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which hard drive to go with macbook?

Which harddrive for macbook?

  • 160 GB internal

    Votes: 25 65.8%

  • 300/500 external

    Votes: 13 34.2%
  • Total voters
    38
twoodcc

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Original poster
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
26
Right side of wrong
i will be getting a macbook for college. i'm trying to decide between buying a 160 GB internal harddrive and using the either 60 or 80 for external (gotta decide between white or black) or should i keep the internal that it comes with and buy a big external (300 or 500 GB)?
 
Largest possible for the internal.
It's a hell of a lot easier to get an external later than it is to get a larger internal and put it in.

Plus, the more elbow room you have for Parallels/BootCamp (should you want to use either/both), the happier you will be.

Oh wiat.. I see.. you're replacing your internal.

Well I'd STILL go for the largest internal because of BC/P.
 
yellow said:
Largest possible for the internal.
It's a hell of a lot easier to get an external later than it is to get a larger internal and put it in.

Plus, the more elbow room you have for Parallels/BootCamp (should you want to use either/both), the happier you will be.

Oh wiat.. I see.. you're replacing your internal.

Well I'd STILL go for the largest internal because of BC/P.
Click to expand...

but i can put bootcamp on the external, just have to install Tiger on the external also. but i can't carry it with me though :eek:
 
yellow said:
I didn't think Windows supported booting off an external?
Click to expand...

i'm pretty sure. i haven't done it yet, but i know i can install Tiger on an external, and for bootcamp it says it must be installed on your "startup disk". i don't see why it wouldn't work with an external startup disk.

i think it's not windows that didn't support booting off an external, but you PC has to support it in the BIOS
 
I'd get the bigger internal, but that's because I like to be able to take everything with me. An external is great for backups, but to me, that's all.
 
twoodcc said:
i'm pretty sure. i haven't done it yet, but i know i can install Tiger on an external, and for bootcamp it says it must be installed on your "startup disk". i don't see why it wouldn't work with an external startup disk.

i think it's not windows that didn't support booting off an external, but you PC has to support it in the BIOS
Click to expand...


I'm pretty sure you can't on a Mac.

You CAN install (and boot from) OS X from an external, but OS X is not Windows, so you cannot compare the 2.

And BootCamp DOES say that Windows needs to be installed on your startup disk, but I'm almost positive that refers to the internal startup disk ONLY. Actually.. the documents say that it has to be the internal startup disk.

Windows XP requires its own partition on your computer's internal startup disk. Boot Camp Assistant creates a second partition on your startup disk ...
Click to expand...

And finally, Macs don't have BIOS, they have EFI. What I meant earlier is that I don't think booting Windows from an external drive is supported on a Mac.. yet.

EDIT: apparently some people have been able to boot Windows off an external USB drive with minor issues.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/191777/

I'd still go for the largest internal.
 
yellow said:
I'm pretty sure you can't on a Mac.

You CAN install (and boot from) OS X from an external, but OS X is not Windows, so you cannot compare the 2.

And BootCamp DOES say that Windows needs to be installed on your startup disk, but I'm almost positive that refers to the internal startup disk ONLY. Actually.. the documents say that it has to be the internal startup disk.



And finally, Macs don't have BIOS, they have EFI. What I meant earlier is that I don't think booting Windows from an external drive is supported on a Mac.. yet.

EDIT: apparently some people have been able to boot Windows off an external USB drive with minor issues.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/191777/

I'd still go for the largest internal.
Click to expand...

maybe you are right, but i might just try it on my intel imac just to see
 
thanks for the replies.

yeah, it's looking like everyone thinks i should go internal. but it costs so much more!

internal = $1.25 per GB (160 GB)
external = $0.50 per GB (500 GB)
 
twoodcc said:
thanks for the replies.

yeah, it's looking like everyone thinks i should go internal. but it costs so much more!

internal = $1.25 per GB (160 GB)
external = $0.50 per GB (500 GB)
Click to expand...

Yeah, 2.5 vs. 3.5 drive size accounts for that.

Anyway, I just put a 100 GB drive in my PB, and it's really nice to have. (Though, to be fair, I've got 300 GB on external drives).
 
telecomm said:
Yeah, 2.5 vs. 3.5 drive size accounts for that.

Anyway, I just put a 100 GB drive in my PB, and it's really nice to have. (Though, to be fair, I've got 300 GB on external drives).
Click to expand...

yeah i have several external drives already, but i am using them on other computers.

btw, did you vote?
 
I would go with an internal drive. So you don't always have to tote your firewire drive(s). 160gig is perfect for dual booting. I would allocate 60 for Windows if it was my setup. I plan to get Lacie 1/2 Tb external drive for storing recording projects.
 
twoodcc said:
yeah i have several external drives already, but i am using them on other computers.

btw, did you vote?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did vote. :)

Anyway, is your plan then to put that drive that ships with the Macbook in an external enclosure? That's what I did with my PB about a week ago. It's working well, and it's really handy to be able to maintain a bootable backup on the external.
 
telecomm said:
Yeah, I did vote. :)

Anyway, is your plan then to put that drive that ships with the Macbook in an external enclosure? That's what I did with my PB about a week ago. It's working well, and it's really handy to be able to maintain a bootable backup on the external.
Click to expand...

yeah i will if i get an internal. how did you make a bootable backup?

oh yeah, thanks for voting! :)
 
twoodcc said:
yeah i will if i get an internal. how did you make a bootable backup?

oh yeah, thanks for voting! :)
Click to expand...
this program should be able to make bootable backups. And I voted for an internal hard drive because I've had an external hard drive break on me before and an internal is so much more convenient.
 
iBookG4user said:
this program should be able to make bootable backups. And I voted for an internal hard drive because I've had an external hard drive break on me before and an internal is so much more convenient.
Click to expand...

thanks for the link and thanks for voting :)
 
Dude, your gettin' an internal

160 is a lot of space. Externals can get anoying. Plus say you go on a road trip or on a plane? you going to lug around external drives with you?
 
KingYaba said:
160 is a lot of space. Externals can get anoying. Plus say you go on a road trip or on a plane? you going to lug around external drives with you?
Click to expand...

you do have a point :)


if i do get the 160 internal, where should i get it from? any links?
 
twoodcc said:
if i do get the 160 internal, where should i get it from? any links?
Click to expand...
zipzoomfly if they ever get it in stock again...
mwave used to have it, but seem to have gotten rid of it?
OWC has it but it's expensive
newegg used to have it...can't find it anymore
and then there's always eBay i'm sure
 
xfiftyfour said:
zipzoomfly if they ever get it in stock again...
mwave used to have it, but seem to have gotten rid of it?
OWC has it but it's expensive
newegg used to have it...can't find it anymore
and then there's always eBay i'm sure
Click to expand...

thanks for looking. out of all of those, only OWC has it that i can find.
 
I voted for the internal. The externals are always a pain to transport and the internal would be better.
 
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