Encrypting an external hard drive for dual boot use

I'm soon to be reformatting my entire hard drive and starting from scratch—for the first time since 2007. I have a 250GB external that used to be an internal drive (for backups—and it's simply an IDE drive in an enclosure), and when I switched it I never bothered to format it, so it's been in ext3 the whole time. With Windows there are ext drivers, and I've had a lot of success with one, so that's how I've been accessing the drive from XP. The annoying thing about this is that when I bring the external HD to a friend's house or something I've first had to install the ext driver.
I'm thinking about formatting the external HD in NTFS, but I would also like to encrypt the drive. I've only encrypted hard drives once before, on my laptop. What would be the best way of doing this/is it even possible to have the drive encrypted while still having access to it in both Windows XP and Linux?
Last edited by tonyisnt (2010-06-11 18:49:37)

I guess truecrypt would be the answer. Requires however that truecrypt has to be installed on the boxes that you wanna access your drive on.
It's imho the best way of fooling everybody....it's even customs-proof when using it with a hidden volume.

Similar Messages

I bought an external hard drive for backups to use with Time Machine, but however when I try to connect it with the other windows laptop it doesn't work ? intact it doesn't work on any other device except my MAC ?

I bought an external hard drive for backups to use with Time Machine, but however when I try to connect it with the other windows laptop it doesn't work ? intact it doesn't work on any other device except my MAC ?

Do not worry about it.
Time Machine needs that your external drive is formatted in HFS+, or better known as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". This filesystem is used by Apple on Macs and Windows cannot read or write drives formatted with this filesystem, being this the reason why all your devices do not read the external drive except your Mac.
You can only use your external drive to make Time Machine drives. If you store anything different, you may damage the Time Machine structure, so it is better not to use it as a drive to store other data. Instead, get another external drive to do it or create a second partition on the external drive formatted in FAT32 by using Disk Utility > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html FAT32 can be read by Windows PCs

External Hard Drive for 2 iMacs using Lightroom 3

Hi,
I'm going to try to make this as clear as posslbe.... please help!
I'm a professional photographer using Lightroom 3. I have two iMacs one is an i5, the other an i7, both running OSX Lion. I have a NAS (Synology DS410j) to store my images and I then link the catalog to the images on the NAS.
Camera Raw Cache is on an external USB and works great. I've even experimented with putting the catalog on the external USB and no speed issues.
Now that I have two iMacs I'd like to find a HDD or an enclosure that I can use to place catalogs on while working on them. I know VERY well that you can't use network storage to place the LR3 Catalog because Adobe won't allow it (various reasons I already know).
Question - Does anyone know of an External Hard Drive or an Enclosure with two Firewire 800 ports that does not act like a network attached device? I need it to act like a hard wire attached hard drive so I can put multiple LR3 Catalogs on it and access them from the i5 or the i7.
Note:
I do not plan to have two people work on the same catalog at the same time.
Users would only open a catalog (on the attached device) that is NOT currently being utilized.
I would however, have two computers accessing the device at the same time via Firewire 800.
Bottom Line:
I want to work on one wedding per catalog then import them into a Master Catalog when completed (I have my reasons). Because I have all of my images on a RAID NAS that catalog is easily opened by any computer on the network and the files can be easliy linked.
If I'm editing a wedding and then want to pause with that one and open another catalog someone else was just working on and then closed the catalog I don't want to copy/paste the catalog from the other iMac or move an external hard drive...
I just want to be able to open it on the HDD attached to both computers that house all of the catalogs.
I also want to ensure User 1 and User 2 can access any catalog on the attached device at any time (unless it's currently opened by the other user) and be working on catalogs simultaniously (once again, not the same catalog as the other user... a totally different catalog but on the same device).
Thanks so much and I'd love to know if anyone has ever done this!
I can't wait for a Thunderbolt Drive!

Three EHD's that I know of have 2 FW800 ports that are NOT network drives. They are:
OWC Mercury Elite Pro series
LaCie d2 Quadra series
G-Tech G-DRIVE series
Personally I use the Lacie (I have 4 total), my iMac has 3 daisy chained together via FW 800. However I recommend all three for build quality, feature sets and performance. How they would work with 2 different computers attached to the same drive and accessing the same library I can't say. I'd recommend contacting the manufacturers and asking that question.

