Best external drive for Air Tunes?

My eight month old Western Digital My Book Pro just died. I had used it to backup various files but mostly to house my 260 GB iTunes music folder. I use iTunes to stream music to my living room receiver, so I'd often leave it running all day.
While the drive itself is still good (I was able to remove the drive from the case and copy the data thanks to my local Mac tech guy), the circuit board that powers it apparently broke down. Could it have been all the heat generated by running it for such long periods?
In any event, my question is: What is the best external hard drive to run a large iTunes library off of? I've seen references to music servers, but I don't need any special connections or capabilities. I'm just looking for a reliable external drive that can stand up to running for hours at a time without burning out its circuit board. A good warranty and near silent fan would be nice too, as would an affordable price tag.
Any recommendations?

I have to tell you that I have had more problems with Western Digital than Seagate or Maxtor. A long time ago, I bought a firewire external drive (ATA) from Club Mac. The Western Digital drive inside it died, but the case was still good, so I put a new drive in it. The great thing about the case is that it has a fan!! That puppy can run all day and it doesn't really seem to get very hot. I have a feeling that it would be expensive to buy a case with a fan in it now, but you could look for that specifically.
I also have one Seagate 400 GB external drive and a 500 GB Maxtor external and both have had no problems running all day. Last, I have built three external hard drives that are always on when the computers are on and they run fine. 2 of the cases were CompUSA brand and one was something from OtherWorld Computing. All are the kind that are made of aluminum, where the case acts as a heat sink. The case gets hot, but if it is sufficiently ventilated then there should be no problems. So far so good.
Hope this helps. If I were you, I would visit http://www.otherworldcomputing.com and just take a look at what's available. There are other great places like http://www.macgurus.com where they can give you very specific advice about hardware upgrades. If I were in your situation, I would go ahead and use the WD drive in a new enclosure and be sure to back up your music.
Good luck!
Jim

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geo.adi wrote:
Are you saying that MacBook Pro 15" has slot that is not good for eSATA connection?
on this site (http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/apple-macbook-pro-2007/4507-3121_7-32465635.html ?tag=mncolBtm;rnav)
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http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12671141&#12671141
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<pre>
Name : WD
Type : Disk
Partition Map Scheme : GUID Partition Table
Disk Identifier : disk2
Media Name : WD 5000AA External Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : FireWire
Connection ID : 40718544432098240
Device Tree : /PCI0@0/PCIB@1E/FRWR@3/node@90a94ce8a56bc0/sbp-2@c000/@0:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : No
Location : External
Total Capacity : 465.8 GB (500,107,862,016 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 0
</pre>
and
<pre>
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk2s2
Mount Point : /Volumes/G5iMacTimeMachineBackup
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : FireWire
Device Tree : /PCI0@0/PCIB@1E/FRWR@3/node@90a94ce8a56bc0/sbp-2@c000/@0:2
Writable : Yes
Universal Unique Identifier : 2BEBF1BD-2C4A-344A-A86F-B3B426205A66
Capacity : 465.4 GB (499,763,888,128 Bytes)
Free Space : 338.0 GB (362,963,013,632 Bytes)
Used : 127.4 GB (136,800,874,496 Bytes)
Number of Files : 1,380,202
Number of Folders : 152,237
Owners Enabled : Yes
Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
Can Repair Permissions : No
Can Be Verified : Yes
Can Be Repaired : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : Yes
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 2
</pre>

What is the best external drive for my MBP using Bootcamp

Here is what I would like to do.
I have the latest MBP (5/2008) and I am using bootcamp with vista. I use my mac side and my vista side of the partition equally.
I am finding it annoying that I am running out of drive space on both side of my computer.
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I would also like to plug the drive in and use it as an external drive when editing with final cut.
I would also like to use the drive wirelessly for backups with OS X time machine.
Is this asking too much from an external drive?
What type of drives work well with OS X/ FCP and video storage? Does it have to be firewire or can it be USB2.0?
Thanks for any help. I am asking because the 1TB apple time capsule is too expensive and will not work with vista.

Edit Update:
When I saw wireless-ly all I am really looking for is an drive that can also be used as a networked drive. The drive itself does not need wifi (might be nice) I just want to be able to be able to keep the drive away from my laptop (most of the time) and plug it into my router so it will show up as a networked drive for both all my computers on my home network.
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Best external drive and format?

What's the best external drive for backing up
imovie files and disc images? What format should the drive
be set up in for Mac usage and to accept the imovie projects?

If you simply talk about the spec and functionalities, caldigit's VR should have better spec over others
Interesting unit and something I will keep an eye on over the next year. Thanks for the links
I am primarily a LaCie d2 triple interface user (3-year old 320 Gb, 2-year old 500 GB, 1-year old 1 TB, and 1-month old 2 TB drives currently in use). For the most part I have been well satisfied with these drives even after having a power supply on the 1 TB model "weaken" on me to the point where the unit no longer worked in the "auto" mode. Since LaCie support provided a correct diagnosis of the problem within one work day, I was able to confirm the problem immediately, and they had a new replacement power supply in my hands in about 3 days, I have naught but high praise for their support people and remain a satisfied customer.
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I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
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Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

What is the best way to set up an external drive for video storage

What is the best way to set up an external drive for video storage?

Check the formatting. It need to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled). This is also known as HFS+.
FAT32 and NTFS formatting will not work with iMovie.
If necessary, you can reformat using Disk Utility.
Make one large partition. No need for multiple partitions.
Do moves or copies to the external drive through iMovie as detailed in iMovie Help. If you move Events in the Finder, they may become unlinked from the projects that use them.

