Can anyone recommend a reliable external backup product that is not super slow?

I need a reliable external backup drive to store thousands of commercial photography projects that continue to add up over time. I've been using WD MyBook drives in 1 & 2 TB sizes and just purchased a Seagate 5TB drive. It is very slow on my system and seems to slow down my MAC. I have 16GB of RAM and that is all my system can hold. Can anyone recommend a solution for speeding up my backup processes and also not slowing down my system during backup?
Any help is greatly appreciated. - Geo

I am still in the Middle Ages as far as connectivity goes. USB2, Firewire and eSATA serve my needs. Though my MBP has a Thunderbolt port, I have not taken that step.
Take a look at what OWC has to offer:
https://eshop.macsales.com/search/thunderbolt
This just a sample but should give you a good idea what is available. Naturally there are vendors as well.
Note that Thunderbolt hardware can be daisy chained, so not feel that you are restricted to two devices.
Ciao.

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Can anyone recommend a reliable external HD?

I would like to store video clips as well as work off of a external HD (using FW800). I was looking at the G-Drive/G-Raid. Are they any good. Any other external HD's that are well known and reliable?

I've used Lacie, GTech & worldspan and many other drives over the years - from experience I would steer clear of Lacie, just my choice. I haven't seen the problems Shane is talking about, but listen to his experience. I think you are on to the right track with G-drive personally.
one little tip I can recommend when you get your drive -
deep format it in mac os extended (un journaled - you do not need a media drive to be journalled), then partition as follows 1 x 1gig partition labelled do not use (make this the first partition on the drive) 1 x whatever is left .
in my experience (working at a large facility with lots of FW drives) leaving the small partition alone protects the drives boot sector and if it does go down you can still recover your media. Don't ask me why (there are bound to be more skilled responses from here) hard experience has said it works....
Oh and don't let your drive go near a PC, freaky things happen
best regards
andy

Can anyone recommend a reliable external hard drive?

Hi everyone,
I going to buy an external hard drive to back up my photos and music. I already use time machine, but I've lost files so many times in the past, either through equipment eventaully not working or laptops being stollen etc. So I guess I am backing my photos and music up twice. I want to get a reliable hard drive, with a lot of space (as I have a lot of photos and music) whilst keeping costs fairly reasonable.
Has anyone got any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

Well as with anything it can fail in one day or not for 10 years.
I have been using the Western Digital My Book Essential drives for about 5 or 6 years and the first 2 I bought, a 250GB and then a 500GB, are still working. So based on that, and the price and that it is USB 3, I purchased the newer style 2TB model.
It has also been my experience that if and when any external hard drive fails it is most likely the drive inside the enclosure is still good and it's just the electronics in the enclosure, the electronics that change the HDD standard connection to USB or Firewire or whatever, that have failed and taking the drive out of the enclosure allows you to get the data off it. That is if you have a SATA/IDE to USB adapter.
Of course there are times when the actual drive fails as they all do.

Can anyone recommend a 1tb external hard disk?

I'm looking to purchase yet another external hard drive. I've already got a couple of LaCie disks (80gb & 300gb), the latter of which is now full of Apple Lossless files and converted ACC files for my iPod.
As I keep seeming to underestimate my space requirements, I'm looking to get a 1tb disk. Initially I was going to go with another LaCie drive but I've read quite a lot of bad things about them.
I need something that's going to be reliable and fast. Ideally with FW400/FW800 and usb2 interfaces. From what I've discovered so far it seems that the G-Tech and the OWC Mercury Elite drives seem to be the best.
Can anyone either recommend one to me or warn me about others?
Many thanks
Mark
PowerMacG4 DualSU Mac OS X (10.4.7) LaCie 80gb, LaCie d2 extreme (triple interface) 300gb, iPod Photo 60gb
PowerMacG4 DualSU Mac OS X (10.4.7) LaCie 80gb, LaCie d2 extreme (triple interface) 300gb, iPod Photo 60gb

Thanks for your input Chris.
I've been trawling through Google searches to find reviews of various drives. I guess that I'm looking for a pair of 500gb mirrored RAID drives with USB2, Firewire 400 & 800 connections.
I'm having trouble getting away from Other World Computing's Mercury Elite–AL Pro 800 RAID STRIPE FireWire 800/400.
http://eshop.macsales.com/CustomizedPages/Framework.cfm?page=mealp/mealpraid.html
But my trouble now is that I can't find a UK stockist so I think I'll have to start looking for other brands such as Maxtor.
Can anyone recommend a reliable manafacturer ??
PowerMacG4 DualSU Mac OS X (10.4.7) LaCie 80gb, LaCie d2 extreme (triple interface) 300gb, iPod Photo & Video 60gb

ADOBE DPS - MAGAZINE to TABLET in INDESIGN.....Need to brush up my tablet design in DPS (did it a few yearscback), can anyone recommend on the Adobe site tutorials that I can download, with artworks /buttons / actions and put it together?