Partitioned Hard Drive for Dual Boot

I have already loaded Lion. Can I partition my hard drive and reinstall Snow Leopard on one partition? I have a few programs I'd like to still be able to run that don't run on Lion

I'm guessing that your disk has never been partitioned, in which case: Your disk has a single partition, occupying the whole drive. You need to use Disk Utility to create a second partition (probably including shrinking the size of the partition you have in order to create the space), into which you can then install Snow Leopard from the original DVD.

Reformat external hard drive for Windows machine using disk utility

I have a Maxtor 160GB dual-interface external HD. I used it for my Mac OS X. I erased and reformated the hard drive on my Mac to MS-DOS using Disk Utility for use on my fathers Windows XP. I hooked the hard drive up to the Windows machine and the hard drive was visible in both Windows Explorer and on the task bar. I right clicked on the hard drive and selected Format. The formatting takes a while but at the end an error appears indicating the hard drive was not formattable. How can I get a MS-DOS formatted hard drive (from a Mac) to be used on a Windows XP machine with a NTFS format?

Turns out it is possible:
Maxtor Support..
I would use your Disk Management utility within Windows to repartition and reformat the drive. To access Disk Management, right click on My Computer, go to Manage, and then choose Disk Management. Within Disk Management the drive should show in your list of disks (Disk 0,1,2 etc etc). I would delete any partitions that are on the drive. To delete a partition, just right-click on the partition and choose delete. Make sure you’re deleting the correct drive. Once the entire drive says unallocated then the drive should be ready to partition and format. Just right click within the Unallocated Space on the drive and choose the New Partition or New Volume option to set up the drive.
I followed the instructions and everything worked.

What is the best external hard drive for backup on powerbook g4 17-inch?

i need to get a good external hard drive for backing up my files on my 2004 powerbook g4 17-inch. up till now ive been using thumbdrives, but i have way too much to backup now. i was thinking of getting the time capsule, but i don't have leopard version with time machine.
what would be an advisable backup to get without buying a new mactop yet?
please include model # if possible.
thanks in advance for anyone's input!

What I've done is buy the case and drive separately. The case I use is similar to this one: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW91UAL1K/ (looks like they don't offer this case with Firewire 800 anymore), and the hard drive is a Western Digital 3.5" Parallel ATA 320GB which Newegg carries at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136109. The reason I like a combination like this is that the enclosure uses the Oxford 911 chipset, and Oxford chipsets have a good track record working with our macs. The Western Digital drive comes with a 3 year warranty (many pre-packaged hard drives only have a one year warranty). It is very easy to install the drive ... you plug in the power and data connectors to the hard drive, and screw the hard drive to the case.
Whatever external hard drive you get, recommend one with a Firewire connection. Our Powerbooks can boot from a Firewire connection, however, cannot boot from a USB-only connection. Also, be aware that for a USB-only connection, if the external hard drive relies on power from it there may be a problem. This is due to the Powerbook putting minimal power out on USB. There are many people who have found that they've had to either get a dual USB cable, a USB powered hub, or an external power supply for their USB-powered external hard drive. The case I mentioned above has it's own external power supply. Firewire-powered drives don't have this problem.

External Hard Drive for my G4?

