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What external drive to get?

X1Lightning

X1Lightning

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 19, 2007
413
0
I have a mini, and i need to get some more storage space, i have a few external hd's but they are full so i want to get a really big one, 750gb - 1tb
so my question is, will i be better off getting one with firewire 400? or should i just stick to usb2?
 
I have two external drives that I use a lot. A Seagate Freeagent, and a WD Mybook. Out of the two I'd reccomend the Mybook... They are very nice looking hard drives and give you the option of FW or USB (Depending on the model) and whatever you buy, get it off of newegg, its so much cheaper than at a store
 
Tallest Skil said:
If you're going to get a drive for FireWire, make sure that it does also have USB. If it only has FireWire 400, you won't be able to use it after this revision of Mac Mini.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately that is probably true. Also the usb is great to have lets says your friend or wife wants to back up their data onto the drive and their machines doesn't have firewire, they can still do so.

Personally I like to buy the hard drive separately and then put them into an external enclosure, I have had the lowest failure rates doing that instead of buying pre-made external hard drives and I find its generally cheaper.

-iGrant
 
iGrant said:
Personally I like to buy the hard drive separately and then put them into an external enclosure, I have had the lowest failure rates doing that instead of buying pre-made external hard drives and I find its generally cheaper.

-iGrant
Click to expand...

I did that once, and it did not work, not sure if it was the drive or the enclosure. windows would not even recognize there was a drive attached. OSx saw the drive, and it would spin up, but would not work. now i have a useless drive....
so i guess i'm leary of that happening again....
 
X1Lightning said:
I did that once, and it did not work, not sure if it was the drive or the enclosure. windows would not even recognize there was a drive attached. OSx saw the drive, and it would spin up, but would not work.
so i guess i'm leary of that.
Click to expand...

Who made the enclosure you tried to use?

-iGrant
 
X1Lightning said:
it was a Vantec 2.5 enclosure, its very nice looking. and the drive was hitachi.
I took the drive out of the enclosure and put it back in a few times, checked the pins. nothing helped.

this is the enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392013
Click to expand...

Yeah I had a Vantec once, and I returned it, mine was "iffy" at best. I really like the Macally drives. I am about to buy this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817347021

And do a raid on to drives so if one fails I won't lose anything.

When it comes to hard drives in general in personally preference, but regardless of what you buy, back up everything period. I don't care if the hard drive has wonderful review, etc. If its mechanical, then it can still fail.

-iGrant
 
i was just thinking, if the drive wasn't formatted, would OS X show it in finder?
 
X1Lightning said:
i was just thinking, if the drive wasn't formatted, would OS X show it in finder?
Click to expand...

What do you mean, like brand new hard drive? Most drives come formated with something, however it is possible that a hard drive has been formated in a format that Mac OS X can't recognize, I have had that happen to me before.

-iGrant
 
iGrant said:
What do you mean, like brand new hard drive? Most drives come formated with something, however it is possible that a hard drive has been formated in a format that Mac OS X can't recognize, I have had that happen to me before.

-iGrant
Click to expand...

well if it wasnt formated, or if it was in something osx did not recognise, would it show in finder?

if not how would you format it?
 
X1Lightning said:
well if it wasnt formated, or if it was in something osx did not recognise, would it show in finder?

if not how would you format it?
Click to expand...

If it wasn't formated, it would not show up in Finder, what you have to do is go to Applications -> Utilites -> Disk Utillies.

You should see it on the right hand side on the screen. Be careful with this program though, you can erase and format your Macs main hard drive with it.

Let me know if you need help.

-iGrant
 
iGrant said:
If it wasn't formated, it would not show up in Finder, what you have to do is go to Applications -> Utilites -> Disk Utillies.

You should see it on the right hand side on the screen. Be careful with this program though, you can erase and format your Macs main hard drive with it.

Let me know if you need help.

-iGrant
Click to expand...

ok i plugged it in and went to disk utility and i only see the system disk, not the external.
do i need to do something to get it to see the external ?
 
ok i feel pretty stupid now, i pulled out a different cable, and now the disk utility sees the disk, and it is now in the process of formating it.

thanks for the help
 
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