Best external drives?

Bought a new macbook pro notebook with the 250gb SS drive. I want to purchase an external drive for storing family photos, videos, etc. What do you recommend for a good external drive  1TB in size?

Check OWC, I have a couple that have been chugging along for years, and did not break the bank.
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    What's the best external drive for backing up
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    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.
    As I will probably need to replace the 2 TB drive in Oct or Nov of '09 as my iTunes/TV storage drive, I was looking at the LaCie 4 TB multi-drive unit but must admit I prefer the look of the CalDigit 3 TB unit. However, I am not sure I am willing to spend that much extra for the CalDigit's smaller configuration. Still, only time will tell and it is much too soon to make an preliminary, let alone, final decision.

  • What is the best external drive for Macbook Pro?

    Migration Assistant is not moving files from my Macbook OS X 10.5.8 to My new Macbook Pro just purchased. Apple Support suggested I transfer thru an external drive. They suggested a 1 TB. They said it would be sufficient for migration and afterward for back up and storage of media and pics. What would be the best one for this purpose?
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    Go to OWC and purchase a drive and an enclosure. Put it together yourself. Takes about five minutes and a screwdriver. Or you can purchase one already complete from them if you prefer.

  • Whats the best external drive setup for FCP and accompanying software?

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    Not quite sure what this question has to do with Qmaster, but what the heck.
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    If you go the swapable drive bay route, you'll pay more for the mechanism but you'll recoup the cost as you can purchase additional bare drives for a fraction of the cost of another whole mechanism.
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    x

  • Best external drive setup?

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    thanks
    ultimately, my goal is to use one external as the location for my working files, and the other as a backup...is there a better way?

    Thanks Gordon,
    In terms of speed, I still feel the FW drive will be slightly faster than the USB 2 drive, so I plan to use that drive for the work drive and the 320 to backup to.
    My internal is an 80gb...and I have only 19-21 free at any given time. Over 25 gb is in my photos and another 10 in Music. I think now that I have the 2 externals, I can use those for photos only and clear the internal.
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    I have SilverKeeper from LaCie for backup...so I'll use that for now.
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  • Best external drive?

    I wondered why my Mini was running slower and slower. Apparently it had to do with my external drive expiring. It was a 200 GB LaCie at least 5 years old. So now I need to replace it (probably with a bigger one).
    What's the current favorites? I'm alarmed by how many reviews mention drives going dead within a year. Is quality less than what it was?
    Should I get a backup drive for my backup drive? Have a cloud backup as a secondary backup? Or just exhibit more self-discipline in making DVD backups of important files?

    You can never have too many backups.
    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):
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    Deja Vu
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    Super Flexible File Synchronizer
    SuperDuper!
    Synchronize Pro! X
    Synk Pro
    Synk Standard
    Tri-Backup
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore.  Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
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    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.

  • Best External Drive for MacPro and iMovie

    In using iMovie, I find my existing main drives filling up, and need to get a fast external drive which works well with the Mac Pro and the snow leopard operating system. I note that there is a new usb 3.0 standard, but my understanding is that it does not work with os10.6 without additional third party hardware. Any suggestions on best mass storage (external) for iMovie which is fast enough so that the video is not negatively impacted when preparing a movie?

    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)
    it says "*Expansion Slots Total (Free) 1.0 ( 1.0 ) x ExpressCard/34 - SO DIMM 200-pin*"
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    I'm confused...
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    Type 'Express Card' in the search box and you will find plenty of reading material.
    Useful links?:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12671141&#12671141
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  • 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.
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    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.
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    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.
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  • Best external drive for backup using USB port on TC

    My Time Capsule drive is too small and I would like to use a USB hub and plug it into the port on the device. I will have a printer and external drive plugged into the hub, which will be plugged into the Time Capsule.
    What type of external drive is best for this, considering it will be on all the time?
    Thanks.

    FWIW, I have a number of the NewerTech miniStack external hard drive enclosures. You can get these pre-equipped with drives or add your own. They run very cool and quiet and I've not experienced any problems with them and have been operating them 24x7 for quite some time.

  • Best external drive for F900 footage via BM Multibridge Pro.

