Advice needed RE: External hard drives?

Hey Everyone,
I'm relatively new to the world of Macs and Final Cut, i've been editng on an iMac for about a year now and have never invested in any external media storage.
I've just got quite e big job that will require me to capture a lot more media than I have ever done before, so think I need to invest in an external hard drive.
I was speaking to a lad I know and he was saying when I do get one I should connect it via a usb 2.0 connection, yet i've read in a book I have that I should connect via the firewire connection. I'm a bit confused so thought i'd put it to you guys, what do you think is best?
Also any recommendations on a decent/reliable hard drive (preferably the cheaper the better as i'm fairly skint).
Any advice would be greatly appreciated,
Scott

Purchase a 7200rpm Firewire drive. It's OK if it also has USB connections, you just won't be using that method. Once the drive is connected to your Mac with a Firewire cable, start up your Mac. Go to Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility. When Disk Utility has opened, locate the drive on the left side and highlight it. Select the Erase tab and then select Mac OS Extended as the formatting for the drive. You do not need to have Journaling turned on. Give the drive a name if you wish. Once the drive has been formatted it will be ready for use with your Mac.
Open FCE and in preferences, set the new drive as the Capture/Scratch volume for FCE. See the FCE help files for details.
-DH

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Do i need a external hard drive for my pictures

Do I need an external hard drive for my pictures?

Generally, you should have an external hard drive to backup your system. If your internal hard drive is filling up, you certainly can move pictures to an external hard drive.

Need an external hard drive, advice?

Hi,
For awhile now I've been wanting an external hard drive but no nothing about them. I have a 160 GB 17" iMac 2GHz and I'm always running out of space. Right now I have 20GB free.
Anywho the big question is USB or Firewire? Now, I can get USB ones pretty cheap at a local store here and Future Shop has this 500GB USB one on sale right now.
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10089693&catid=2 3795&logon=&langid=EN
or I could go much bigger and order this 1 TB one online too:
http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10299356&search=externa%20hard%2 0drives&Mo=4&cmre=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-CA&Nr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&Sp=S&N=0&wh se=BCCA&Dx=modematchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=PCatalogName:BCCA&Ne=4000000&D=externa%20hard%20drives&Ntt=externa%20hard%20drive s&No=0&Ntx=modematchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1
I"ve been told that Firewire is great for things like using iMovie or if you use your video camera for videos etc.
Down the road I want a video camera and may use iMovie more in the future. So how important is Firewire and how big should I go? I'm thinking bigger is better and know I need at least 500GB as I want to back up my whole system and have room for movies, TV shows etc. Also want something that isn't too loud.
Here are two other Canadian stores I've looked at briefly to see what they have,
http://www.tigerdirect.ca and http://www.canadacomputers.com
Any advice would be appreciated,
S.

There are dozens of posts that say basically this:
Bought a MyBook. (USB or FW) - it won't work anymore, period.
After you see 8 or 10 of those you take the MyBook off the list. If all it is, is a backup to a reliable drive then the risk is you lose the drive and need to buy a better one and redo the backups. I would not use a drive with a known failure problem as a backup ever. Certainly not the only media drive on my system.
The LaCie D2 cases do not use fans and I have 4TB of them working for years so that is not the reason the MyBooks fail - they fail because they are not well made. The LaCie cases are about 6 pounds of cast aluminum so they act as huge heat sinks. Even then I use a small desktop fan to blow air over them so they stay cooler.
I suspect the WD bridges are poor and the interface between the drive and the USB/FW port becomes unusable. This is why I don't buy the $10 Tiger Direct cases and put good quality drives in them . Rotten bridges.
One reason to buy them is if the sale price becomes cheaper than the raw drive price then you can open the case and get a new drive for less than buying one but then you wind up with a lot of trash.
Get a LaCie, OWC or G-Tech.
Message was edited by: Cannibals

