Choice for a Backup Hard Drive

Is paying a 50% premium for a Seagate or Lacie HD (200gig for around $140, as opposed to $90 for Fantom, lower priced brands, etc.) worth it for a backup HD? No audio recording involved, but dependable backup obviously important.
Opinions?
Dual 1.8 G5   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

I bought a couple of Western Digital 250GB that work great. I am using one as my main audio drive and the other for my OS. Right now they are only 72.80 with free shipping at:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101220

Similar Messages

  • Best Choice For Second Internal Hard Drive

    Hello, all...
    I currently have a second internal hard drive (170 GB) and want to replace it with a larger one. Do you know what the best choice of manufacturer is for internal hard drives. The one I have now is a Maxtor. I'm looking to replace the 170 GB with a 500 GB.
    Thank you!
    DW
    Power Mac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.10)   Tiger, 2.5 GHz, 2 GB DDR SDRAM, 2nd Internal Drive 170 GB

    Hi-
    Maxtor are good but so are Western Digital and Seagate. I have one of each.
    The folowing has a good performance review of 500gb drives from the three makers:
    http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200607/500_1.html
    Based on that, and others on the forums will agree, Western Digital is currently the better choice.
    G4AGP(450)Sawtooth, 2ghz PowerLogix, 2gbRAM, RaptorSATAATA, ATI Radeon 9800   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Pioneer DVR-109, 23" ACD, Ratoc USB 2.0, QCam Ultra, Nikon Coolscan

  • Recommendations for external backup hard drive...mirrored

    My external hard drive that I used with Time Machine to backup my MacBook has bit the dust.
    Ideally, I would like to get one that has hardware mirroring. At least 1gb. and Firewire 400 compatible.
    It's the mirroring feature that I'm having trouble finding. Anyone have a drive they are happy with? Or can you point me in the right direction?
    Thanks

    My favorite mirroring or cloning application is SuperDuper! which can be downloaded [Here|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html].
    As far as an external drive is concerned, I've had tremendous success with Western Digital drives. I've used several desktop models but recently purchased a portable (2.5") 750Gb Passport Essential SE because of it's size and portability. After formatting it for Mac, I remember that I needed assistance from the Internet for instructions to remove the pesky windows only WD backup software from the disk. It was simple to remove but it involved an update in order to get rid of it.

  • IPods for file backup:  hard drives v. flash memory

    Is a ‘flash memory’ iPod just as good (i.e., reliable, etc.) as a ‘hard drive’ iPod for backing up files?
    Thanks.

    It's actually my understanding that flash memory is slower, but i agree with you that its nice that there are no moving parts, no noise etc. The other thing to be aware of with flash is that the estimated erase/writes over it's lifetime is estimated to be around 100,000. I don't know how long that means it will last, but it does tell us that it has a finite life.

  • Is this a good choice for a new hard drive for a 13" mid-09 MBP?

    1.0TB HGST Travelstar, 5400 RPM. Anyone had any experience w/ HGST? I only use this laptop for school & surfing.
    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/HGST/0J22413/

    I have a couple of those and used them in my MBPs.  They work just fine.  HGST also has a 7200 rpm version which I also have had good results.  That theoretically should afford slightly faster performance.  You cannot go wrong with either one.
    Ciao.

  • Backup hard drive..

    Hello. I'm looking for a backup hard drive to keep everything on my macbook pro safe etc. My hard drive's capaciy is 250Gb and the cheapest hard drive i found was for £28. It was also 250Gb. I was going to use time machine etc so is 250GB enough?
    Thank you,
    Thomas.

    Time Machine's backup drive should be at least twice the size of your hard drive - 500 GBs or larger.
    Basic Backup
    Get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
    Carbon Copy Cloner
    Deja Vu
    Synk Pro
    Tri-Backup
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore.  Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
    Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined.  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.