....Need to brush up my tablet design in DPS (did it a few years back), can anyone recommend on the Adobe site tutorials that I can download, with artworks /buttons / actions and put it together?

See this forum post here from Bob. Best place to learn DPS is on Adobe TV http://tv.adobe.com/product/digital-publishing-suite/
If you are specifically looking to learn how to create interactive overlays, go here http://helpx.adobe.com/digital-publishing-suite/help/overview-interactive-overlays.html Watch the videos on "Folio Overlays panel, Part I & Part II"

Can anyone recommend a good external harddrive for iTunes backup?

I would like to backup my files externally. I really dont know too much about this stuff. Can anyone make a suggestion for an external harddrive? Thanks!

I have an AcomData 120GB, a Western Digital 200GB and a Fantom 250GB external HD. All are working well. LaCie is another fine brand. I usually buy the major brands by price. Expect to pay $0.50 or less per GB (my last ExHD was $90 for 250GB).
If you are very concerned about longevity, then look at the Seagates as they carry a 5-year warranty (at least on the internal laptop drive that I have purchased).
See This Link

Can Anyone Recommend a Good External DVD Burner?

Does anyone know of a good external DVD burner that I can use with my Powerbook G4 (combo drive)? It seems like most are compatible with windows only. Thanks!

If you're going to get a DVD burner, I would recommend going with a LaCie external drive. I got a 16x DVD+/- with Lightscribe and CD-RW burner from LaCie and I've never had a problem with it. Also, it came with Toast 7 so that was another plus. I got it for $190 at the Apple Store.
However, if you're just looking to buy a simple burner for iDVD, or you want to use the Finder to burn DVDs, just get a cheaper one w/o Toast.
- Alex

Can anyone recommend a good online backup program?

I'm looking for a good backup Carbonite/Cloud type backup program. I was previously using Carbonite on my PC, but recently switched to an iMac and would like to know what would work best. I have around 135-150G to backup.
thanks

Be aware that there are no online/cloud backup services that can backup an iPhoto Libkrary package and restore it as a working library. The volume format and permissions that are uses do not support the iPhoto Library aliases and complex associations between files in the library. So use make sure you hnave a local backup that is on a volume that is formatted OS X Extended (journaled) like a Time Machine backup setup.
OT

Can anyone recommend a good external BlueRay Read/Writer

Im at the stage now where my clients are wanting High Def material on optical media!! Can anyone suggest a good BlueRay read/writer for my MacPro. I do hope FCPX is not picky over the type of BlueRay recorder it outputs to?!!
If important, see my system spec below. I need to use the BlueRay for both my MBP and MacPro.
Thanks,
J.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/blu-ray
MtD

Can anyone recommend a USB CF card reader that will work in my Macbook Pro Retina? My USB card readers for CF cards do not work

At present, the only way I can load photos from a CF card to my new Macbook Pro Retina is by loading them onto an external hard drive via an old PC that can accept either of my USB card readers, then plugging the external hard drive into my MBP. Neither the USB card reader or the cable that comes with the Canon HDSLR camera will transfer photos directly to my MBP. I find it unbelievable that I have to go to a PC to load photos because I can't do it with my new MBP.
Has anyone found a reliable USB CF card reader, or one that connects via thunderbolt or HDMI, at any price, that will work directly with the new MBP Retina?