Files Disappeared on Wall Street , Need Advice, And on External Hard Drives

My memory was low so I was in the process of archiving files when some of the folders in my Desktop documents folder disappeared. I had begun transferring files into Toast when it happened. The computer had previously been in sleep mode during the night.
When I searched for the contents using Find File. it listed them in the same place or as unavailable. I restarted, turned off extensions I didn't need, transferred some of the files still showing on my HD onto my USB JumpDrive for temp storage and rebuilt the desktop. When I ran Norton Disk Doctor, it found problems with the Catalog B-tree, which makes sense since it's the "data structure where files are stored on your disk." Norton was able to fix some of the issues, but not all, and was not able to finish scanning the disk. I ran it again, with the same results and also checked out UnErase.
When I rebooted without the Norton Disk, some of the missing files reappeared, with the exception of the folder I was trying to copy at the time. My tech repair guy says that due to corruption, I should wipe my HD to zero and reinstall everything, with additional GB hard drive space, of course. What do you guys think? Is this the best course of action? And if so, how pressing is it to do so immediately, since my computer had been running for quite some time without trouble on less than optimum memory space. Any tips on external hard drives that are compatible with the Wall Street?
I currently have 247 MB available. Luckily, I had previously made a backup of everything except my Outlook Express identity folder, for my e-mail, which is too large to back up to CD. So I'm hoping this will not crash in the interim!
Your replies are much appreciated!

Hi Leslie,
It would be helpful to know a bit more about the computer, such as the size of the drive you have and the OS you are running. I believe general guidelines are to not fill your drive to more than 90% capacity.
Norton Utilities receives some bad rap on this forum, but sometimes it's all you have (Diskwarrior and TechTool are usually recommended). With NU you particularly have to be careful to use versions that are at least the same generation as the OS you are using. I usually go with Disk First Aid as a first shot since it's made by the people who made the computer.
Assuming you're okay with the situation about the recovered files then I'd say starting with a clean drive would be good. Keep in mind though that the files will be gone for good. I don't know if you need to really zero the drive, just reinitialize ("erase") it. I'd also run some utility to check the integrity of the drive to see whether the problem was due to the drive starting to fail. You might be able to continue to work with it as-is but it would be nice to know why your drive got corrupted in the first place. At least clear up some room. You might also want to check on the fragmentation status and at least do a clean OS install just in case some of those files are on their way out too.
I don't know the Wall Street model myself, but I see it is a G3 powerbook. If it has USB or Firewire capability then I'd get an external Firewire drive (USB would be very slow but would still work). My backup procedure is to have an external HD the same size as my internal one. Then I can just drag the internal to the external once a week and let it copy overnight. That way I don't have to be bothered with copying select files and if the OS files get messed up I don't have to re-customize my preferences, control panels and extensions (I'm still an OS 9 man!)
Brian

Desperate need of External Hard drive help.

Bottom line, I need one that will work. I have been through a mess of external HD problems & I have looked at hundreds of drives on many sites & I just don't know which one I can trust. I have tried a few already, but they just didn't like working on a Mac (even though they are Mac recommended). If anyone can offer any kind of help, it would be greatly, greatly, greatly appreciated. Of course, we won't know how appreciative I am until it arrives & it actually works.
Here is what I am looking for. About 120GB capacity. Nothing over $110, but I am a little flexible. It will just be sitting on my desk, so it doesn't need to be ultra portable. I do not want to buy a regular hard drive & stick it in a case, it's what I have now & it has caused me so many problems. I have FireWave surround sound, so it would be nice if it was firewire (plugs into the back of the FireWave, which is tucked away, while the drive sits on the desk). Would prefer it not to be bus-powered, less cables coming out of my laptop, the better.
I have been through a lot with these products & it just seems like there isn't a great external hard drive that was meant for the MacBook Pro. Please, help me if you can. I need one very soon, the external I have now (the one in a case) is all screwed up & I can only access files when doing a data recovery, but I need another external to transfer the files onto, (I have very little space left on my internal). Thank you very much.

If your looking for something that looks great, works great, and is highly recommended, then I would suggest you look at a drive by G-Technologies. I have been using their drives for years and I have yet to have any issues at all. They do use a variety of drives in the cases, but their boards are what are great. They always receive at least 4 mice, if not 5 from MacWorld as well.
You might be a little hard pressed to get a drive right in your price range, but a smaller drive, such as the one your looking for, are a little harder to find unless they are 2.5" drives. Everything these days is getting bigger.
http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVE.cfm
Oh, I should also note that their drives come with a 2 year warranty as well.