Hi --
I'm looking for an external hard drive for my Dual 450 MHz PowerPC G4 but I'm not sure about a couple of things: My machine's older (built in 2001 or so), running OS 10.4.6. Here are a couple more details:
Machine model: PowerMac 3,3
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.9)
L2 Cache per CPU: 1 MB
Memory: 384 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 3.3.1f1
(For what its worth - serial number SBO322XKJ3C)
I'd like to buy a LaCie "Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive" (80GB, 5400 rpm) but don't know if my machine has FireWire 800, FireWire 400, or USB 2.0 connectivity.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Hi, Laura -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
Your G4 dual 450MHz Mac is a Gigabit Ethernet model. There is a bunch of info about it available on this page at apple-history.com.
Re your specific questions -
Firewire - the built-in firewire on that model is FW400.
USB - the built-in USB on that model is USB 1.1.
Many, if not most, USB 2.0 devices are backward compatible with USB 1.1, but will operate at USB 1.1 speed.
You can add a PCI card to get USB 2.0; not sure if such a card is available for FW800.
Even with an added USB 2.0 card, USB 2.0 would be usable only when booted to OSX; OS 9 does not support USB 2.0.
According to the info you provided, "Boot ROM Version: 3.3.1f1" indicates the firmware on that machine is 3.3.1. It would be a good idea to update it at some point; the current version for that model is v. 4.2.8. You can download the 4.2.8 firmware updater from this page -
Article #120068 - G4 Firmware Update 4.2.8
Note - in order to install that firmware update, the machine must be booted to OS 9 from a writeable local drive (this usually means the internal hard drive), and the firmware updater must be run from the same drive.
You may also find that increasing the installed RAM will increase the machine's response and smooth it a bit. According to the info you provided, it has 384MB RAM in it now. That model has a max capacity of 2.0GB RAM, more than four times what is now in it. If it were my machine, I'd add at least one 512MB module (that's the largest module it can use).

Choosing an external hard drive for back up

This is more for general advice than a specific question. Right now I have my hard drive partitioned and use the second as a backup with Time Machine. It will work for most situations but not all, such as a home fire or break-in (all my photos and music, lost forever!).
What I want to do is buy an external hard drive for backup and keep it at work. I would then bring it home every few weeks to update, but otherwise not store it in the same place as my computer. That way I would never lose more than a few weeks worth of stuff. So, a few questions, the nature of which will let you know how much of a novice I am at this.
1) Right now, Time Machine automatically updates once per hour. When I am using the external drive will I be able to set Time Machine up to only update my back up files when I connect the external drive. Is this difficult.
2) Any suggestions on what kind of external hard drive I should buy, or what features I should look for would be appreciated. I live in a remote area, so something I can get from futureshop.ca would be preferable.
3) My hard drive is about 280 GB. What size should I buy.
Advice on any of the above would be appreciated. Also feel free to toss in anything else you think I should know or consider.
Rgds
PF

Snowfog wrote:
This is more for general advice than a specific question. Right now I have my hard drive partitioned and use the second as a backup with Time Machine. It will work for most situations but not all, such as a home fire or break-in (all my photos and music, lost forever!).
What I want to do is buy an external hard drive for backup and keep it at work. I would then bring it home every few weeks to update, but otherwise not store it in the same place as my computer. That way I would never lose more than a few weeks worth of stuff. So, a few questions, the nature of which will let you know how much of a novice I am at this.
1) Right now, Time Machine automatically updates once per hour. When I am using the external drive will I be able to set Time Machine up to only update my back up files when I connect the external drive.
This is what I am currently doing among 3 different backup disks (1 Time Capsule, a WD500GB, and a Lacie 160GB). You won't have to "set" anything up other than attach the new drive and select it in the TM prefs. Then when your done, reselect your normal TM disk.
2) Any suggestions on what kind of external hard drive I should buy, or what features I should look for would be appreciated. I live in a remote area, so something I can get from futureshop.ca would be preferable.
Most any drive will do, as you partition it correctly to begin with.
*_How Should a Time Machine Hard Disk be Prepared?_*
For Time Machine to work properly, the hard disk must be formatted “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and its’ Partition Scheme should be either GUID or Apple Partition Map.
Time Machine is incompatible with disks partitioned as Master Boot Record (MBR). Unfortunately, this describes nearly every hard drive you can buy because MBR is a Windows partition scheme. (Naturally, this DOES NOT apply to Apples’ Time Capsule.)
For some, Time Machine begins to perform as expected with a new external hard disk. But then the initial full backup or subsequent incremental backups fail. The user only later discovers the hard disk was still partitioned as Master Boot Record (MBR).
One article on Time Machine made this observation: “Virtually everybody will have to open Disk Utility and repartition the disk as APM or GUID. It doesn't really matter which one because the Time Machine disk will not be bootable anyway. APM allows a disk to boot a PowerPC, GUID allows the disk to boot an Intel processor but both are easily digestible by Time Machine on either kind of processor.” [http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html]
It’s been recommended by many here that your reserve +at least+ double the size of your primary hard disk, that way Time Machine backups have room to grow as the size of your data grows. Additionally, the more space you give Time Machine the more history it can preserve. The less space you reserve for Time Machine the sooner older backups & deleted items will disappear.
One poster recommended this regarding multiple partitions: “If you do create multiple partitions (half and half would be a good place to start), make sure you use the first partition for Time Machine, and the second for your own stuff (the first one will be on top in the graphical representation shown in Disk Utility; you'll understand when you see the partition tab). This way, you can expand the Time Machine volume at any later time by deleting the second partition. Disk Utility allows this dynamic re-sizing of volumes, but volumes can only be expanded toward the end of the drive, when a volume that comes after is deleted to create the room.” [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1712437&tstart=0]
Procedure
Connect the hard disk you wish to use for Time Machine backups.
Launch Disk Utility.
It will appear twice in the pane on the left. (Make sure you recognize that it is different from the 2 icons that represent your Macs' internal drive.) The upper entry represent the device as a whole, including the controller inside. The lower entry represents the hard disk contained within the device.
Click on the upper icon of the external hard disk.
Select the "Partition" tab.
For "Volume Scheme" choose "1 partition". (Choose 2 partitions if you intend on storing other data on the disk besides your Time Machine backups. Ensure that the two partitions have different names.)
Name the disk.
Format should be "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
Click "Options".
Select either GUID or Apple Partition Map. (See above for significance)
Click "OK".
Click "Apply". Then click “Partition”.
Once the external hard disk is repartitioned, select it again in Time Machine preferences and use it for your backups. If you chose to create 2 partitions, then select the first partition for Time Machine backups, and the second for additional files/folders.
3) My hard drive is about 280 GB. What size should I buy.
Any TM backup drive should be +at least+ twice as large as your Macs internal hard disk.
Let us know if this resolves your issue.
Cheers!

