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"Smallest" External Hard Drive for use with MBA?

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Starlights

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 22, 2011
133
39
I am sure a lot of MBA owners must rely on external HDDs for storage - I have been looking for one. Recently i bought a 1TB WD for my wife. Even though its small, its not "small enough" :)

I was wondering if anyone has found a 1.8 inch based external HDD with a very tiny form factor...... Anything up from 250GB would be good.

(PS: I do use a couple of 16gb Micro SD cards ... but those are mostly for document based data backups only or for movies on the go.)
 
F

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,141
1,384
Silicon Valley
I have a couple of those tiny Memorex USB 1" HD drives, but their capacity is fairly small, 4GB and 8GB. I don't think they make them any more, as 8GB flash drives are smaller and cheaper.
 
happyslayer

happyslayer

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2008
1,031
579
Glendale, AZ
Hey,

Hopefully, I'm not hijacking the thread here... See bottom for large Air drive recommendation.

About the Lexar Echo... Does it get hot? I am in the market for a very small USB stick like that but the last one I tried got very hot so I took it back to Fry's.

I found one review on Newegg and the guy said it got hot and that it had problems transferring large files. Have you noticed any issues?

Thanks in advance.

Also, for a large capacity USB HD, I use the Iomega eGo silver model. Mine is last year's model - 320 GB and I have had no issues with it. Admittedly, it looks more like the older model Air, but it is pretty thin.
 
hfg

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
happyslayer said:
Hey,

About the Lexar Echo... Does it get hot? I am in the market for a very small USB stick like that but the last one I tried got very hot so I took it back to Fry's.

I found one review on Newegg and the guy said it got hot and that it had problems transferring large files. Have you noticed any issues?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I haven't had any problems with mine so far. I am surprised it would get hot unless it was defective. There is also a tiny little USB device which holds a microSD card and it is even smaller than the Lexar Echo. The microSD card inserts into the USB plug side of the thing ... amazing!

http://www.amazon.com/elago-Mobile-microSDHC-Memory-Reader/dp/B002HGFKR8


-howard
 
S

Sam Spade

macrumors regular
Aug 30, 2007
181
0
hfg said:
The smallest "drive" I have found it the Lexar Echo ZE 32GB USB 2.0 Backup DriveLEHZE32GASBNA currently at $60. You can barely see it on the side of the Air. I use it to store movies and videos to watch, but not take up precious ssd space.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031RG2A6/ref=oss_product

-howard
Click to expand...
Users report this drive as being extremely slow. I need a drive for the reasons you mentioned above -- I need storage for movies that I can watch on the plane on my MBA. Does the poor performance of this drive make it a bad choice for this use?
 
S

Starlights

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 22, 2011
133
39
Sam Spade said:
Users report this drive as being extremely slow. I need a drive for the reasons you mentioned above -- I need storage for movies that I can watch on the plane on my MBA. Does the poor performance of this drive make it a bad choice for this use?
Click to expand...


I use a couple of these:
41JMHUqv-1L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002K7EJDK/ref=oss_product

coupled with these:
21MU0ma72NL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WIRFD2/ref=oss_product

Each 16gb card can store about 4 ripped DVDs - Used them on a recent Transpacific flight with my MBA without any problems whatsoever for back to back movies.

Only word of caution - writing a ripped dvd to these micro sd cards takes time as they are slow to write. Playback is fine though. They dont get hot (even warm) either.

But back to my original post - still looking for a larger capacity "Micro" HDD
 
Last edited:
hfg

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
Sam Spade said:
Users report this drive as being extremely slow. I need a drive for the reasons you mentioned above -- I need storage for movies that I can watch on the plane on my MBA. Does the poor performance of this drive make it a bad choice for this use?
Click to expand...

It seems to work fine with the .m4v HandBrake files on my 11" MB Air viewing under VLC. It does not heat up at all. I did reformat the drive as OS Extended Journaled (it comes as Fat32. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. I have seen a very short video breakup once or twice, but I don't really know if that is the encoding of the video, the MBAir, or the memory speed.

-howard
 
S

St. G

macrumors member
Nov 29, 2010
87
0
I've got a 16GB MosKeyTo and a 1TB Rikiki GO. I'm thinking of returning the Rikiki Go, though. The picures make it look like it's exactly as thick as the USB connector, but it's actually about 40% thicker. I'm guessing that the pic is of the 500GB version and that the 1TB model has an additional platter, making it thicker. In any case, it's a little thicker than I would like. I think I may just stick with my 320GB Seagate FreeAgent Go for now.
 
Anonymous Freak

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,604
1,389
Cascadia
You realistically have three options:

1. SD card (assuming you have a new 13".) They're available at up to 64 GB, obviously still under your 250 GB requirement. There are USB flash drives at up to 256 GB, but they're insanely expensive ($700+,) 128 GB is slightly better at ~$300. I lump SD and USB together in the 'ultra-small, but expensive for the capacity' grouping.

2. 1.8" hard drive. These are the same hard drives that are used in the iPod Classic. More expensive than physically-larger, at much lower capacities, but still way cheaper than an SD card or USB drive of equal size. Toshiba *JUST* released a 250 GB model, but it isn't shipping in any devices yet.

3. 2.5" hard drive. Bigger than a 1.8", but still not too big (and USB-powered.) Available up to 1 TB. This really is your best bet. They're not too large, yet they are available in high capacities, for not too much money.

There's also the "not really the same thing" choice of cloud storage. Many different internet-storage providers, from the simple Apple MobileMe iDisk to Microsoft SkyDrive, etc. Most have a monthly/yearly cost, and you have to have internet access to get to them, but they don't require anything physically present.
 
D

DukeOfHunslet

macrumors member
Jan 31, 2011
48
0
Hunslet, England
This is my Toshiba 250gb 1.8" drive.

It cost me £90 from Amazon.

I use it with my Mac Mini's and my work laptop.

It measures 90mm by 58mm by 10mm.

It is thing of beauty as well as ver small. Comes with a protective case - as the casing is black chrome...

IMG_0138.jpg


Whoops! Shown bigger than actual size. Sorry about that...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
S

Starlights

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 22, 2011
133
39
DukeOfHunslet said:
This is my Toshiba 250gb 1.8" drive.

It cost me £90 from Amazon.

I use it with my Mac Mini's and my work laptop.

It measures 90mm by 58mm by 10mm.

It is thing of beauty as well as ver small. Comes with a protective case - as the casing is black chrome...
Click to expand...

Very neat!
I looked all over the web for it - doesnt seem to be available in US at all.. :(
 
W

weckart

macrumors 603
Nov 7, 2004
5,976
3,697
I bought the Samsung S1 250GB for £33 from here. Now only pink and red 120GB sizes left for £28 delivered for those in the UK. Much smaller and lighter than its 2.5" sibling and less shoddy on the transfer rates than you might have expected. I have quite small hands - this thing is really compact.

987b6a.jpg



Low res photo courtesy of the MBA it accompanies.
 
T

telemark948

macrumors member
Jul 31, 2010
40
0
weckart said:
I bought the Samsung S1 250GB for £33 from here. Now only pink and red 120GB sizes left for £28 delivered for those in the UK. Much smaller and lighter than its 2.5" sibling and less shoddy on the transfer rates than you might have expected. I have quite small hands - this thing is really compact.

987b6a.jpg



Low res photo courtesy of the MBA it accompanies.
Click to expand...

Only pink left, even at that low price I can't do pink:D
 
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