bottleneck, I take that back. Read this to understand.
Review: Seagate FreeAgent Go for Mac - luxury portable storage

And on Amazon, this product received a full 5 stars (although there are only 4 reviewers). So I'm guessing it should be ok. I'm leaning towards the Seagate now

 

[Ruahrc]

I didn't know they made a new revision of the WD studio. I actually think that e-ink display is kind of cool . But unless it had a proven track record of working better with Macs on FW than the previous versions, I don't think I would go for it.

Personally speaking the Seagate drive is too bulky. I don't really want/need a dock for the HD.

I've been looking pretty closely at the G-drive minis and will probably pick one up in the near future. I will "retire" my current Passport to backing up my time capsule (it works fine on USB so no problem to keep using it) and regain FW800 speeds with the G-drive mini. It's a little more expensive but it seems to be well built and the other thing I really like is that it is apparently easy to unscrew the casing and replace the drive. That will come in handy when larger 1TB drives, etc. are cheaply available I can just buy a bare drive and keep on using the casing. It does not seem too much larger than the Passport.

 

[wheelhot]

Personally speaking the Seagate drive is too bulky. I don't really want/need a dock for the HD.

Haha, yeah it does look bulky but I like how Seagate handled the aesthetics. It's soooo Mac like. And if I'm not mistaken, you don't need the dock to connect the HD. The dock is if you have multiple Seagate drives, and for me the most tempting one is there is another higher end dock that provide 3! self powered USB ports

Anyway, I am thinking to get this too, so I can keep the cables and possibly another personal hard disk.

Case Logic

So far I checked the reviews about this drive and many people loved the speed. Some even worked on their Final Cut project through this drive.