How can I use an external hard drive for capturing? I don't have enough mem

I'm new at this...I have a Powerbook G4 and not nearly enough memory for capturing a full size video. Is there some way to send it to an external hard drive- for capturing, then burn it in my laptop? Would that external hard drive have to have IDVD loaded on it?

Hi artdrake
Just to add to the already good advice posted above.
Another possible approach which works for me, assuming the ext. FireWire HD is large and fast enough (I recommend at least 120GB and 7200rpm) is to format the the ext. HD as stated above (journaled) and then clone your existing startup volume (using Carbon Copy Cloner) to the ext. Hard Drive. This will circumvent installing a fresh OS as well as all the iLife apps to the ext. device. You will simply make an exact copy of your laptops HD to the ext. volume. It takes me all of 30-40 mins. on my G4 system to do this procedure whereas installing everything from scratch may take several hours.
Click Here for example/s:
Once this is completed and assuming the ext. drive is connected securely via Firewire, Restart the computer while holding down the option key. Select the ext. FW HD. Once your G4 laptop is booted to external drive, use it as you would the primary drive. The only difference is that you now have plenty of room to capture to or to burn a DVD. This saves you from consuming much needed HD space on the G4 laptop plus it also serves as a fully operative backup hard drive for your G4.
Hope this suggestion works as well for you as it does for me. Feel free to post back with additional questions/concerns.
(3) G4 PM's/(3) S-Drives/Sony TRV900/Nikons/6FWHD's/PS7/iLife06/FCPHD/DVDSP/etc. Mac OS X (10.4.8) My ichatav AIM account is: SDMacuser1 (Please use Text chat prior to video)

I need a new external hard drive for my iMac8,1

I need a new external hard drive for my :
Model Name:    iMac
Model Identifier:    iMac8,1
Processor Name:    Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:    3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors:    1
Total Number Of Cores:    2
L2 Cache:    6 MB
Memory:    4 GB
Bus Speed:    1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:    IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system):    1.30f1
Serial Number (system):    YD8520CD0N4
Hardware UUID:    073B29AD-6FFB-5E64-A52C-BF19A054F363
I do not have Thunderbolt on this and when I look up the specs for USB I get
USB Bus:
Host Controller Location:    Built-in USB
Host Controller Driver:    AppleUSBUHCI
PCI Device ID:    0x2835
PCI Revision ID:    0x0004
PCI Vendor ID:    0x8086
Bus Number:    0x3a
Don't know if this is USB 3.0 or USB 2.0
All the new drives seem to use either Thunderbolt or USB 3.0

I have a Western Digital 2 Terabyte USB External Hard Drive and it works like a charm and it costed me $129.00. My opinion is you can't go wrong with this brand and size for home use.
Cheers
Don

Best External Hard Drive for Carbon Copy Cloner?