  • My iMac suddenly can't read the backup hard drive I've been using for Time Machine.  I did NOT just upgrade the OS or anything.  The external HD is an OWC Mercury Elite All Pro. It's worked fine since I got the iMac 4 years ago.`

    My iMac suddenly can't read the backup hard drive I've been using for Time Machine.  I tried unplugging the cord that connects the HD to the iMac and plugging it back in, but I still get "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" below which are buttons for Initialize, Ignore and Eject.  I was using a cord that went from larger square plug to larger square plug.  So then I tried one that went from smaller square plug to what I think is USB (thin rectangular plug) of the sort that connects the keyboard and mouse. It's the type that my printers and scanners use to connect to the iMac.  I did NOT just upgrade the OS or anything.  The external HD is an OWC Mercury Elite All Pro. It's worked fine since I got the iMac 4 years ago. What else can I try before just trying to initialize and

    Thanks, Michael!  I do hear it at times spooling up and running. Just after I bumped the thread I looked for troubleshooting for this drive online and found the manual which suggested using Disk Utility which I've seen before accidentally (if I hit Command Shift U instead of Shift U to type "Unit" on a new folder for a student's homework ) but had never really noticed.   Disk Utility does see it and also a sub-something (directory?) which might be the Time Machine archives on the disk, called disk1s2), sort of the way that my iMac's hard drive shows up as 640.14 GB Nitachi HDT7... and has a sub-something titled DB iMac, which is what I named my iMac's hard drive.
    Anyway the owner's manual just shows the image under the formatting section, not the troubleshooting section, but as soon as I saw it in the manual I remembered seeing it accidentally a few times, went to it, and am now verifying the disk.  Right now it's telling me that it will take 2 hours to complete the verification, so I guess I have a bigt of a wait.  :-) 
    Does that fact that Disk Utilities can see it mean it's not failed, or just that it hasn't completely failed? 
    I can see the virtue in having multiple redundant backups, or at least two backups. What do you suggest?  Two external hard drives?  I had this one linked by ethernet, and but I also have a cord that could link it by USB (like a printer), so if this one is reparable I could get a second one and link it by USB.  If this one is not reparable I could get two and do the same thing.  I do have an Airport so I suppose it's possible to get some sort of Wi-Fi hard drive (my new printer/scanner uses only the network and not a cable, although it has a cable that I used for the initial installation), but I'd suspect a Wi-Fi hard drive might have a higher price.
    What hard drives, if any, do you recommend? I seem to recall that when I was looking at external hard drives 4 years ago, Apple's were substantially more expensive, which is why I got the OWC Mercury Elite All Pro.

  • My backup hard drive does not have enough space for time machine to perform a back up even after erasing entire contents of bu hard drive

    My backup hard drive does not have enough space for time machine to perform a back up even after erasing entire contents of bu hard drive.  The hard drive has been in service for almost two years performing this function with no sign of failure.  How do I adjust time machine perameters?

    The only way to limit the size of the backup is to exclude data from the backup, which you can do in Time Machine preferences.
    If you use multiple browsers, have you tried clearing your browser caches? However, that's just a stop gap if it works. You either need to limit what you backup or get another drive.

  • Which Backup Hard Drive for Time Machine?

    I ordered a new iMac from Apple. I need to order my backup hard drive and someone from here on the boards recommended http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/400+USB2/. I was going to get the 750 GB backup drive (I got the iMac with 640 GB), but I see there's a 1,000 GB backup drive that's basically the same price ($2 cheaper) but has half the cache (16 MB vs. 32 MB). I'm guessing that the cache stores information as it transfers from the main hard drive before the backup records it, so that the bigger the cache, the more it can store, and probably the faster the backup goes from the perspective of the main computer (i.e. the backup slows the computer less). Do you think that having twice the size of cache outweighs have 3/4 the size of hard drive? Would you go for the 750 GB with 32 MB cache, or the 1000 GB with 16 MG cache?