Buying advice - use as external hard drive

I have a 250GB MacBook Pro, and - perhaps because it's a laptop with no fixed location - I just don't get round to backing up as much as I should. Also, the hard drive is not that far off full already. I'm wondering whether Time Capsule might be the way to solve both issues. I have a few questions:
- am I right in thinking that Time Capsule, as well as backing up wirelessly, can act as a normal external hard drive (i.e. visible in Finder when connected wirelessly)? If so, I could - for example - save large iMovie projects to it? Or would working off Time Capsule be prohibitively slow? And I guess I'd then have the same issue of backup, although I suppose i could attach another hard drive to the time capsule!
- I already have a wireless router through my ISP, and I only have one computer in the house, so I'm not sure i'm going to benefit from the networking aspects of Time Capsule. Are there any other advantages to having Time Capsule that I'm missing? For example, could i connect a fairly bog standard printer to it and then print wirelessly?
- I've looked into it a bit online, and the summary seems to be 'nice idea but doesn't really work that well at the moment'. Am i best off waiting to see if the technology improves?
Cheers
Jon

If you are using the time capsule only for a print server and as network storage, it's a good tool - too expensive a solution, but a good solution.
However, don't expect to use it for automatic backups at all. It's perhaps the most flawed piece of hardware ever produced by Apple, at least as regards its intended use.
I've had one for six months. I use it for network storage and it's great. They don't tell you, but you can't mix network storage with automatic backup. The disk is supposed to be one or the other, but not both. If you want to partition it, forget that, unless you want to crack it open, which is a ridiculous solution given what the thing costs.
I really wanted it for time machine backups - it is an unmitigated failure, and after trying extensively to get it to work over the six months I've had it, I have yet to get one successful time machine backup to the time capsule. I keep expecting Apple to call and apologize and refund my money, but I haven't heard from them yet.
My advice - use a directly connected external drive (firewire 800). Partition it and do time machine backups and external storage. Buy a network print server for about $60 bucks. You can do all that for less than $200, and not waste the money on this entirely failed appliance.

Advice sought on external hard drives

Could somebody please suggest a good quality external hard drive to use with a Mac PowerBook G4, which would be compatible with OSX 10.3.9 and 10.5 (which I will be installing shortly)?
Thanks!

Welcome to the Apple discussions.
For something different, I've built my own drives. I buy a case then add a 3.5" hard drive, the benefit is that it is warranteed by the manufacturer for longer than the pre-built drives. The longest warranty is Seagate at 5 years, and I like to use Western Digital, whose drives come with a 3 year warranty (some of theirs come with 1 year, too).
You want a drive that can connect via firewire, if you want it to be bootable on a Powerbook. Also, some USB-only drives have issues getting enough power from the USB port, so if you get a USB-only drive, consider if it has an external power supply or power cord to the drive.
The last drive I built used this case: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW912UAL1K/ . It has an Oxford chipset, which works well with our macs. I added a Western Digital 500GB drive to it. The install is very easy.... open the case, put the drive in it, connect the short included cable to the drive, tighten 4 screws to secure the drive to the case, and close the case up. Done!

Need help: External Hard Drive doesn't show up

i havent use my external hard drive in 3 months. Before when i connect the usb, the hard drive shows up in the finder and i can transfer files and ext, but now it doesnt show up in the finder at all. I've check the disk utility and the EHDrive appears there, i've tried to click the verify and repair but it doesnt mount in the finder. I've also tried opening the HDrive in my player and it does open..
so please help me with regard to this ..

How is the drive connected to the computer? USB, Firewire......
Do you have another computer to see if the hard drive will mount there?
Restart the computer holding down the command - option/alt - P - R keys before the gray screen appears. Continue to hold until you hear the startup chime for the second time.
Reset NVRAM/PRAM
Disconnect the drive from the computer, shut it down for about 1 minute, connect it to the computer and turn it back on. While, doing that, restart the computer.
Try using another cable to connect the drive to the computer.