I'm about to do a clean install of Leopard on my *Mac Pro* but I want to back up/clone my current system (10.4.11) to an *external hard drive* first. Based on the recommendations of similar users (Logic Studio) -- a clean install is preferable to an upgrade from Tiger to Leopard. I plan to use *Carbon Copy Cloner* to clone my current system but am unclear as to whether I can use an *external USB drive* versus an external Firewire drive.
Some people claim that firewire is much faster and more reliable for transferring/backing up data, and more importantly, that it's the only type of external hard drive one can boot from -- but I'm not sure that's true for these Intel-based Macs.
Also, I currently use an *Apogee Ensemble* audio interface which does not like sharing the firewire bus with other peripherals. I've also heard references to a external hard drive chipset called 911+ as being important but I think this may only be in regard to firewire.
Bottom line, _can I use an external USB drive with Carbon Copy Cloner on an Intel-based Mac?_
I'm looking for something around 500 Gigs that can sit on my desk with a minimal footprint. I'd like to partition it into three volumes -- the first for the Tiger clone; the second for weekly Leopard back-up; and the third for sound library storage. I'll likely need to access the third volume in realtime from *Logic Pro 8* (audio application) so the HD should be pretty fast. Recommendations?

So Kappy & Hatter...
Allow me to spell this out in practical terms. I'm installing Logic Pro, an audio production application. The consensus is that best results are achieved by installing the application on the internal system drive in bay #1 on the Mac Pro.
Most professional users of Logic Pro recommend a second internal drive in bay #2 solely for audio recording even though the app runs on the drive in bay #1. The drive in bay #2 is often a Raptor because of the 10,000 rpm spin rate, beneficial for the recording process.
For sound libraries with large audio samples/loops, often streamed to the app -- a third drive is recommended to store the sound library. It can be internal or external. Many people use external drives for this function on a firewire 800 bus. The emphasis for this drive would be to read quickly and stream the samples quickly. I would assume that a 32MB buffer cache versus 16MB would be beneficial. I was looking for hi-speed if I went the external route -- hence my foray into the realm of eSATA buses, but perhaps I should just get an internal drive for this as I do have drive bays available in the Mac Pro.
Can you recommend drive spex for this task or a particular hard drive for this task of storing and streaming the sound library?

What's the best external hard drive for iMac?

I'm very close to purchasing a 21" iMac. I've read about the 27" model problems, but nothing negative about the 21" model. Frankly, in the space I have, the 21" model will work just fine. I'll be replacing my MacBookPro laptop, which I will move to my work station at work, replacing my PC laptop (making totally Mac driven).
So anyway, I'm going to take the external hard drive I currently have at home and bring it to work also, leaving me with a need to purchase a new external hard drive for the new iMac. My question is: which external hard drive do you think is best to get. I'm getting at least 1T, and perhaps as much as 1.5T.
I've been reading about the Western Digital My Book for Mac, but there appears to be some new issues with the software and Snow Leopard. Anyone know anythign about this?
Also, some of the online descriptions indicate some hard drives need to be reformatted to work with Macs. Anyone know have any input on that? What about Seagate? Anyone have any experience with those?
Any input is greatly appreciated.

