Can you recommend an external hard drive for me?

I have a white macbook- nothing special. the cd burner is broken for the zillionth time so apple will be mailing it away for repairs. they suggested i back everything up before turning it over to them. there isnt much on it except my itunes library, some pictures, and a few word/excel docs. here are my questions:
1- what size external hard drive do i need?
2- is there a cheaper/easier way to do this?
3- is there a recommended brand for macs? i heard western digital was good, but several mac users gave it terrible reviews.
thanks so much!!

If you aren't sure how big your computer's drive is, select the hard drive icon on the desktop and Get Info from the File menu. At the top of the Get Info window you'll see the icon and below that some disclosure triangles - the second one pointing to General. If the triangle isn't pointing down, click on it and you'll see information about your drive. Look for Capacity and that is the formatted capacity.
You'll want a drive that is at least as big as your computer's drive so you can back up everything. Some people only back up their data but that, in my opinion, is silly. Look for a drive that is slightly larger that your drive's capacity. For example, you might see your capacity is 78.7 GB so get at least an 80GB drive. I say at least since you might want to consider using this new external drive with TimeMachine so you can always have an up to date backup. With TimeMachine you should get a drive that is at least twice as large as the data you are backing up.
The cheapest way to do it is to run down to your local discount store and pick up whatever they are selling. That's the cheapest but not necessarily the best. I strongly recommend that you buy a drive that includes FireWire - getting one with FireWire and USB ports will provide a good deal of flexibility. I also strongly recommend that you buy a drive with an external power supply. I recommend drives that derive their power from the computer only when the drive needs to be portable too. A backup drive isn't usually portable.
Name brands such as Seagate, Iomega, and Western Digital are all easy to find and okay. I think everyone has been burned by one brand or another so just about every manufacturer will get slammed with a particular horror story.

Similar Messages

  • Can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine

    can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine and then plug it back in and it work normals because i have a mac book and don't want to always be carrieing the external hard drive every where i go so can you ?

    Yes, that will work fine. It will back up normally once you plug it in again. I do this with my MacBook.

  • Can I use an external hard drive for my ipad mini?

    Can I use an external hard drive for my ipad mini?

    There are some wireless external hard drives that can be used with the iPad.
    The Kingston Wi-Drive, which costs $50 for the 16 Gigabyte, and then $30 more for every 16 gigs more. It works by you turning it on and then accessing the files on it from an app that you download on your iDevice. You can access music, movies, and other stuff. No connections or anything, it works like a WiFi connection, you connect to it from the setting on the iPad under wireless networks.
    Then there is the Seagate GoFlex, which some would recommend over the Wi-Drive. But this one costs $199 and had 500 Gigabytes of storage. It works the sameway as the Kingston: no wires, runs over its wireless connection. You can actually fit up to 300 HD movies on it.
    Another option:
    Expand your iPad's storage capacity with HyperDrive
    http://www.macworld.com/article/1153935/hyperdrive.html
    On the road with a camera, an iPad, and a Hyperdrive
    http://www.macworld.com/article/1160231/ipadhyperdrive.html
     Cheers, Tom

  • How can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory?

    i don't know if this question has been asked before: how can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory? just like itunes all my song are save on my external hard drive. make sense?

    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
    And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
    LN

  • Can I use my external hard drive for additional storage on my ipad?

    can I use my external hard drive for additional storage on my ipad

    With the Camera Connection Kit you can input data from an external USB device to the iPad, but you cannot write from the iPad to the connected drive.

  • Can you use a external hard drive to keep all your iTunes info on it

    Can you use a external hard drive to keep all your iTunes info on it

    Yes.
    The easiest way is to copy the whole iTunes folder out to the external drive, then press and hold down shift as you click the icon to start iTunes. Keep holding shift until asked to "Create or choose a library". Choose the library on the external drive.
    tt2

  • HT1766 Can you use an external hard drive to back up my movies in iTunes but still be able to access them or is there a device so I don't have to use a pc ??

    Can you use an external hard drive to back up my movies in iTunes but still be able to access them or is there a device so I don't have to use a pc ??

    You can store them on a separate hard drive, you don't need to keep them on your laptop's hard drive. On your computer's iTunes on the Advanced tab in Edit > Preferences there is a 'copy files to iTunes media file when adding to library' tickbox - if you untick that, you should be able to copy the films to a separate drive and add them back to your iTunes library (File > Add To Library) and it should then point to them on that separate drive and not copy them to your hard drive. When you are happy that it is what is happening and that they are safely on your external drive you can delete the films from your laptop's hard drive.
    If you plug the external drive into a different USB port next time (assuming that your laptop has more than one) then it might get a different drive letter, so you might need to always use it with the same port.

  • Can I use one external hard drive for 3 of my Macs?