Need advice on what external hard drive to purchase-

hello everyone-
i couldn't find a similar topic so i thought i'd post this.
i'm looking to buy a hard drive to support my laptop but as usual trying to buy something can be quite a fuss with all the choices and reviews.
anyway, i'm assuming that Lacie is a good option for the Mac.
can anyone recommend any other brand? i've read both amazing and nightmarish things about the brand.
also, how good is Firewire 800? i thought it would be good to get something that hosted this option since my laptop can support that speed.
any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you don't need the portability of having the data remotely with you, I'd suggest you get an external firewire drive (you'll want FW if you want to boot from an external drive). Further, I'd recommend you assemble your own. Here are some considerations using a 320gb drive as an example:
A Western Digital 320 gb external enclosure (USB/FW) goes for around $200. However, all have one year warranties.
Assemble your own, requires the hard drive and case: A 320 gb Western Digital, with a 3 year warranty, 7200 rpm ultra ATA interface, cost for the drive around $106. I prefer Western Digital drives over Seagate drives, as I've found them to run cooler.
Add a Rosewill RX30 external case (includes power supply and USB/FW 400) $60. This brushed aluminum case looks like it was made to sit right next to our PB's (I've got one). You can see it at their web site at http://www.rosewill.com/product/product.aspx?productId=80. So for $166, you can have a 320gb hard drive with a 3 to 5 year warranty, and a stunning case. If you want, the Rosewill case also comes with FW800 for another $35.
Assembling it is very easy - you can read the directions on Rosewill's site at http://www.rosewill.com/RosewillSoftware/RX30_eng.pdf , for example. You disassemble the case by taking out 4 screws on the bottom of the Rosewill case, plug the included plug into the hard drive, secure the hard drive with 4 screws to the case, and reassemble it.
I used a 320GB drive as an example....a 160gb drive is a little less expensive. Once you start gathering video and sound files, they gobble up space quickly. If you start out larger than you think you'll need, you'll have space for growth, and if you choose, multiple levels of system backup.
And I would recommend FW800, to get maximum transfer speed.

Do I need an External Hard drive to Back up with Time machine?

     I probably have all kinds of misconceptions about Resetting to an earlier time for the computer I have. It's a 2009 macbook, running OS 10.8.5. I got it last week, previous to this machine I have been running a powerbook G4. It does not have a backup with Time Machine either.
Let me tell you a funny story,
      Back in the year 2000 I got a powerbook G4, it was tops (in my Book) and my boss paid for it. David, my boss is the owner -operator of a manufacturing business turning out soft-weapons for martial artist's I call it the Chinese Stick Fighting Factory. <Sof-Stx.com> . While going to work one fine summer day on my Harley Super Glide,( I saw in my rear-view mirror that the back pack (packing the G4) had left the Vehicle with out authorization, and was bouncing down the road in the opposite direction. Anyway to make a long story short, I developed inoperable Colon Cancer in 2008, I had to retire for the second time in my life, this time collecting a fixed income. and when I was able to fit it in my budget (in 2012) I got a used G4 and last week I got the MacBook running Maverick.
     So… any input ?

Answer to your question....yes, buy an external HD. You do not need an expensive one and you do not need a huge one. I run two 500 GB externals - both attached (occasionally) to my MacBook Pro.
Barry

Need advice on purchasing an external hard drive for video editing

Hi,
I looking for advice on which external hard drive to get. The main purpose for the hard drive will be storing video files on for use with Final Cut Pro. I have the 12 inch powerbook G4 so I plan to use the FireWire (400) port to connect the drive. I'm interested in getting comment from others who use their external hard drives for video editing.
Thanks!

