External and Portable Hard Dirves

Could anyone tell me what they think is the best External and/or Portable Hard Drive. I have a Macbook Core Duo with 100GB of space. I have about 4GB left due to all my movies I have converted and stored on my computer, photos and music. Could anyone help please!

External drives are getting cheaper and cheaper. When I first started looking, around March of '07, it was give or take a dollar a gig. An 80 gig drive would cost you $80, maybe $90. A 120 gig drive would cost you between $100 and $150, depending on brand.
At the beginning of May, I bought a Comstar USB drive at Future Shop, and get this: 250 gigs, for $109.
Almost all drives will work with the Macbook, I believe. Pretty compatible.
Decide if you need portability (not having to plug into a wall socket) or bigger storage, as that is the major price trade-off.
You should also decide on USB or Firewire.
Check out your local computer store, wherever you live. You should be able to find something that will fit.

Similar Messages

HT201250 i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. do i keep my files in the portable hard disk when I connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will era

i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. Am i keeping my files in the portable hard disk when I will connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will erase all?
I would like to know if after I erase all my data, empy hard drive inside the macbook, the time machine will erase all my files that I have saved in my "WD "My passport" external hard drive

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Time Machine has to erase the external disk in order to make backups. Before setting Time Machine up, copy the files of your external disk to the hard disk of the Mac in order not to lose them, and then, set up Time Machine. The first backup will start automatically.
If you want more information about Time Machine, read the Pondini's site > http://pondini.org

Disk utility and reformatting for an external portable hard drive

I bought a brand-new iomega ego portable hard drive (USB compatible). When attempting to format it, I went to 'disk utility' to erase the drive. The drive appears, with the following information listed: Mount Point : /Volumes/Iomega HDD Capacity : 465.8 GB (500,105,217,024 Bytes)
Format : Winows NT Filesystem Available : 465.7 GB (500,022,378,496 Bytes)
Permissions Enabled : Yes Used : 79.0 MB (82,838,016 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 0 Number of Files : 32
Obviously, it needs to be reformatted. But when I click the erase tab, it will not allow me to pick the volume format or name (it just has it listed but unselectable).
Any suggestions on using disk utility or reformatting the drive so I can use it will be useful!

The drive has been pre-formatted for NTFS. You need to do the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to APM then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Moving iTunes library on to a portable hard drive and then my new laptop?

I am getting a new PC laptop and I want to move my entire iTunes library from my old PC to a portable hard drive and then eventually put it on my new laptop.
How do I do this without loosing all my play counts, play lists etc.?

Assuming you use the iTunes default settings where iTunes copied added items to your iTunes folder and organizes your library (meaning - everything is all self contained in the iTunes folder), then all you have to do is drag & drop your iTunes folder (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside the iTunes folder) to the external drive and copy the entire thing.
If you want to test that it worked or would like to actually start using it from that location instead, use these instructions when you start iTunes to point it to the new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
If you are just testing, then close iTunes after you verify it works, and restart iTunes again with the same instructions and point it back to your internal drive (original) location.
Additional info...
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307074
Cheers,
Patrick

I just purchased a new computer and want to synch my iPod. My music (including iTunes purchases and my personal CD rips) is located on a WD portable hard drive. What do I do to synch my iPod and have it recognize the music on the WD drive ?

I just purchased a new Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium (Service Pack 1) OS. I own an iPod Classic that has always been synched with my old laptop. All my music (including iTunes purchases and personal music CD rips) is on a WD portable hard drive. What are the steps to take to synch my existing iPod with my new laptop and get all the music ?

Import the music on the external HD into iTunes. If you don't want iTunes to make a new copy of each track that is stored in your iTunes Media folder on your PC's internal HD, make sure the Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library option is NOT ticked from under the Advanced tab of iTunes Preferences. Just remember that if you go this route, you'll always need to have your external HD plugged in before you start up iTunes.
B-rock

HT201625 All my media is on a portable hard drive. The drive letter has changed, and now my library cannot locate anything. Is there a quick way to re-link the library to the new drive location?