This is what we need:
Location photoshoot - we use the Canon EOS 5D Mk II still camera & the Canon FX100 pro camcorder.
CF cards are: SanDisk Extreme UDMA & SanDisk Extreme Pro UDMA 6 for video (I think they are both Type II) My Mac recognises them both as FAT 32 format
My MBPRetina is on the latest version of Mountain Lion OSX 10.83
the files from the camcorder will transfer to my MacBook Pro Retina directly via the camera's cable but it is quite slow & it means I cannot continue to film while downloading files but this we can live with.
the files from the still camera Canon EOS 5D Mk II will not transfer directly via the camera's cable - have yet to get the Canon software to download, but via the camera's cable will not help anyway as we need to have the still camera free to keep shooting.
We need to be able to take out the CF card from the first part of the shoot & download the still shots while just on the Macbook's battery power, while we insert a fresh CF card back into the still camera to continue with the next part of the shoot simultaneously (while the first card is downloading.)
The files from the first part of the shoot will be both in RAW (.CR2) & Jpeg format. We just need to quickly transfer the jpegs, then I do a quick sort, batch the best ones as black/white images, & use these in a client slideshow immediately after part 2 of the shoot.
Obviously we need fast data transfer speeds, & rely on the MBP's battery power while on a location shoot.
The card readers I have tried are an older specific CF card reader branded as Palm, & a USB 2 multi card reader branded as Travel Flash. With both readers, the lights on the readers flash on & off, & the MBP recognises the card & the files will even appear both in Finder & in i-Photo, so it starts importing, then aborts with an error message saying:
'The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)'
& another message saying:
'the disk was not ejected properly'.
So it appears the MBP does read the CF cards but the card readers don't stay connected, no matter what angle I put them on or however many times I re-connect them.
Yes, they are probably cheap & I want to buy a decent one.
So, in summary:
the card reader needs to work when the MBPR is only on battery power (I read in some forums that some USB card readers aren't so reliable on the laptop's battery power)
the card reader needs to be quite fast. I have read the USB 3 readers won't read CF cards at higher than USB 2 speeds. Is this true? Are the firewire connected ones faster, & if so, are they still reliable on the MBP's battery power?
From research, it appears my problem is associated with my specific model of Mac & platform, being MacBook Retina on Mountain Lion OSX Version 10.83. If any of the recommended card readers have been successful with this, plese let me know.
Thanks heaps for the suggestions so far.

Can anyone recommend a FW external hard drive?

I am using the latest MacBook Pro 17" & FCS. I am going to buy an external FW hard drive to use as a scratch disk. Any recommendations? I think 50gb+capacity will be enough for starters.
Whats good fast & reliable?
Mark

Hi, you mean minimum 500GB, right,
here some of the best brands and some models, take a look:
http://www.caldigit.com/products.asp
http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid3.cfm
http://www.caldigit.com/S2VRDuo.asp
http://www.dulcesystems.com/html/duo-firewire.html
G.

Can anyone recommend the best ONLINE backup for Mac's

Hello, I have a new Macbook Pro, and would like to take an extra step and backup
my pictures, my files, my i-tunes library, onto an online service. Does anyone use one
now or have you had any experience with using an online service? Thanks

While MobileMe does offer up cloud storage, I wouldn't say it's a great backup service as such. You have to manually copy stuff etc. It's not automated - of course there are ways to automate it of course.
Also, you need to consider the amount you need to store. 20Gb standard with MobileMe, beyond that you pay to upgrade?
Personally I prefer to use automated services. My current favourite is Mozy - you can read about my experiences here: http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2009/7/15Online_Backups_-Mozy.html
I've the best part of 1Tb of uploaded backed up data on there now, all for 50ish dollars/year. Bargain, and works well.

Can anyone recommend a powerbook external battery pack or charger?

I found two products on google, but i know nothing about them. has anyone tried these, or know of something better?
this is an external battery-
http://www.batterygeek.net/apple-powerbook-g3-g4-laptop-battery.htm
(they also have a bigger one that gives 122 watt hours).
this is a replacement battery & charger-
http://eshop.macsales.com/CustomizedPages/Framework.cfm?page=PowerBookBatt/pbbattery.html&&ref=Google%20PwbkBatteries%2012175&title=Replacement%20Batt ery%20For%20Your%20Apple%20PowerBook%20and%20iBook
powerbook G4 17" Mac OS X (10.4.3)
powerbook G4 17" Mac OS X (10.4.3)

There are several such products on the market - but keep in mind that they often have a limited life span - something like 2000 cycles of charge/discharge. depedning on where you are using the system you might consider getting a power cord with plugs for car and airplane connectors - or get a DC to AC inverter. Belkin.com has a couple of inverters and coupon code 12345 shoudl get you 40% off their list price.

Can anyone recommend a reliable recording app?

I'm looking for a quality recording app to record from the Internet on my iMac.
Thanks,
John

Hi,
Thanks for the heads up and congratulations on making level 8.
Looking at the OP's other posts it seems he was looking to record from an external device and isn't the propose of Greatdy Audio to shunt audio from one app to another? At least that is how I read it. If so then it's not going to do anything for the OP if he's looking to record an external device.
At least that's what I read but I just donated blood so my mind my be a bit fuzzy
regards
Edit
To the OP i second the recommnedation of Audacity. I have used it for years and it does a very good job.

Can anyone recommend a reliable, small wireless printer?

I am looking for a (as small as possible) wireless printer that works well wirelessly under OSX and could become a potential print center also for my iPad. I have had an Epson wireless PX800FW for a while, but it is bulky and the wireless connection is a pain to set up. I am looking for something smaller and simpler.
Thank you!

I'd really recommend the Canon MP640. However not word yet on Airprint compatability (although I have escalated this to Canon support). The scanning function works wirelessly too.

Can anyone recommend a reliable external backup product that is not super slow?

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