    The only one I really care about is AOL 10.3.7. It allows me to store emails, as emails, in any folder on my hard drive. The newer versions of AOL, called AOL Desktop (which are still in beta as AOL ignored Macs for about 5 years), do not allow you to access files on the hard drive other than files within the application itself. So if I can't use AOL 10.3.7 I'll lose 15 years of email. Right now I forward all my email from the two colleges where I teach to AOL and used 10.3.7 to download them to my hard drive. That way when a student writes about an issue I can look back at her previous emails and see both what she and I said. (Or when some administrator promises something, I go back and read what he actually said at he time. :-D) I routinely look back at older email, especially for work. So it's very important that I be able to continue to access my older email files, and store new emails on my hard drive in my current file hierarchy. I mean Office and other applications allow you to store what you want where you want, so I don't see why email programs no longer do.
    As for the rest, I do want to keep all my Safari and Firefox settings, but as I'm using the current versions, there's not problem with them. I'd prefer not to have to take the time to reinstall everything of course. As for Office, I am using 2004 for Mac, but I've ordered 2008 for the Mac with my iMac because Apple and Microsoft have a 50% off deal for back to school, which cuts about another $35 off the usual 40% educational discount that Microsoft offers. (Apple used to offer those big discounts too, back in the 1990s, when I got my G4, but these days they offer only $50 or $100 off as an educational discount, which is one reason I haven't bought a new computer in 9-10 years!) I have the latest Acrobat too, as Adobe also had a good educational discount.
    A buddy of mine who does programming for the federal government said that it's a real testament to Apple's quality that my 10-year-old G4 still performs. He said that a PC would have died about half way through. I did get the top-of-the-line model thanks to both the educational discounts of the day and to the Apple student loan program (I was in my first Ph.D. program then), and expanded the RAM, so that 10 years later I'm still able to use the G4. I do all my teaching at two colleges online now, and the computer has gradually gotten slower as it encounters more and more information it was never designed to handle. Ten years ago every website didn't have fifty dancing babies or whatever. Now every website seem to have an embedded video or three all insisting on playing at the same time. I'm looking forward to that sort of thing not bringing my computer to a halt.

  • Transferring LR catalog to backup hard drive for travel?

    I plan on taking a photo vacation and want to take along a laptop with Lightroom for processing on the road.
    I currently use and process my images on my desktop. LR and the images are all on desktop.
    What is the best way to transfer my catalog  (with all keyword and collection data) to my backup hard drive for the trip?
    Images are not really a problem transferring just takes time.
    Do I use the "backup" mode in LR? or, drag and drop the LR folders from my desktop to my backup hard drive?
    thanks,

    Please note:
    When we talk of the "catalog" in Lightroom, it means the database where Lr stores everything. It does not mean your photos.
    The catalog (i.e. the database, i.e. the file with the ending <  .lrcat>) does not have to be on the same drive where the photos(the image files)  are.
    So you can move your photos to an external hard drive and leave the catalog where it is now. Where is it? Go >Edit >Catalog Settings ? General tab. It tells you the name and location of the catalog.
    Before you do any moving of your photos, please note: Lr stores - among the many other things - in its catalog also the location of each one of your image files. This has the consequence that if you move the image files in Win Explorer / Mac Finder Lr does not find the photos in the location stored in the catalog and sends you the much feared "?". How to solve this, see here: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/lightroom/using/WS3BC0B0A1-D48C-4271-891D-DA04EF388E29.html
    So, there are two ways to move your photos to an external drive:
    a) do it within Lr and Lr will keep on top of the moved files;
    b) If you want to move the image files in Win Explorer / Mac Finder it is best you create one (1) parent folder that contains - in various sub-folders - all of your images. Do this in Lr.
    Then - in Win Explorer / Mac Finder - you move the parent folder with all its sub-folders to the external drive. When you open Lr again it will show - in the folders panel - a question mark besides each folder. You then have to do the <Find missing folder> routine:
    Locate missing folders
    If a folder is moved in the operating system instead of in Lightroom, the link between the catalog and the folder breaks, and a question-mark icon appears on the folder in the Folders panel.
    To restore the link, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) on the folder and choose Find Missing Folder from the context menu.
    Navigate to the file path of the moved folder and click Choose.

  • I started the OS system from a backup hard drive. Now My Adobe products doesnt work. "the licensing does not work for this product" Error code 150:30. Help me please!!

    I started the OS system from a backup hard drive. Now My Adobe products doesnt work. "the licensing does not work for this product" Error code 150:30. Help me please!!

    Reinstall the software properly. migration/ backups do not work due to the specific requirements of the activation system.
    Mylenium

  • I want to use the Thunderbolt connection for an external hard drive

    I want to use the Thunderbolt connection for an external hard drive - so what port would I use on the MacBook Pro 13" for the display monitor.  Thank you!

