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need recommendation for desktop hd for Time Machine backups for iMac

P

PatsyKB

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 12, 2010
2
0
After having my 1TB G-Tech G-Drive Q desktop external h.d. crap out on me for a second or third time, this time for good, I give up on G-Tech. (I also had a faulty 500GB G-Tech portable which had to be replaced.)

For many reasons, my iMac's Time Machine backups have to be stored on an external hard drive rather than on our Time Capsule.

Two or three times in the past year or so, the external h.d. has become corrupted or something and has had to be reformatted, losing all the previous backups and starting all over again. This time, since the external h.d. is toast, I have no backups at all.

My MAIN question: Do any of you have a recommendation for an external hard drive - probably desktop, but not necessarily - preferably 1TB - which is RELIABLE?

Is this h.d. corruption/repeated failure a function of Time Machine? The hard drive itself?

What good is Time Machine if I lose my backups all the time?
 
Get a Samsung F3 1TB (best consumer mechanical HDD money can buy) and slap it in an enclosure.
 
enclosure

So don't laugh, but I'm not sure how to "slap it in an enclosure" - I need some guidance on how & what. Thanks.
 
I've found Western Digital hard drives to be very good.

I've been using my current one for two years with zero issues.
 
I will like to get a 2 TB drive.

1 TB will be used for Time Machine and 1 TB fir multimedia that I will have to stream to other computer and a Media Player on the TV.

Any guess?
 
Western Digital

NathanMuir said:
I've found Western Digital hard drives to be very good.

I've been using my current one for two years with zero issues.
Click to expand...

x2

I've bought several Western Digital MyBook HDDs and they are great. Silent, elegant, and compact.

I recommend the Studio model for speed (it has FireWire), but the Essential model is good if you are on a budget.

The smaller status light on the Studio is also great if you sleep in the same room as your computer.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=756
 
NathanMuir said:
I've found Western Digital hard drives to be very good.

I've been using my current one for two years with zero issues.
Click to expand...

Warbitrary said:
x2

I've bought several Western Digital MyBook HDDs and they are great. Silent, elegant, and compact.

I recommend the Studio model for speed (it has FireWire), but the Essential model is good if you are on a budget.

The smaller status light on the Studio is also great if you sleep in the same room as your computer.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=756
Click to expand...

+1 on WD for Time Machine

I use a 1.5TB WD Elements unit which is noiseless, has no front LED and just works. I almost forget it's there until the times when I needed to bring back data; most recently, my address book two days ago.
 
I use a 1TB My Book. Plug it in, set up time machine, forget about it. It's fast, silent and looks quite nice.

iDeal
 
I'm probably biased, but I got a Western Digital drive a few years back that ended up breaking and losing a bunch of data within a year... Never touched them since. I was probably unlucky, but there you go!

I've got a lacie 2TB external disk. I like the flexibility of connections it offers (USB, firewire 400, firewire 800, eSATA), and it's been very reliable.
 
if backups are that important to you, look at a raid1 external unit or enclosure; those come with 2 drives to back each other up.
 
Best Buy has a 2TB WD green external on sale for 129.99 right now, cant beat it!
 
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