    I have a 2007 white MacBook, a 2011 MacBook Pro, and a 2013 MacBook Air.
    I want to be able to transfer all of my precious family photos off of my MacBook and Macbook Pro onto an external hard drive and then wipe those computers clean, and then I want to be able to backup and wipe clean my Macbook Air so that I can update it to Mavericks.
    Can I use one external hard drive to do this for three of my Macs? Will it be compatible with all of them? And will I still be able to use the hard drive with my Air once it is updated to Mavericks?
    Which hard drive do you recommend?

    1. Yes. Note that anything you want to keep should be on at least two drives in case one of them fails.
    2. Yes.
    3. Yes.
    (110959)

  • Can I use an External Hard Drive for both my Powerbook ad my PC?

    I would like to purchase an external hard drive for safety reasons.
    Can I store both information of my PC and my Powerbook on the same ext. hard drive? Probably a dumb question but I'd still like to know...
    Thanks in advance.
    Milli.

    Any should do. Buy an external enclosure, purchase a bare drive of your choice, do your own installation. Takes 5 minutes. Save a little money. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
    Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
    Cool Drives
    OWC
    WiebeTech
    Firewire Direct
    California Drives
    NewEgg
    All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

  • How can I use an external hard drive for capturing? I don't have enough mem

    I'm new at this...I have a Powerbook G4 and not nearly enough memory for capturing a full size video. Is there some way to send it to an external hard drive- for capturing, then burn it in my laptop? Would that external hard drive have to have IDVD loaded on it?

    Hi artdrake
    Just to add to the already good advice posted above.
    Another possible approach which works for me, assuming the ext. FireWire HD is large and fast enough (I recommend at least 120GB and 7200rpm) is to format the the ext. HD as stated above (journaled) and then clone your existing startup volume (using Carbon Copy Cloner) to the ext. Hard Drive. This will circumvent installing a fresh OS as well as all the iLife apps to the ext. device. You will simply make an exact copy of your laptops HD to the ext. volume. It takes me all of 30-40 mins. on my G4 system to do this procedure whereas installing everything from scratch may take several hours.
    Click Here for example/s:
    Once this is completed and assuming the ext. drive is connected securely via Firewire, Restart the computer while holding down the option key. Select the ext. FW HD. Once your G4 laptop is booted to external drive, use it as you would the primary drive. The only difference is that you now have plenty of room to capture to or to burn a DVD. This saves you from consuming much needed HD space on the G4 laptop plus it also serves as a fully operative backup hard drive for your G4.
    Hope this suggestion works as well for you as it does for me. Feel free to post back with additional questions/concerns.
    (3) G4 PM's/(3) S-Drives/Sony TRV900/Nikons/6FWHD's/PS7/iLife06/FCPHD/DVDSP/etc. Mac OS X (10.4.8) My ichatav AIM account is: SDMacuser1 (Please use Text chat prior to video)

  • How can I use one external hard drive for both Time Machine and iPhoto Library?

    I have been using a 1 TG LaCie external hard drive for Time Machine backups.  My (older) Mac has 160 GB and is almost full.  I would like to move my iPhoto Library to the external hard drive, but I've heard Time Machine doesn't share one space well.  Should I
    1.  create another partition (but will this erase what I've already saved) with Disk Utility?  *I am running Snow Leopard*
    2.  create another volume to use for iPhoto, and if so, should the two volumes be of equal size?
    3.  leave it with one partition and move the iPhoto Library to the same partition with Time Machine back ups?
    I know I don't need the entire 1 TG for back up of 160 GBs.  Please advise the best path to take.  Thank you!

    You are getting incorrect information from your ASP. If you look at drive specifications the heat generated is no different for high vs low capacity drives.
    I have upgraded the internal drive in my iMac 2007 with a 3TB Hitachi drive without any heat issues or other problems.
    Larger hard drives have higher density platters so to access any given amount data the drives travel a shorter distance. Higher capacity drives should therefore run cooler than lower density drives because the drive spends less time spinning to access data.

  • Can you use an external hard drive (G-Tech 1 TB) as both a time machine and for storing extra files?

    I just got a new external hard drive and will be getting my macbook pro next week. I was wondering if the external hard drive could be used as both a time machine and to have extra files on it? And if so how would you do that?

    Time Machine requires a drive that is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled), so you will need to check to make sure that this requirement is met.
    A drive that the manufacturer says will work with both Mac and Windows will not work with Time Machine.

  • Can you share an external hard drive over a network when your Apple Airport Extreme is in bridge mode?

    Hello, is it possible to share an external hard drive over a network when I have my Airport Extreme in bridge mode?  I can't use my AE as my main router at the moment but still want to be able to use the hard drive on the network, and the router I am using isn't capable of adding an external hard drive.  I use Windows 7 and the other router is a Netgear.  I have searched the communities and have not come across an answer to this question.  I have tried several configurations within windows to try and see the hard drive but none have worked.  I can see the hard drive when I run Airport utlities, but it cannot be seen on the network.  Thanks to anyone who can help!