    This is not the forum for MacBook Pro owners.
    You just need to reformat the drive in Disk Utility and erase the drive and have  Mac HFS.
    If you did need to use NTFS then you would not want -3G but Paragon NTFS for OS X x. 10.0
    Or buy something that isn't pre-formatted to Windows NT file system.
    First though make sure you have backups of your system. TimeMachine being used now?
    http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-TimeMachine-drive.html
    http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
    Maybe cleanout some files you don't need.
    Install a larger notebook hard drive even.
    http://www.macsales.com/firewire has a lot of choice in Mac compatible drives and enclosures so you don't need to worry about Fantom not working at some point.
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard

  • External backup hard drive recommendations

    I'm ashamed to say, but all that I have for a backup is a pocket portable USB 500G drive. Now it does 'do the job', although very slowy. I'm looking for recommendations for a new hard drive. I currently have 1 PC desktop(ethernet) and two MBP (wireless) connected via network through an AEBS. All of the machines are physically in different rooms and currently between all three machines, I'm at about 300GB of data, This is strictly for home use. I hope I've given enough background information. So, should I go for a network backup drive? It seems the simplest choice, but having never used one, wasn't certain. How about brands/style, which RAID? I don't want to spend above $1000 and would prefer to keep it @ about $500-700.
    Thanks for the input
    Message was edited by: paulyman

    Have you considered an Apple Time Capsule?? It will wirelessly backup any MACs you have on the network. PCs can also browse to it.
    If not you need a good External hard disk drive with a USB interface so that you can connect it to the back of your AEBS and use it as a shared drive on the network. This is what I plan to do when I get my TC. This external drive must have hardware RAID built in so you never have to worry about losing data. You could keep it as a backup and storage area that all other clients can access.
    I would recommend a My Book Studio Edition 2. This has RAID and will mirror one disk to the other automatically, so if a disk dies you can easily replace it (WD give a 5 year warranty as well!). It also has a FireWire800 port so if you want to connect it directly to a MBP, you can use the faster connection.
    Here is a video I created of the drive...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUbBdAuzxXk
    Although I have the 4TB version, you can also get a 2TB version, which has 2x1TB discs inside.
    If this is too much and you dont want the Firewire ports, you can also get this same drive in Black which is USB only - called the My Book Mirror Edition. Its also a bit cheaper since it doesnt have the other ports.

  • I just had to reformat the external hard drive that houses my iPhoto library, then restore it from a backup. Now Time Machine is telling me my backup hard drive suddenly does not have the space to complete a backup. I also noticed when I go in to Time Mac

    I just had to reformat the external hard drive that houses my iPhoto library, then restore it from a backup. Now Time Machine is telling me my backup hard drive suddenly does not have the space to complete a backup. I also noticed when I go in to Time Machine, there are only about 5 backups recorded on the ext. hard drive. There were many more before. Any idea what happened and if I have to buy a new back up hard drive?

    Hallo  Kieth ,
    I am not quite ready to restore the full iphoto library , as I have days of work re - imputting titles,descriptions and enhancement . I hope that your suggestion works , as I use my Macbook basically to work with digital photography. Through time , I will need to delete my library to recover more disc space and I would hate to have to spend more time re - imputting titles and descriptions all over again .
    Thanks for your interest and advice.
    regards  - Alan

  • Is it time for a new hard drive?

    My iMac early 2008 has been running extremely slow even after i reduced 320 gb hard drive so it only has about 150 gigs occupied now. 2 GB memory.  I just ran Disk Utility and it said it "stopped verifiying MacIntosh HD. This disk needs to be repaired. Start your computer with another disk." I haven't done that yet. I have everything backed up on Time Machine to an external hard drive. A friend says the HD is going bad and needs to be replaced. Is that right? All advice greatly appreciated.

    From the given information I'd find a more knowledgable friend. The first thing you need to do is repair your drive:
    Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
    Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
    If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
    If the above indicates the drive is OK after repairs are completed, then you can focus on some maintenance to help improve performance:
    Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
    For disk repairs use Disk Utility.  For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior;  DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation.  TechTool Pro 4.5.1 or higher are Intel Mac compatible;  Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided.  Versions 1.5.1 or later are Intel Mac compatible.
    OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.  Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts had been significantly reduced in Tiger and Leopard.  These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or Lion and should not be installed.
    OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
    I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc.  Other utilities are also available such as Onyx, Lion Cache Cleaner, CockTail, for example.
    For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack.  If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline.  Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. There is no confirmation that this version also works with Lion.
    When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
    Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
    Backuplist
    Carbon Copy Cloner
    Data Backup
    Deja Vu
    iBackup
    JaBack
    Silver Keeper
    MimMac
    Retrospect
    Super Flexible File Synchronizer
    SuperDuper!
    Synchronize Pro! X
    SyncTwoFolders
    Synk Pro
    Synk Standard
    Tri-Backup
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
    Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
    Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
    If none of the above help then try reformatting the drive and installing a fresh copy of Snow Leopard.

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