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Your iMac's Time Machine Hard Drive

After returning the WD MY BOOK 1 TB drive to Staples(it was a piece of garbage and failed within 2 hours of turning it on with RAID 0 Configured), I found out that there HFS Version of MY Book available at Best Buy. Its in a red box preformatted for the MAC - i have the 1 TB version with RAID0 configured and it works like a charm.

Its USB 2.0 firewire 400/800 and eSata compatible I have it plugged into my MBPro firewire port and am running Parallels on it and using it for Timemachine backups.

Works like a charm.. JMHO
 
fivepoint said:
This is assuming that the 500GB is full though, right? For example... I have a 750 internal, and just ordered my 750 external. Since my internal is only about 1/2 full though... the 750 external should be MORE than enough for now, right?
Click to expand...


Yes it should be more than enough.

My example was of course using a 'worse case' example of both drives being full.

You should be fine.
 
bananaquit said:
I'm looking at a 500GB OWC Mercury Elite. They specify the "standard mechanism"
as a WD Caviar SE16. I guess "standard" doesn't guarantee anything.
Click to expand...

The regular Mercury Elite (as opposed to the quad Elite Pro) is IDE-based
(clue: Oxford 912 chipset). That's an obsolete technolgy, and it's already
seriously behind SATA in price/availibility of future upgrades/replacements
A quick check on newegg for drives in the 500GB & up size range shows
only 7 IDE drives vs. 37 SATA choices -- and every 1TB offering is SATA.

OWC is to be congratulated for supplying far more complete specs than
other "ready made" external drive vendors. The only 500GB IDE model
in the Caviar SE16 product line appears to be WD5000AAKB. Although
WD doesn't specify a sustained read/write speed (in MB/s), it's clearly
in the 80 MB/s ballpark -- the same as its SATA sibling WD5000AAKS.

I have also been considering a Seagate 7200.11 + enclosure, but suspect
I am over-analyzing this purchase.
Click to expand...

With a SATA-based enclosure, you have the freedom to choose a Seagate
7200.11 or a Caviar 16SE -- or any of dozens of other SATA drives. OWC
makes good SATA-based products (in both ready-made and DIY versions).
I happen to prefer Icy Dock (mainly because of their quick-swap slide-in
drive trays) but both use the same Oxford OXUF924DSb chipset, so there
should be little/no difference in firewire performance.

LK
 
Western Digital my Book 1TB. Have had no problems with it but it sounds like a 747 ready for take off sometimes because of the fan.
 
Leon Kowalski said:
There are lots of good external enclosures out there, but my favorite is
Icy Dock's USB/FW800 model MB559UEB-1S.

LK
Click to expand...

Have you used one of these? I see it has no internal fan to keep cool. Just wondering on the performance of these, don't want to risk my disk!

Leon Kowalski said:
With a SATA-based enclosure, you have the freedom to choose a Seagate
7200.11 or a Caviar 16SE -- or any of dozens of other SATA drives. OWC
makes good SATA-based products (in both ready-made and DIY versions).
I happen to prefer Icy Dock (mainly because of their quick-swap slide-in
drive trays) but both use the same Oxford OXUF924DSb chipset, so there
should be little/no difference in firewire performance.

LK
Click to expand...

The earlier recommended Macpower enclosure uses the Oxford 912 chipset but says its a SATA capable enclosure. http://www.macpower.com.tw/products/hdd3/pleiades/pd_800plus
Can you explain for us not so technical people
 
Noisy drive..

I have the drive listed in my signature, and man is it loud when backing up. Also, my initial Time Machine backup, mind you my iMac was a couple of hours old at the time, took a long time to backup 20-something odd gig. I have it connected to the FW800 port in the back, just don't know why it took over 15-20 minutes. I'm thinking of returning it (Monday is my 14-day limit) and possibly exchanging it for a g-tech as others have listed or the iomega that the OP bought. 750gb would be better at only $30+ more compared to my 500gb at $219.

