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.

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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 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

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.

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 suggest the best external hard drive for MAC PRO?

As my tower is whirring like the proverbial jet, I was told at the Genius Bar to back everything up before trouble-shooting. I've researched various 500 GB ext. hard drives, but they all seem to have drawbacks. My biggest priority is reliability. Any ideas? Thanks.

You will find suitable products at MacSales.com or you can purchase a hard drive separately and install it in an external Firewire enclosure. You will find enclosures at:
MacSales.com
CoolDrives.com
FirewireDirect.com
NewEgg.com
In the future please choose the proper forum for your topic. You posted this question in the MacBook Pro forum instead of the Mac Pro forum.

Could someone recommend a good external hard drive?

Just purchased my 1st Mac/the new Mac mini. Arrived today & am very impressed.
Set-up, right out of the box, was incredibly SIMPLE and I cant believe what a little dynamo this thing is! I've thought about 'switching' to a Mac from PC for quite a while, but was always a little nervous, so I've patiently watched & waited from the sidelines- until now - and it was well worth the wait.
My 'question' is, can anyone recommend a good external hard drive I can use interchangeably between my PC & my new Mini? Still using the PC until I get completely acclimated with Mac platform/etc - I'd like something with at least
1TB storage. Thanks!

LaCie and G-Technology offers superior hard drives (at a premium). They are pre-formatted for Macs out-of-the-box but you can format them to WIndows easily. They have FireWire ports (most of LaCie offerings and all of G-Technology) which is good on Macs and they also have USB 2 ports for Windows. Those drives are of good quality and will last a long time. G-Technology drives are mostly aluminium just like the material made for the Mac mini so it looks great together.

I have two separate iTunes libraries on two separate Computers. I need to consolidate them so I can play them on a brand new computer. How do I do this so I can play them off an External Hard Drive on my brand new computer?

I have two separate iTunes libraries on two separate Computers. I need to consolidate them so I can play them on my brand new computer. How do I do this so I can play them off an External Hard Drive on my brand new computer?

Why, if it told you you have insufficient space on your computer, would it suggest making more space available on your phone?
At a guess, you have insufficient space on your phone. Installing software will typically require more space than the final size of the software, perhaps even twice or three times as much, for the installation process. You can easily dump some videos or music temporarily, and then synch them back in afterwards.

After I installed Lion, my MacBook Pro can no longer detect my external hard drives or my USB flash drives. What should I do?

After I installed Lion, my MacBook Pro can no longer detect my external hard drives or my USB flash drives. What should I do?

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Yet another Leo let-down.....

Can a use a partitioned external hard drive to create a disk image? I tried, doesn't seem to work using disk manager.

Can a use a partitioned external hard drive to create a disk image? I tried, doesn't seem to work using disk manager.

OK, it's very bad computing to use a backup disk for anything but a backup. The reason being is if/when the HD crashes you will have lost not only all your backup but the data files. While I commend you for wanting redundant backup, you really need separate EHDs for doing so. Format each EHD using Disk Utility to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using the GUID parttition. When you connect, OS X will ask if you want to use that drive as a Time Machine backup drive, select yes and then let it backup. On the second EHD format the same way however do not use TM as a backup, this time I'd suggest an app such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a clone of the internal HD. Leave both EHDs connected and TM will backup new or changed files automatically on a hourly basis. The clone you will need to set to backup on the schedule you want. For example I have my SuperDuper EHD set to backup only changed or updated files at 2AM every day.
The advantage of a clone is that if the computers internal HD crashes you can boot from a clone and continue working, TM will not do that but it's great for keeping an archive of all files. So if you want a version of a file from many months ago, TM will help you locate and restore it.

Time Machine: Can I use a smaller external hard drive with larger internal?

Can I use a 250G external hard drive with and 500G unfilled internal drive with time machine? Or will time machine require I a 500G? I don't plan on filling the internal drive for a long time and don't want to buy a new external drive right now.