How to best partition an external drive for my purposes?

Hello, please help,
I've just bought a Western Digital 'My Passport' 320Gb USB (no firewire) portable external harddrive for backing up my data prior to iMac repair.
I also plan to totally wipe my PPC iMac and reinstall it with Leopard.
I erased the external HD, zeroing out the data from it's previous owner, and reformatted it as Mac OS Extended (not journaled).
Now I realise that it might be even more useful than I'd imagined.
I'd now like to partition it so I can use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable copy of my entire iMac while using the rest of the drive as a separate partition for just backing up data.
Ideally I want to be able to use the drive on both Intel and PPC Macs and even PCs, is this possible? How should I format the drive to achieve this?
I've heard I should format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) HFS+, what ever that is
I'm currently running OS 10.4.11 but plan to buy Leopard and install that after the wipe.

17" 1.9Ghz iMac G5 (iSight)
I've just bought a Western Digital 'My Passport' 320Gb USB (no firewire)
I'd now like to partition it so I can use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable copy of my entire iMac while using the rest of the drive as a separate partition for just backing up data.
Ideally I want to be able to use the drive on both Intel and PPC Macs and even PCs, is this possible? How should I format the drive to achieve this?
For what you want to do, there is a mismatch between your PPC computer and the external drive that you bought.
With a few exceptions, a PPC Mac requires a firewire external drive for booting and will not boot from a USB drive, regardless of which OS is installed and regardless of the partition scheme and volume format on the drive. I also have an iMac G5, and mine will not boot from USB.
If you do exchange your drive for a firewire drive, do not get another Western Digital model to use with your G5 - many external WD firewire drives will not boot a PPC mac. See [this page|http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787]
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But what I would do, if feasible, is exchange the USB drive and get a non-WD firewire drive instead.
Message was edited by: jsd2

Using an External Drive for Time Machine and Other Things

I have a 2TB external drive which I use for Time Machine Backups on my 2 macs. The macs have HDs of 500GB and 160GB so the external drive has ample space for backups.
Is it okay to use the external drive for other things that I don't care if they aren't backed up (like digital copies of DVDs)? i.e. Will Time Machine cause any issues if a drive is used for more than just Time Machine backups?

rgraves wrote:
I have a 2TB external drive which I use for Time Machine Backups on my 2 macs. The macs have HDs of 500GB and 160GB so the external drive has ample space for backups.
Maybe. See #1 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Is it okay to use the external drive for other things that I don't care if they aren't backed up (like digital copies of DVDs)? i.e. Will Time Machine cause any issues if a drive is used for more than just Time Machine backups?
It's best to put such things in their own partition. See #3 in the FAQ.
You may also want to make separate partitions for each Mac's backups, if you're backing-up either one directly (ie, not over your network). See #4 in the FAQ.

I'm having a problem with using an external drive for my iTunes media

I recently switched to using an external drive for my iTunes library and I was able to switch everything fine. I was able to get iTunes to download and new TV shows, videos, and music that I purchased from the iTunes store to the iTunes folder on my external drive but I can't get it to do the same for applications. All my applications are still being used through the iTunes folder on my internal drive and new ones that I download get put in that folder too. How can I set it to get iTunes to put new applications and use the existing application files from my external drive?

There is a Windows based utility that will allow one to change the location of the 'My Music' folder, but you appear to be running a Mac.
You may find more appropriate help in the iTunes for Mac Discussions.
If you are running Windows, post back and some info can be provided.
Best of Luck

Best hard drive for use with Time Machine

Hi,
Has anyone determined what the best external hard drive is for use with Time Machine? Is there a particular one that works exceptionally well with Time Machine, or is it much of a muchness?
I'm looking for a Firewire 400 & Firewire 800 drive that STAYS ON all the time, and doesn't automatically spin down or spin up like the rubbish WD My Book drives do.

I can't tell you if it is the "best" hard drive for you to use with TM, but I'm quite happy with the 500 GB Buffalo Technology DriveStation Combo TurboUSB I bought recently. It is quiet, quite inexpensive for the capacity (I paid about $120 for one on sale at Fry's), & completely compatible with OS X & TM.
Best of all for me, it automatically powers down when my iMac sleeps. It also spins down after a time if the Mac's Energy Saver preference "Put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" is checked; otherwise it remains spun up until the Mac is put to sleep or switched off.
It comes with "Turbo" USB & Memeo "AutoBackup" software, neither of which I installed. (The box didn't claim these extras came in a Mac version but both Mac & Windows versions were included on the CD.) Out-of-the-box, I reformatted the drive with the Apple Partition Map scheme & two partitions, a 160 GB one for cloning my internal drive & the rest for TM. The drive works perfectly for both uses & seems quite fast, as one would expect from a 7200 rpm SATA drive.

Going from xp to windows 7 64 bit using an external drive for music storage

Greetings Techies!
I hope you all are well.
I need to move my iTunes from an XP machine to Windows 7 64 bit. On the XP machine I am using an external drive for music storage and the iTunes database is stored on the internal drive. I am looking for advice on how to transfer all of this over to my new Windows 7 64 bit machine. I know iTunes can be picky about everything and I don’t want to take and chances and loose my playlists or music.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Blessings,
paul

You are right about it being picky. I just upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 and was forced to format my drive. I had all the music backed up, but when I imported it, I have 2 or 3 copies of some songs, art work missing, and have lost my playlists. I hope someone responds to your question, because I could use similar help! Best of luck to ya . . .

Best external drive for Air Tunes?

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