All my media is on a portable hard drive. I installed Itunes on a new computer, and scanned the portable hard drive, thus creating a new library on the new computer. The portable drive now has a different drive letter. Now, the library cannot locate any of the songs because when it was created it (I assume) linked to the other drive letter. Now, from what I understand, I can select a (song, album etc) and then browse to the new location. But I have thousands of songs.
I need a way to re-identify as the whole group. And because this is a portable hard drive, this could happen on a daily basis, so I know there must be some other process I am missing. I guess I could delete the library and rescan the drive and create a new library every time I reconnect the hard drive, but that seems inefficient and time consuming. Oh, Windows 8.1 and Itunes 12.1.1.4, if that matters.
Am I missing some simple step to this?

See turingtest2's user tip on Make a split library portable - the best approach is to have the complete library (database, artwork, etc. as well as media) on the external drive. This layout is not only robust against changes in drive letters, but also means that the external drive can be used with any system running iTunes - just hold down SHIFT while starting iTunes and select the library on the external drive.
A quick fix, of course, is to use Windows' Disk Management facilities to reset the external HDD's drive letter to match the locations stored in the iTunes database.

What's the "best" external/portable hard drive for a Mac Notebook?

I've gone through 2 completely different kinds of WD external hard drives with my Mac Notebook (late-2011, OS X Yosemite 10.10.2), and both literally burned out after only about 18 months. The disk itself completely died and even when I took it to a computer repair store and they cracked the case open to extract the disk itself to hook up to another drive, it was still dead or wouldn't work. I had to have it shipped out to a 3rd party data recovery service both times to have some/most of the data salvaged and recovered (and each times it cost me between $700-$1,000!).
I use my external drive as my main data source and store all of my files there due to it's portability advantages, so I probably do run these external drives pretty hard, especially when running iTunes.
Unless told otherwise, I'm getting away from the WD products for obvious reasons.
So which brand of portable external drives are the most reliable and/or "best" for Mac Notebook users? I'm looking for something that's at least 1 TB and connects via Firewire 800.
Thanks in advance.
- Rob

Given the low cost of an external HD compared with the expense of data recovery services it might be an idea to buy two HD's and duplicate the data across both drives, then if one fails you still have all your data on the other which can be quickly and easily copied across to a new drive to replace the failed one - so you always have two copies of your data.

Where Can I buy a, external portable hard drive in MANILA?

Good day.
I am from the Philippines. I am thinking of buying an external portable hard drive for my ibook. Where in Manila can I buy this? What store? and what brand do you suggest? Should i get firewire or usb?
Thanks...

You can find them at numerous online retailers - model is Western Digital WD20NPVX and the spec sheet is http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771439.pdf
Amazon has them for about $160 - again, they are too thick to fit in any Mac laptop though. And I seriously doubt you will find a 2.5" 2TB drive for $100 - that size has only recently even become available.

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. suggestions to complete backup please?

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. the same thing happens when just trying to save my pictures from iphoto to a flash drive. suggestions to complete backup please?

Sounds like you'll need to access that drive while it is not booted. You need to replace it anyway, so do that, then one way or another (ext enclusure, et), access it and copy files.
If you keep trying to boot it, you might kill it for good and not get your files, so just swap it out first.

Portable Hard drive formating for use with windows and mac operating system

Just bought a verbatim sure fire 500g 800 firewire portable hard drive for my new macbook pro. I have not did bootcamp yet because I am deciding on wether to use Vista or the new windows 7 that will be coming out soon. The drive is already formated HFS+, how do I format the drive so I can write both windows and mac files to it. Help!!!

how do I format the drive so I can write both windows and mac files to it.
Either format it to MS-DOS from the DIsk Utility, or install a tool such as MacDrive into Windows and keep the drive in its current format, or install the NTFS-3G driver into Mac OS X and format the drive to NTFS in Windows.
(45687)

Currently have 30K pics on PC Win. 7 laptop using PSE 8, corrected issues and did full backup on portable hard drive plus saved (Extensive) Keyword tags to file. Installed PSE 13 on PC Win 8.1 laptop. Will attach same portable Hard drive to new laptop.