Yes, but you are very likely to get in trouble very quickly.
The problem is that TimeMachine saves multiple versions of any file modified, and if that file happens to be large, you can quickly fill up your TimeMachine drive such that it is throwing away older versions faster than you would desire.
Also if your boot drive's storage usage gets even close to the 250GB external drive's capacity, TimeMachine is likely to stop working.
If possible, I would suggest an external drive that is twice as large as your boot drive, or at least 1.5 times larger.
I guess you could repartition your boot drive so it is smaller than your external disk so you would be less likely to use more space than could fit on the external.
Personally, my opinion about backups is that much of my data is impossible to replace (family pictures, etc...), and spending money on backup hardware is a small price to pay for securing those memories. I also try to have it backup in more than one location in more than one way.

Does anyone use a LaCie external hard drive with their Mac using imovie '09? I have some questions.

Does anyone use a LaCie external hard drive with their Mac using imovie '09? I have some questions.

Are you actually having a problem with the new Lacie drive, or are you just asking is the Lacie drive somehow different from your old G-Drive?
From a connection standpoint, most Lacie desktop drives have both USB and FireWire connections, just like the G-Drives do. You would connect and use it the same as a G-Drive.
Regarding capturing to the external HD, if you are using a camcorder that has FireWire (iLink) connection, it is not advisable to have an external FireWire HD connected to your Mac at the same time as your camcorder; there are often communication conflicts between the camcorder and the hard drive if they are connected at the same time. The conflicts usually appear as either dropped frames or a complete freeze. This is more common with Canon miniDV camcorders but I have also seen this behavior with Sony miniDV camcorders. (The problem is the camcorder's FW implementation, not the hard drive.) The workaround is to capture to your Mac's internal HD and later copy the captured video to your external HD.

Why can't I see my external hard drive, Intel iMac / 500 GB, G-Drive

Why can't I see my external hard drive? I have a new iMac, Intel based i5, running Lion (2-3 months old). I have a 500 GB G-Drive external hard drive that has showed up when connected to my iMac for the past 2-3 months. Now it's gone. It's NOT visible when using Disk Utilities. I have all of the radio buttons chosen in the Finder Preferences. I've unplugged and replugged in the drive, have switched the cable ports and have switched firewire cable. The G-Drive powers up and whirls, so I don't believe the problem is with the drive. Yes, I set my Preferences to make sure ALL disk types are visible. I've restarted my iMac on a number of occations. I rest my SMC by totally unplugging my iMac for a minute, then plugging it back in. Any suggestions?

Unplug the HD, Zap the PRAM, reconnect the HD, power it up, and see if that fixes the problem. If not, then maybe the HDs bitten the dust. Try on another computer to verify.

Can I use a usb external hard drive larger than 2TB? I have tried to use a 3TB but it shows up as 800GB.

Can I use a usb external hard drive larger than 2TB? I have tried to use a 3TB but it shows up as 800GB. Even tred to reformat in disk utility but only shows as 800 gb as well. It is a Seagate 3TB harddrive and enclosure. Nothing on the Seagate site about it other than it says Mac os through 10.6 is supported for larger than 2TB (might be old).

You might have better luck in the Snow Leopard community. I'll ask the hosts to relocate your post.
10.6 Snow Leopard

Can I install onto an external hard drive + run off it?

Can I install onto an external hard drive + run off it?
If possible, will the system run at the *same* speed as the built in hard drive?
ALSO: Am I correct in saying that if I replace my current hard drive with an SSD one?
If so: that *****
Thanks
Omar

OS X doesn't matter what disk you boot from, as long as it can be formatted properly in Disk Utility. You can boot from a USB stick drive if it's big enough.
Thunderbolt would be the fastest, the drive would be the limiting factor there. You can find Thunderbolt drives like these at stores like macsales.com. But USB 3 might also feel fast enough.
If you have boot systems installed on many drives connected to your Mac, the way you tell the Mac which one to use is to hold down the Option key at startup. This will present icons of all the connected drives you can boot from, then you just pick one and go.

Can anyone recommend a reliable external hard drive?

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