How is the iomega on transfer speeds and noise factor?
 
covertsurfer said:
Have you used one of these? I see it has no internal fan to keep cool.
Just wondering on the performance of these, don't want to risk my disk!
Click to expand...
Yep, I have two -- one each of the FW400 and FW800 models.
I love the fanless design, it's dead quiet. With the aluminum
enclosure and a good 'natural circulation' airflow design, the
drives (both 500GB Seagate ST3500320AS) barely get warm.

There have been several detailed online reviews of Icy Dock
MB559-family enclosures, and they consistently get very high
marks. Google it. Also read the customer reviews on Newegg.

The earlier recommended Macpower enclosure uses the
Oxford 912 chipset but says its a SATA capable enclosure.

http://www.macpower.com.tw/products/hdd3/pleiades/pd_800plus

Can you explain for us not so technical people
Click to expand...

The Oxford 912 chipset is an IDE-to-Firewire "bridge", so the
Pleiades 800+ works with IDE/PATA drives -- and according
to the spec sheet, only IDE/PATA drives:

"Application: Single 3.5" IDE hard drive (ATA-6 compatible) interface."

I see no indication that the Pleiades 800+ is "SATA capable",
(although there are enclosures on the market that will accept
either IDE or SATA drives). There are also IDE-based enclosures
that provide an eSATA external interface -- but Pleiades 800+
has only USB and firewire external interfaces.

LK
 
Hi,

I plan to (at some point) get an iMac with a 500Gb hard drive, but for time machine I will only have a 320Gb drive. How badly will this affect me?
I've never had a backup drive of any form before, and it seems wasteful to buy a massive 1TB drive and not really "use" it for anything.
The drive will also only be an IDE one in a caddie running from firewire 400, but I assume speed is no real issue as its just for backing up, right?
 
I've got a LaCie d2 160 gb. It has two partitions, both have other stuff in them. Time Machine backs up to the larger partition. It seems to work fine.

I'm planning on getting a 500gb Time Capsule at some point.
 
I am Sampson said:
Hi,

I plan to (at some point) get an iMac with a 500Gb hard drive, but for time machine I will only have a 320Gb drive. How badly will this affect me?
I've never had a backup drive of any form before, and it seems wasteful to buy a massive 1TB drive and not really "use" it for anything.
The drive will also only be an IDE one in a caddie running from firewire 400, but I assume speed is no real issue as its just for backing up, right?
Click to expand...

It depends on how much you use your computer and how quickly you fill up your hard drive. At first, it will have no affect. That is what I have now. But, your backup drive using Time Machine will fill up faster than your internal drive for reasons described above. That first 100Gb will go REALLY quick! Remember that a back up drive is a bootable drive so EVERYTHING, including your operating system is on there.

At some point in time (sooner or later) your back up drive will fill up and then you have to manage your data by deciding what isn't so important. Or, buy a larger drive at that time and use your current backup drive as another place to store your most important files. At that point, it would be a good idea to consider storing that drive somewhere other than home (or wherever your computer is). That way if you have a fire, etc... your important things will survive.
 
I have looked again at Macpower and have found this enclosure which uses the same Chipset as the Icy Dock. Personally I think I prefer this one in terms of design but I now have a problem finding one for sale in the UK.

I have seen reviews for the Seagate's that say they are quite noisy and the although the warranty of 5 years is good they replace drives with refurbished ones. I saw a review for the Samsung at tomshardware.com and at other sites and they report that they are very quiet and will replace a drive with a brand new one. Normally I would buy a Seagate without hesitating for an internal disk but as this is my first external disk, have other people had any cause for concern with the noise of Seagate and warranty issues?
 
covertsurfer said:
Personally I think I prefer this one in terms of design but
I now have a problem finding one for sale in the UK.
Click to expand...

I've never seen that product in the USA, either. Judging by the
numerous google hits with URLs ending in 'nz' or 'au', I suspect
it might be available only on the inverted part of the planet, (or
possibly marketed elsewhere under a different name).

