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Recommend a good external HD?

ckeck

ckeck

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 29, 2005
722
67
Texas
I am looking for a recommendation on a good, high-performance external hard drive...

Price is NOT the most important factor, but is always considered...I want to use it for all my DV editing and HD video...need to offload this stuff from my main HD.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations :D
 
ckeck said:
I am looking for a recommendation on a good, high-performance external hard drive...

Price is NOT the most important factor, but is always considered...I want to use it for all my DV editing and HD video...need to offload this stuff from my main HD.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations :D
Click to expand...

I just bought a Lacie 250GB external desktop hard drive (designed by F.A Porsche, if that is of any importance). Works like a dream, although a tiny bit noisy sometimes. I paid R1810 (about $300.) Integrates BRILLIANTLY with OSX, no third party software necessary, and can be used as an extension, RAID, I think its called? to just extend your internal HD and combine the two. Just by the way, the spindle speed is 7200 RPM
 
I also recently purchased a LaCie D2, the 160GB capacity.

I am happy with it at the moment, it isn't too noisy and doesn't get too warm, but then i guess that depends on how much you use it.

I can't however tell you how reliable it is yet, becuase i have only had it for a month. But so far, i am impressed with it, and would recommend it.
 
I am in the market as well, but in my case price is an issue. I just want it for backing up my home directory so i am looking no larger then 40-80 gig range.

Does anyone have experience good or bad with drives other than Laclie?
 
Do we need a sticky post about this question? I saw many posts about it.
 
yup, had a Lacie Porche drive for going on 2 years now, never had a problem, every machine I plug it into (both PC's & Macs) it just works. Sometimes Win98 got a little finicky with it, but Win98 and USB don't play nice anyways.
 
stuuke said:
I need something in the 500gb range if anyone has any recommendations.
Click to expand...

You could get something like this enclosure. Then add your own hard drives. I have two of those loaded with two 200GB Seagates in each and I plan on getting another two with 500GB drives in each when the HD prices come down just a little more.
 
xsedrinam said:
I've had good use with Lacie and Maxtor External HDs.
Click to expand...
I think Maxtor supplies Lacie with their HDs, and last time I checked (over a year ago), Maxtor wasn't.....um...."the best." ;)

Anyway, getting an "internal" HD and buying a separate enclosure is supposed to be better. I forget the explanation, though.

I have a Seagate and I'm happy with it.
 
Abstract said:
I think Maxtor supplies Lacie with their HDs, and last time I checked (over a year ago), Maxtor wasn't.....um...."the best." ;)
Click to expand...

The last time you checked what? Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor, Hitachi they all make great drives. You may of had problems with a brand in the past but millions of other users haven't had issues with them at all. The Maxtor Maxline III is 1 of the best SATA drives you can buy, but then Seagate, Western Digital, and Hitachi also make drives I could say are 1 of the best...
 
dollystereo said:
Seagate is way better than Lacie
Click to expand...

Just for your information, my Lacie 250GB HD designed by F.A Porsche, contains a seagate HD. I think they just make the casing for the HD and just slip an Seagate or Western Digital etc HD into it.
 
ckeck said:
I am looking for a recommendation on a good, high-performance external hard drive...

Price is NOT the most important factor, but is always considered...I want to use it for all my DV editing and HD video...need to offload this stuff from my main HD.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations :D
Click to expand...

I've been researching drives and well cooled drive cases, but I didn't realize how important the type drive and the interfaces. Especially important manipulating large video files.
Check out the various drive/interface offerings (FW, FW 800, SATA and RAID configurations,8/16mb buffers, etc) when choosing a new hardrive for the best performance. SATA appears to be the reasonably priced and fast drive/ interface for the immediate future.

http://www.macgurus.com/guides/storageaccelguide.php

http://www.macgurus.com/forums/

-
Dave
 
I am currently looking at the Seagate Barracuda 300GB 7200rpm internal for £80 and buying an external caddy
 
risc said:
The last time you checked what? Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor, Hitachi they all make great drives.
Click to expand...

Yep, last time I checked. I checked here and on other boards. A large number of people recommended that I avoid Maxtor, and since Lacie used Maxtor HDDs in their cases at the time, I avoided them as well. Yes, Western Digital and Seagate Barracudas had a great rep at the time, and still do, but remember that things change quickly.

You may of had problems with a brand in the past but millions of other users haven't had issues with them at all.
Click to expand...
I haven't had problems with any brand, so it's not based on a bias of any sort.

And so what if millions of other users haven't had issues with Maxtors or Lacies. I'm glad that your Lacie HD worked out well for you and so manyother people, but what you said is rather meaningless. Lots of people have had issues as well. Same goes with any brand. They've also had successes. This guy is asking for recommendations, and despite the fact that the HDD world and reputations change rather quickly in 1 or 2 years, I'm just telling him what I found out a year ago.

And if you want to know, the only time a harddrive has ever crapped out on me was a Seagate, and I ended up buying a Seagate Barracuda internal HD and an external HDD enclosure with Firewire (it uses the Oxford chipset, of course). I was also told that internal HDs were better than the ones used in external drives, but I forget the reasoning for this. Whatever. The combination was much cheaper (getting an internal HD and an external enclosure always is) and was either the same or better than Lacie's offerings at the time.
 
if price isnt a concern, id say get the best one they have at a local store, best buy etc . . and get the rebate
check the sunday paper for computer store rebates, they always have them

if you have a compusa, their rebate procedure is great, no more mailing stuff in and all, just log in, type in the numbers on the reciept and its processed, take a while though.

for the one who said they are looking for a cheaper one, id find a cheap external drive enclosure and stick a old hd in it. tats what ive done and its worked for about 2 years.
 
Segate now has 5 years warranty on their Drives... give a little bit more piece of mind for a small price increase.

ALL Lacie does is repackage other companies drives and put them in pretty boxes.
I have a Porche Lacie that ive had some problems with... It would power down unexpectedly, which cause lots of problems with the directory structure. :mad: I think im gonna stay away from Lacie.
 
gman71882 said:
Segate now has 5 years warranty on their Drives... give a little bit more piece of mind for a small price increase.

ALL Lacie does is repackage other companies drives and put them in pretty boxes.
I have a Porche Lacie that ive had some problems with... It would power down unexpectedly, which cause lots of problems with the directory structure. :mad: I think im gonna stay away from Lacie.
Click to expand...


mine was powering down, but i realized, it's because of the energy saver prefs. make sure its not set to turn off the drives. i changed that, and now it wrks great

---------------------------

And about a new drive for you, try the Lacie d2. It has a tripple interface, and comes in many sizes. I have a 250 GB drive, and I use it for everything. My iTunes library is on it, all of my video/audio editing is there too. Its a great product, and I reccommend it to everyone.
 
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