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suggests for a new external hard drive?

F

fatties

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 21, 2006
179
0
Ok. I am currently using a freecom classics 80gb. mb, well less htan 10 gb left, so i think its time to think about the future (yeh and not the past whatever).

The freecom i have now is ok, but its slow because i think? its a usb 1 drive and its loud and its ugly. and i so want the time machine! (imagin not having to go through the trouble of backing up music and pics when i update)!

so i am in the market for a bigger external that will be compatible with the time machine, more aesthetically pleasing (i honestly don't know where the freecom is, its so butt ugly, i've hidden it somehwere) and most of all FAST. i can't stand anythikng that is slow, i am impatient. I want to use the external to be my music and pics drive (ie possibly keeping the freecom as a backup)

so... macbook-> new drive (music and pics)[must be good looking enough to live on the desk]->freecom, [shall be reformated i guess] back up.

any suggestions? considering i only bought the freecom because it was the cheapest on the market?

oh and a good cheap 1/2gb pen drive suggestion would be nice too. i currently have a bytestar and it is so frigging fat that it can't fit into the mb withouth the other usb port unplugged. i know its picky of me, but i can't sacrifice my wireless mouse and keyboard for that.

thank you loveys!

(edit: or should i get a bigger internal? mid you i am a complete klutz)
 
do a quick seach in the main forum page for external drives.
seagate and lacie seem to be the favorites.
i have a 250gb seagate (circuit city and outpost seem to have frequent deals) in a mercury elite pro (from macsales.com) external case.
 
If you need a bus-powered drive to take with you where there are no power outlets:

I do not own one of these personally, but I know a few people that do and they have all been pleased. They are a little expensive, but smart drive's firelite series is great. They come in both USB 2.0 and firewire variants and are bus-powered.

SmartDisk Firelite: http://www.smartdisk.com/eWeb/smartdiskus/www/staticpages/fireliteporthdd.asp

If you are fine with having a power adapter to plug in:

Without a doubt, go with a Vantec Nexstar 3 enclosure and a samsung SATA2 hard drive. I put my money where my mouth is by the way, this is what I use.

The Vantec NexStar 3 enclosure has a USB 2.0 interface AND eSATA. eSATA is especially nice because in the next 2-3 years it will likely replace USB 2.0 for external storage. The NexStar 3 can take any SATA/SATA2 drive up to 400GB (a 1TB capable revision will be released in a few months). Installing a drive couldn't be easier with this enclosure. 2 screws remove the backplate on the enclosure to slide out the drive. With 4 included screws, you install a 3.5" serial ata drive onto the drive tray and connect the one-piece power/data cable assembly to the drive, and slide the drive tray into the enclosure, and put the 2 screws back. Easy eh :)

NexStar 3 Enclosure @ ZipZoomFly: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=370891

Now, onto the drive to put inside. The beauty of an enclosure is that you can put in any drive you want. Although my choice in drives for desktops is seagate, samsungs are MUCH quieter (dare I say...silent) and PERFECT for an enclosure (I love my samsung drive in my enclosure, it is great). They are also very reliable drives and quite fast. I strongly recommend either a 250GB or 300GB samsung SATA2 drive.

Samsung 250GB SATA2 drive @ ZipZoomFly: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101018
 
MikeNemat had some good advice but I have another view. I like western digital hard drives and Ive never had any problems. I have both a plug in powered, as well as a bus powered drive. The plug in powered drive I have is the 320 Gig here is a link to the one that I have on newegg. It is firewire as well as USB. I also have the 120 Gig Western Digital passport drive here is the link on newegg to that drive.
 
thanks guys for your replys....

i don't think i am intelligent enough for hard drive+ enclosure (reuly a lot of work!)

and the reason i didn't choose lacie in the first place was because i thought it was expensive.

am i being really naive in thinking i can get a 100gb+ for the cheap? i think about 100 bucks us or 60 quid is my limit being skint and all.

and i also want to ask people in the know, when leapord comes out (yes i knwo i know so much since icant even spell it) it needs the very clever storage system that mac uses now right? no good ol fat 32, good with the pc and the mac? is there anything already using this system or am i going to have to do it myself?



(ps. please plase the power that be on macforum give me a spellcheck!)
 
here is a 250 gig western digital hard drive. It is on the weekend specials at newegg so im not sure how long the price will stay the same but it is $100 US.

also with the lepoard question I have no idea as to what file system it will work with. but I would assume it would be the same as it is now, whatever that is.
 
I have a 400GB Seagate Firewire external for my 1.8GHz iMac that has been great to use (though I've only had it 2 months or so). I'd highly recommend it. I think I paid less than $300 at SuperWarehouse.

On the other hand, I bought one of those 'Lego Block' looking LaCie hard drives (250GB for about $125). The price was right, but I've found that, oddly, it seems to take both my iMac, and my wife's PowerBook, several MINUTES for the drive to be recognized by the Finder after plugging the USB cable in or powering up the drive. Not sure if this is normal or not, but it's just a fact, and pretty irritating.
 
thanks guys! i've decided to buy the 160 lacie/ porche one. its just within my price range and would probably be able to tuck in the space under my icurve with space to spare for the keyboard! and it comes in at only 66 quid including tax!

i am going to get the usb version because according to the specs getting the firewire will only freeup my precious 2 usb ports and not be any faster!

i tink what i am going to do is reformat this into hfs+ and use it as my main drive then reformate the freecom and use it as the back up.

thanks again!
 
Im going to be buying a Western Digital 250gig MyBook to go with my Macbook. Looks like a pretty good deal seeing as its $169.95 canadian.
 
I agree with MikeNemat on the NexStar 3 enclosures. I own 2 of them myself. And pay a little more and put a Seagate in there. I made the mistake of buying a Samsung 400 GB because it was a lot cheaper than the Seagate... bad idea, it's very noisy vertically. Horizontally, it's fine, though.

fatties, you should definately try to put it together yourself. It's super simple, and there's nothing to break. Definately a lot cheaper than going with a pre-assembled model. If you're unsure, go and take apart your 80 GB external, then put it back together. It's simple, you just got to get over the fear.
 
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