The package looks amazingly similar to this Rosewill product,
(but I don't know whether Rosewill is available in the UK):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182123

I've seen other drives of similar (but not identical) design from
OWC and other vendors.

http://eshop.macsales.com/search/Mercury+Elite+Pro

If you google the Oxford 924 and 934 chipsets, you'll probably
find similar enclosures available in the UK. Here's a link with
the full Oxford 924/934-series part numbers:

http://www.oxsemi.com/products/storage/index.html


I have seen reviews for the Seagate's that say they are quite
noisy and the although the warranty of 5 years is good they
replace drives with refurbished ones. ...
Click to expand...

Yep, the customer comments on newegg.com are very mixed
WRT Seagate noise levels (and reliability). OTOH, Seagate's
7200.11 & ES.2 product lines are the fastest drives around,
so I decided to risk it. No regrets (so far), my two 500GB
7200.11's are extremely quite.

The "refurb replacement" issue never bothered me -- I've
been using Seagate drives (almost exclusively) for at least
20 years with very few failures. In my experience, Seagate's
tech support and warranty claims handling have been vastly
superior to WD's. I have no experience with Samsung hard
drives -- but the Samsung label is usually a guarantee of
exceptionally high quality.

...happy hunting,

LK
 
It all depends on usage.

I have a 500gig hd in the 2.8 imac. I have a 500gig MyBook for backup.

I'm only using 80-90gigs of space on the imac - therefore the 500gig backup drive is fine. I also have a 2TB mybook setup with raid1(mirroring) for DVD backups and mp3/aac/whatever else thats huge and fits on the 931gb of formatted wonderness. If a drive fails, im still safe unless something catostrophic happens, but it wasnt cheap.

For those on a low budget, just look at your usage, pad it a bit for growth over the year, and i would say get a drive that's double to triple the space you estimate. (Also depending on how long you want a backup to stay around.)

And just in case - i swear by newegg.com - great prices, great service, and great shipping. (no i dont work there:))
 
Anyone know the difference between the Seagate ST3500320NS and the recommended ST3500320AS by Leon?

Thanks
 
Which one is better? What's the difference?

UPDATE: The ES.2 is for "Servers" and the 7200.11 for "desktops/home" usage
 
covertsurfer said:
Which one is better? What's the difference?

UPDATE: The ES.2 is for "Servers" and the 7200.11 for "desktops/home" usage
Click to expand...

The performance specs are identical -- except for bit error rate (BER) and
annual failure rate (AFR). The ES.2 line is intended for high-reliability 24/7
operation in NAS/RAID/server apps. Strangely enough, the 7200.11 specs
a better AFR, but that's probably based on different test conditions.

I didn't see enough difference to justify the ES.2 products' higher prices.

LK
 
Leon, did the HD come equipped with a tiny jumper that limits data transfer to 1.5Gbits/s like some of the reviews on newegg said and if so, how exactly did you remove it?

Also, I noticed on the mail-in rebate for Icy Dock ($20 off MB559UEB-1S) that "Manufacturer's warranty does not apply to ICY DOCK MIR item." So submitting a rebate claim voids the warranty? :confused:
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
Leon, did the HD come equipped with a tiny jumper that limits data transfer to 1.5Gbits/s like some of the reviews on newegg said and if so, how exactly did you remove it?
Click to expand...
Yep, it came with the jumper installed; see the product manual
on seagate.com for location. Remove with needle-nose pliers (or
long finger nails).

Also, I noticed on the mail-in rebate for Icy Dock ($20 off MB559UEB-1S)
that "Manufacturer's warranty does not apply to ICY DOCK MIR item."
So submitting a rebate claim voids the warranty?
Click to expand...

Hmm, I didn't notice that. It's very strange (and probably
not legal under the US Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act). But
it really makes no difference (to me) because Newegg will
replace a defective unit for a new one for 1 year.

BTW, similar Icy Dock rebates have been in effect for at least
5-6 months. A new one always seems to appear within a day
or three after the previous one expires. Rebate checks arrive
amazingly quickly (2 weeks, rather than the usual 3 months).

LK
 
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