    Hey guys,
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    eSATA can handle it, you just need to have a large enough RAID stripe. A two drive stripe on a G-Raid can handle 3 streams of DVCPRO HD, but not uncompressed HD. Only 5 drive Raid arrays can handle uncompressed HD, but getting that option that connects to a MacBook Pro will be difficult. CalDigit has a 5 drive eSATA Raid called the S2VR HD, but the PCIexpress card doesn't garner the transfer times that the PCI-X and PCIe cards that go into G5 and MacPro towers can. I will be working with the CalDigit guys next week, I'll see what numbers they get.
    Uncompressed HD on a Laptop is a stretch, IMHO. But you can always use the media manager to convert the footage to DV and edit that on your laptop. Hmmm...but then you'd need two drives. Hmmmm...
    Shane

  • Best external drive to use to clone MacBook Pro

    About a month ago my 2011 Macbook Pro hard disk crashed.  Luckily, I was able to restore everything from backup stored on my Time Capsule using Time Machine.  Moving forward, in addition to using Time Machine, I would like to clone my Macbook Pro to an external drive using Carbon Copy Cloner.  Could someone please advise exactly what kind of external drive I should get?  My Macbook Pro's internal drive is a Seagate 500GB SATA laptop drive.  I'm running Mavericks OS X 10.9.4.  Thank you in advance for your help!

    You really don't need Seagate's software to use the external drive with your Mac.
    Open Disk Utility in your Applications > Utility Folder and depending on what you want to use the Seagate for..... simply re-format it.
    For example:
    If you want to use it for Time Machine, erase it and format it Mac OS Extended.
    If you want to use it to share photo's, music and doc files between PC's and your Mac, erase it and format it MS-DOS FAT-32.
    If you want to make a bootable clone using Disk Utility, CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, erase it, set the Partition Scheme to GUID Partition and the format to Mac OS Extended.
    Cautioning that, formatting will erase all the data on the drive.
    So if you have been using it with a PC and it is formatted NTFS, then your Mac can only read the data on the drive..

  • Best External Drive to Install Leopard on

    I'm ready to install leopard, however I would like to install it on an external drive. I would partition my internal drive, but I am low on space and can't. I would just like to know if I should purchase a g-drive, mybook, or something else. Please leave some suggestions.

    joshyptoshy wrote:
    thanks guys, i was leaning towards the g-drive, and booting using a firewire 400 connection should work fine right?
    That will work fine. Be sure it's GUID and it should show up on the install screen.
    I would still be sure to back up your original system. If the g-drive is large enough, you can partiton it and use it for your backup. Later, when you don't need it, you can use it for anything else.
    One thought, though. - - - what will you use for TM? Or will you not use it?
    Message was edited by: nerowolfe

  • Best external drive options?

    I need more external drive space for storing video. At present I'm working with two LaCie 500GB external drives, which are proving good enough but getting very full; but I was hoping to move to a 1TB option next. (I realise I'm just running to keep still when it comes to storage, but I have a project starting shortly and once it's over I'll review my storage options and think about what to do with my set-up).
    Anyway, I was hoping someone could give me advice about a 1TB system. The G-Tech G-Raid looks like a good drive (I'm reluctant to commit to LaCie again, as a third drive failed on me and I lost all my data). What I want to know is: can the G-Tech just be plugged in and used out of the box?

    If you are running a MacPro, a much more cost effective way to go is to load the internal drive bays with 500GB or 750GB drives. Since the internal connections are SATA, you will have excellent throughput. If you need a RAID, you can create a two or three drive RAID using the Apple software that comes with the machine.
    If you go this way, do not put your system disk into the RAID setup - only drives used for media.
    Good luck,
    x

  • What are best external drives for Leopard Time Machine?

    Would appreciate advice. I'm getting a MBPro with Leopard. I notice a discussion says Maxtor is not formatted for Time Machine. Is there a list of external drives that are ready to go?
    Many thanks, I'm not too swift at my age at this stuff.
    Ralph

    <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.
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    Thanks for any help. I am asking because the 1TB apple time capsule is too expensive and will not work with vista.

    Edit Update:
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