Most any drive will work with Macs, and Time Machine.
Most drives come formatted for Windoze, but most of them can be re-formatted on your Mac to work with it. See item #5 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Also note item #1 there for size considerations; and items #3 and/or 4 for using with other data and/or other Macs.
If you think you ever might want to put a "bootable clone" on it, be sure it's a bootable drive. Most PPC Macs can boot only from FireWire; most Intels can boot from F/W or USB. But some Western Digitals won't boot a Mac. Their list of which ones should and +should not+ boot: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787. But note the disclaimer that they don't support it +*at all.+*.
In addition, many of them have a built-in sleep mode that cannot be disabled, and sometimes interferes with Time Machine backups: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1376
Depending on what ports you have, FireWire 800 is by far the fastest; FireWire 400 next, and USB slowest (F/W 400 and USB 2.0 are rated about the same for short bursts, but F/W is faster for sustained transfers. Also, your Mac's CPU has to do more of the work with USB, so actual throughput is usually less).
Many folks think USB is less reliable than FireWire. If you do get USB, be sure to connect it to a port on your Mac, not a keyboard (that may be only USB 1.0). Try to avoid hubs, too.
If you're using USB, it's usually best to get a drive with it's own power supply, as taking power from your Mac can be a marginal proposition. Portable FireWire drives without separate power supplies don't seem to have this problem.
Take any advice for or against particular makes or models with a grain of salt: all makers (of just about anything) can have a "run" of bad components, or a relatively few early failures. Plus, by the time any really good trends are noted, the model has probably been revised or replaced anyway!

How can I use one external hard drive for both Time Machine and iPhoto Library?

I have been using a 1 TG LaCie external hard drive for Time Machine backups. My (older) Mac has 160 GB and is almost full. I would like to move my iPhoto Library to the external hard drive, but I've heard Time Machine doesn't share one space well. Should I
1. create another partition (but will this erase what I've already saved) with Disk Utility? *I am running Snow Leopard*
2. create another volume to use for iPhoto, and if so, should the two volumes be of equal size?
3. leave it with one partition and move the iPhoto Library to the same partition with Time Machine back ups?
I know I don't need the entire 1 TG for back up of 160 GBs. Please advise the best path to take. Thank you!

You are getting incorrect information from your ASP. If you look at drive specifications the heat generated is no different for high vs low capacity drives.
I have upgraded the internal drive in my iMac 2007 with a 3TB Hitachi drive without any heat issues or other problems.
Larger hard drives have higher density platters so to access any given amount data the drives travel a shorter distance. Higher capacity drives should therefore run cooler than lower density drives because the drive spends less time spinning to access data.

Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??

just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??

Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd.
Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set.
1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price.
I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there.
Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB?
Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopard
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009
where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.

I need to buy an external hard drive for my MacBook Air as it is almost full. Which one should I buy?

Do I need to buy an Apple external Hard Drive for my MacBook Air?

There is no such thing as an Apple hard drive, ...Apples doesnt make same.
avoid western digital if possible.
Yes, having an external HD is necessary for data backups and keeping large media files for packing around etc.
you need data redundancy.
best options for the price, and high quality HD:
Quality 1TB drives are $50 per TB on 3.5" or $65 per TB on 2.5"
Perfect 1TB for $68
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B005J7YA3W/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379452568&sr=8-1&keywords=1tb+toshiba
Nice 500gig for $50. ultraslim perfect for use with a notebook
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B009F1CXI2/ref=s r_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1377642728&sr=1-1&keywords=toshiba+slim+500gb
Best small HD for the money:
2.5" USB portable High quality BEST FOR THE COST, Toshiba "tiny giant" 2TB drive (have several of them, LOT of storage in a SMALL package) $117
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Connect-Portable-HDTC720XK3C1/dp/B00CGUMS48 /ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379182740&sr=1-4&keywords=2tb+toshiba
*This one is the BEST portable external HD available that money can buy:
HGST Touro Mobile 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive $88
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Mobile-Portable-External-0S03559/dp/B009GE6JI8/ref=sr _1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383238934&sr=8-1&keywords=HGST+Touro+Mobile+Pro+1TB+USB+3.0+7 2 00+RPM
Most storage experts agree on the Hitachi 2.5"
Hitachi is the winner in hard drive reliability survey:
Hitachi manufacturers the safest and most reliable hard drives, according to the Storelab study. Of the hundreds of Hitachi hard drives received, not a single one had failed due to manufacturing or design errors. Adding the highest average lifespans and the best relationship between failures and market share, Hitachi can be regarded as the winner.

Encrypting an external hard drive for dual boot use

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for