Currently have 30K pics on PC Win. 7 laptop using PSE 8, corrected issues and did full backup on portable hard drive plus saved (Extensive) Keyword tags to file. Installed PSE 13 on PC Win 8.1 laptop. Will attach same portable Hard drive to new laptop. How do I import prev Keyword Tags from file and Restore catalog from port. HD to new PC and in what order? I have not opened PSE 13 on new PC yet. Would like to do it right the first time!

No importing needed.
See these instructions: Use Backup, Restore to move catalog | Organizer | Elements 6 or later

Can I back-up files to a portable hard drive and not use Time Machine?

I have a portable hard drive that I use for all of my Time Machine back-ups. I back-up the entire system every two or three weeks. I use the Time Machine software and it works quite well. I'm interested in backing up specific files (photos, documents, etc.) to a second portable drive every six months but I don't want to use the Time Machine software. Is there a simple way to hook up the portable drive (brand new Lacie 500 gb drive), open up the file on my desktop and drag the files to the new drive? Are there special steps I need to perform to avoid formatting the drive for Time Machine? Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

MacConvert54 wrote:
Is there a simple way to hook up the portable drive (brand new Lacie 500 gb drive), open up the file on my desktop and drag the files to the new drive?
You can do that, but you'll have to erase the drive, or delete the previous versions, each time. You might want to look at CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. They're most often used to make full bootable "clones" of your internal HD, but can be set to back up specific files and folders as well. CCC is donationware, so you can try it for a while before sending them some $$ so they can keep it up to date. SD has a free version, but I think you'll need the paid one (about $30, I think) to do this.
Are there special steps I need to perform to avoid formatting the drive for Time Machine?
It would be best to format it for Macs, which is the same as Time Machine. What is the problem with that?

Trying to use portable hard drive on both my Mac and PC...

I just purchased a Toshiba Canvio Plus 1TB portable hard drive for my three Macs. Out of the box, I need to format the drive for Mac, which is fine, but I just found out that my fiance would also like to use it for her work computer, which is a PC running Windows XP. I need your help in finding out how to read and write to this portable drive from both a Mac and PC.
I thought about partitioning the drive but that wouldn't work because we want both systems to access the same data. After doing a few Google searches, I thought formatting the drive to a FAT32 would be the answer but I read that file sizes can't exceed 4GB. Since I purchased this specifically to complement my new HD camcorder, a 4GB file size limit will not work for us.
One last thing, since she has a company-issued PC, I'm pretty sure she's unable to install third party software and/or drivers. So please factor that in.
What would be our best solution? Thank you so much for all your help.
Message was edited by: madeinguam

madeinguam wrote:
What would be our best solution?
two possible ways:
(a) format the drive for Mac and install MacDrive on the winsloth machine(s)
(b) format the drive NTFS and install the _*NTFS 3G*_ driver on the Mac(s)
JGG

My hard drive needed to be replaced for my iMac. When I move the photos from my portable hard drive back into iPhoto, the pictures show up small and I can't adjust them. How do I fix the pictures so they are full size again?

My hard drive needed to be replaced on my iMac. When I try to move the photos from my portable hard drive back onto the Mac, they are small and can't be edited or made any larger. How can I fix them?

YOu restore your phone from your icloud backup.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766

TS1367 my laptop will not boot up from the storage hard drive but if i remove it from the laptop and connect it as portable hard drive my laptop boot up normal?

my laptop will not boot up from the storage hard drive but if i remove it from the laptop and connect it as portable hard drive my laptop boot up normal?

Do you have a compatible OSX installed on this 'storage' HDD? If not, it will not boot your MBP.
Ciao.

External and Portable Hard Dirves

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for