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PC to iMac storage questions

existe

existe

macrumors member
Original poster
May 11, 2009
72
22
I am migrating from a PC setup to a 27" iMac and trying to figure out how to do my storage/backup. My PC had 3 1TB drives in it, I had OS on disk 1, Data on disk 2 and Backup on disk 3 (Acronis file that was stored on all 3 drives).

Trying to figure out how to utilize 2 of those 1TB drives with my iMac. I was thinking about getting a 2 drive FW800 enclosure from OWC and putting data on one of them an Time Machine on the other, but I would have a 2:1 ratio (not that I have data anywhere near 1TB)

Will this work ok? Should I get two separate enclosures and just daisy chain them?

Thanks
 
USB is fine for backups, I wouldn't pay the extra to get FW800. If you don't have more than 1TB, why not to use the internal drive?
 
I have lost data before and just get paranoid about having everything in one place. I am sure I am doing my backup/storage strategy all wrong :)

I will look to get a USB 2.0 enclose for Time Machine then and perhaps a FW800 for the data drive (I do motion graphics/video/audio work as well)
 
existe said:
I have lost data before and just get paranoid about having everything in one place. I am sure I am doing my backup/storage strategy all wrong :)

I will look to get a USB 2.0 enclose for Time Machine then and perhaps a FW800 for the data drive (I do motion graphics/video/audio work as well)
Click to expand...

I think your strategy is spot on, keep your OS on your internal drive, your data on the FW800 drive and use a USB connection for your Time Machine drive.

NOTE: When you set up Time Machine it will do the first backup. This will take a very long time, possibly up to a couple of days because of the USB connection's performance and the amount of data you may have. After the first backup it will be fine though and should be very quick only taking a couple of minutes at most. I'm mentioning this so you don't worry about how long the first backup is taking.

Regards,

Roger
 
Thank for the advice and glad to know I am on a somewhat manageable path.
 
For my family, we have the 21.5" iMac with 1 TB internal HDD. This internal drive contains both OS and Data files. I have a My Book connected via FW800. It's my auto-backup using included Time Machine. For $20 (or so) more, its worth getting a FW800 drive (instead of USB 2.0 drive). My connected external drive backs up everything on its internal drive. Works great for me....
 
Would recommend getting a FW800 drive over USB 2.0. It's much faster.

What I did, was took my iMac upstairs plugged it into my router and networked it to my PC through my router and tranferred all my files via Gigabit ethernet. That is the fastest possible way to go to get it into the mac because there is no external SATA 3 connection.

BTW, you should partition that drive in the imac and make a storage partition and keep it separate from OS X and applications. I know others have mentioned it.
 
I'm in the same boat - moving from a tower pc with a bunch of internal drives, going to an iMac. I dunno where you guys live, but I hope it's not Canada. I'm having a diffficult time finding attractiveexternal enclosures that don't cost almost as much as simply buying a new external drive.
 
Tango Charlie said:
I'm in the same boat - moving from a tower pc with a bunch of internal drives, going to an iMac. I dunno where you guys live, but I hope it's not Canada. I'm having a diffficult time finding attractiveexternal enclosures that don't cost almost as much as simply buying a new external drive.
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182154
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817347017
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182123
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198003
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817347015
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817347016

Those are just ones that I think match well with Macs' aluminum enclosure
 
I would daisy-chain the FW800 to both external drives. OWC makes great drives or Drobo would be nice for redundancy.
 
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