    I think there is some confusion in this thread..
    If you are sharing on a local LAN port forwarding is not required.
    is it possible to share an external hard drive over a network when I have my Airport Extreme in bridge mode?
    Answer is yes.. no port forwarding, mapping whatever term is used.. is needed. Port mapping is required when you cross over a NAT router.. as long as all the devices are inside a single LAN.. then no port mapping.
    I assign to my Airport Extreme, do I do so with the settings of:
    Service: SMB
    Type: TCP
    Server IP: xx.x.x.x
    Port Start: 445
    Port End: 445
    This would not work even from WAN.. SMB is blocked by all responsible ISP.. there is simply too many unprotected windows machines out there. If they allowed SMB .. the world would be flooded with hijacked bots. And stolen data like bank accounts. SMB is not a secure protocol.
    But this is not necessary on a LAN.
    The problem can be Mavericks which does a terrible job presenting network drives.. The usual recommendations are to use AFP or force the connection to CIFS (ie SMB1 not 2).
    If you use airport,, then use AFP.
    In finder.. Go, Connect to server.
    AFP://AEname or AEIPaddress. (replace with the network name of the AE or its actual IP address).
    When asked for password.. type public if you did not change it or use whatever password you put.
    Store the password in the keychain.

  • Recommend an external hard drive for a backup for me?

    For the first time since I've owned any computer PC or Mac, I need to purchase a external hard drive so I can back up my computer. Over the years I have never backed anything up and have lost some things which at the time wasn't too important. But now with this computer I have lots of music and some very important pictures to me and videos of my grandson I do not want to lose, internet bookmarks etc. etc. I have a program called Time Machine on this computer which I assume is to back up my computer contents. I know nothing about external drives for the purpose of backups. Can someone recommend a reasonably priced one for a beginner and where do I purchase it? Online? Through Apple?
    Thanks

    I have two LaCie drives - you can check them out here:
    http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10033
    Depending on which brand you decide to purchase, you may have to format them for a Mac, which is very easily accomplished by using Disk Utility (Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility). At that same time, you may also want to partition it which will create 2 or more partitions on the same drive - each one will act as though it is a separate hard drive. I have mine partitioned and use one just to drag and drop (copy) an extra copy of important pictures or files on it. I use another partition to create a bootable clone using either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner (simple version is free). A bootable clone means that if there is a major problem with your internal hard drive and you can't start up with it, you can start up with the bootable clone because it is an exact and complete copy of your entire system. Then there is the option to use Time Machine; personally I don't use it, so someone else will need to chime in with it. It copies a lot of things and does it automatically every hour or so I believe, but you cannot boot up your computer with it (that is why I've decided not to use it).
    Again, depending on the brand you buy, you should not have to install any software that comes with it. An external hard drive should simply show up as an icon on your desktop once you attach it; after that, open up Disk Utility and make sure it is formatted correctly and partition it if desired.
    Also, as far as speed is concerned, an external hard drive with Firewire is faster than with USB connections, so keep that in mind. Mine is both Firewire 400 and 800 as well as USB, so I am covered no matter how/where it want to plug it in.

  • Can someone recommend a replacement hard drive for my June 2009 17"MBP?

    I need at least 750GB. My current HD is 500GB but I only have 90GB remaining as I have a lot of videos stored on the machine. Can someone recommend a HD that has at least 750GB of space and performs well with a 17"MBP?

    If you are expecting to copy commercial, theatrical DVDs to any hard drive, DVDs are copy protected and you will find that no computer will let you copy copy-protected commercial DVDs.
    If your movies are purchased downloads from other sources like iTunes or Ultraviolet digital copies, then you will be able to make a limited number of copies for backup and storage onto an external hard drive
    There are ways to overcome this issue, but we are not allowed to discuss anything about DVDs that can break that copy protection.
    So, no one in these forums will be able to help you with that issue.
    You will have to do your own Internet searches for your own solutions to this issue.

Maybe you are looking for

  • How to get iCloud on Windows XP [Solved]

    You can easily install iCLoud on windows XP by reading this article: http://www.mycybertricks.com/2012/05/icloud-for-windows-xp.html This solved my problem.. I m posting it here cuz it can solve problem of many people! Thanks alot! Peace!

  • Escape / (Forward Slash) in SQL*Plus

    DB: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.7.0 - 64bit Production PL/SQL Release 11.1.0.7.0 - Production CORE 11.1.0.7.0 Production TNS for IBM/AIX RISC System/6000: Version 11.1.0.7.0 - Production NLSRTL Version 11.1.0.7.0 - Productio

  • Script to change language to all Paragraph Styles?

    Is there a script out there that will change the language of all styles in a document? I frequently need to take US English files with multiple folders of styles and convert them for Canada English and French. Find/replace language does well enough f

  • Viewing pages brochure

    Is there a clever way to view a trifold brochure on the computer as you would in real life? I would like to send out the brochure I have created as an attachment, but the two pages (front and back) can be confusing and not very effective. It would be

  • Update Client Certificates on Oracle Identity Federation (SP)

    I need to update the certs on OIF (we are Service Provider's) as my client certificates are expiring soon. I am planning of doing below step to upload new certificates . Please let me know if this is the right way or if i am missing anything here..Pl