Firstly your decision to use FireWire is a good one, as not only will it free up the USB it performs much better on sustained transfers.
That said you're still limited by the FireWire interface, so opt for a drive with a big cache (16MB would be good) and fast spindle speed (7200rpm+).
Some of the newer enclosures are compatible with SATA drives. While these are easier to install and theoretically will perform better, I'm not sure that the performance would justify the extra cost.
Matt

Almost got it..now need external hard drive

Well it just goes to show that persistence pays off, at least so far.
I now have FCP6.0.6 installed on my 2012 15" Macbook Pro running Lion.
The laptop was given to me with Mavericks. Shane had the helpful response to get back to
Lion. I researched and found out that this computer originally came with Lion, so I used the recovery
disk to do a factory reset. I erased the hard drive and then did the factory reset over the internet.
Then to get FCP 6.0.6 on Lion. I did it, but I am not exactly sure what did the trick. I installed Rosetta
from Snow Leopard, but also did the command line recommended my Shane. Not sure which one worked,
but it loaded FCP without a hitch.
Now I am up and running.   Phewwwww
So now I need an external hard drive.   No heavy lifting for this go around (HDV) but I may want something
a bit faster in the future.
I thought that a Thunderbolt drive might work out as I will be logging video from the camera with firewire to the
external drive.
Wondering if there would be any problems with this drive.
Thanks again for all your suggestions
(16)
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Shane Ross wrote:
If Kirk reports any, I'm sure you can help walk him through uninstalling Rosetta. Now that he no longer needs it to run FCP 6...just install it.
WOW: Two statements - wrong twice!
Kirk specifically indicated he needed to install FCP6 on his new MacBook so that he could edit footage using FCP6 (while on his boat, if I remember correctly).
And no, I NEVER advise anyone to install Rosetta on a Lion, Mt. Lion and/or Mavericks Mac. And to the contrary, when I see such advice (which is stale-dated advice from 2011, but is infrequently repeated more recently) I attempt to warn the OP not to follow such advice.
Since you have been on one or more of those threads, you have read my posts warning not to install Rosetta, but you continue to ignore them and proceed to give such advice based upon your one client's experience.
And hoping for advice on how to remove Rosetta after he reports crashes, panic attacks, etc. is like closing the barn door after you lose the cow!
So, no, I will not be giving Kirk, or anyone else for that matter, advice on how to remove Rosetta; only advice to NOT install it in the first place.
Something about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure!
Good luck, Kirk!

Good Idea, Bad Idea: Daisy-chaining external hard drives

I'm about to buy a White Macbook (maxing out RAM) which has one Firewire 400 port.
I currently use a Firebox to record audio and I know that I will need an external hard drive. The consensus is that Firewire is far superior than USB 2.0 due to a stable transfer rate.
However, I'm wondering which is superior in this case- getting a Firewire 400 external hard drive (7200rpm of course) and daisy-chaining it, or getting a USB 2.0 hard drive?
I typically only record 2 tracks at a time with my Firebox, but I would prefer it if I could use it to its full capacity and record 6 if I wanted to. I assume that this will have a great effect on it when daisy-chained.
With my current machine (details listed below), I get messages all the time from Logic Pro telling me I'm overloading it or maxing it out or whatever. In buying a new machine, I strongly desire not to have these problems again, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm under the impression there isn't a laptop being currently produced that has two Firewire 400 slots and is capable of running Logic Pro. Apple's offering has two choices - 1 Firewire 400 slot in the White Macbook for $999, and 1 Firewire 800 slot in the Macbook Pro line, starting at $1999. It is absolutely horrific, I know, but I didn't design the current line.
Since the biggest advantages between the $1999 model and the $999 model have very little to do with audio editing, I decided against the extra grand for some fancy new toys.
Advantages of higher-end:
A) Better graphics card
B) 0.3 Ghz more processing power
C) multi-touch trackpad
D) environmentally friendly
E) possibility of installing a solid state drive- at 128 GB.
My current machine was upgraded once, but was quickly smited back to original specs by a power surge (seriously- all I lost were the upgrades). It has since then been a bit of a finicky computer. It freezes now and then, and the kernel errors are frustrating. Plus, it's noisy.
So yeah- I would totally take you up on the notion of upgrading my current machine first, but it's not really worth the trouble anymore.
I've also posted before and have been told that pretty much any Mac I buy now will be far superior than my current machine.
That being said, I suppose I ought to look into USB 2.0 external drives.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Advice for what to look for? If I could find one that is 9600rpms, will that make a difference or is 7600rpm pretty much the max for the 400mbs transfer speed? Any suggestions for external drives that use both Firewire and USB 2.0? Any other ideas in general?

Types of external hard drives to buy.

Hi,
can anyone provide me with some advice on purchasing external hard drives. What I'm looking for is a high capacity drive around 1-2 TB that will allow two users to access the same files at once. In other words mount on two seperate computers at once. I believe the answer is found in RAID drives but I'm not that clued up on RAID drives and need a bit of help. The external hard drives I've looked at so far are ones from Western Digital and G-Raid.
If its not possible to obtain a drive that will allow me to mount it onto to seperate computers at once and read the same files then I would settle for a solid external drive that can:
- handle large HD files
- store data reliably
Thanks

USB 2.0 is the connection that is natively supported on the T400, no eSATA or Firewire port i think, you can get these ports by buying an expansion card for the card slot (i think it is the expresscard one) on the T400.
Regarding a 1TB drive, most of the large drive manufacturers have one out, but i suggest you unless you need the large capacity, i would stick with a smaller drives like 750 gig or 500 gig since the cost gigabyte is lower. Also i would stay away for storing all your important files solely in these drive, because if these things start to fail it would be on a moment's notice, you probably won't even have time to backup the files, before the harddrive gives up on you.

External Hard Drive for iMac - Firewire or USB?

I need an external hard drive for my new iMac. Can you clarify the difference between a firewall connection and a USB connection? I assume you use one or the other, but not both. If I use firewall, will that free up a USB port (which I'd like to do)? Also, some USB hard drives require 2 USB ports; this I do not want!
Also, do these hard drives work like a zip drive.....no more complicated?
Beyond this, do you have any other advice about which hard drive to purchase?
Thanks.

I think you are starting to put the cart before the horse. Back up (pun intended) and think about what your goal is. Is it your intention to back up just your user documents, photos, and music? When disaster strikes (note that I didn't say if) are you okay with installing the OS from the DVD, reinstalling all your software, reconfiguring your printer, your scanner, your internet, and setting everything up the way it was? Notice that I'm really piling it on here! I don't know about you, but it took me about a week to fully move into my new computer and if my hard drive died tomorrow, I don't want to spend (I don't have) a week putting it back together again.
My backup plan, in the nutshell, consists of three parts. 1) a clone of my hard drive; an exact duplicate so if my drive dies I can reboot and get right back to work. So that when I install the new drive I can immediately repopulate it as it was. 2) an incremental backup, especially of my data. If I discover I deleted a file I didn't mean to, I can go back a few days to a pre-delete backup and restore that file. 3) a backup of crucial material that leaves the house so if file destroys my computer or a thief makes off it with I haven't lost the most very precious information.
I believe everyone should adopt a plan similar to mine. The particulars of how you achieve the plan will vary but I think all three steps are vital. If you agree then your hard drive needs to be large - 120GB probably doesn't come close to cutting it. To estimate how big a drive you'd need to implement this plan, determine how much of your drive you are currently using. Double it. That is once for the clone and once for the complete (non-bootable) backup Time Machine will make. Now, at the very least, add the full contents again. That is for a couple weeks worth of incremental backups. Now add another 50% for growth as you add new programs, music, photos, and data.
So if you are currently using 30GB of your computer's hard drive, 105GB is the very smallest drive you want. The 120GB drive you are talking about is okay. Barely. When you get it make a 40GB partition and a 80GB partition. The 40GB is for the clone you'll make using SuperDuper! and the 80GB is for Time Machine. Of course, if you are using more than 30GB then you need a bigger drive for your backup. And if you know you intend to add a goodly amount of stuff to your drive soon, then plan for it now.
Now if you are okay with getting the computer back together more slowly - maybe being without it complete if the drive dies - you can dispense with keeping the clone. In that case, you will want to determine your current disk usage and buy a drive about 150% to 200% of that. It'll take about an hour to reinstall the OS on the hard drive and depending on how much you have in data and other programs, another half hour to a couple hours to restore that.

Advice needed RE: External hard drives?

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