Good external FW800 HDD for iMac?

Can anyone recommend a good external FireWire 800 hard drive (or hard drive enclosure) for the iMac? Basically I want something that doesn't look too terrible in case I have to leave it on my desk — i.e., not the usual extruded aluminum tube. Something that even remotely matches the iMac would be nice.
I would prefer a bare enclosure so I can put a 750GB drive in it, but I'll take recommendations for complete drives if they come in 500GB or larger.
G-Tech makes some nice stuff, but their prices are a bit silly (e.g., $560 for 500GB when the drive itself costs $200 — $360 is a way too much to pay for the enclosure, no matter how stylish).
A big plus would be a drive with auto-on/off or some kind of spin-down capability so I wouldn't have to turn it on and off all the time. Having more than one interface (e.g., USB 2.0 along with FW800) would be another plus.
The closest thing I can find is the LaCie d2, which seems cool but not too expensive, though I'm not sure about its auto-off/spindown functionality.
Thanks for your suggestions.

I love my Mercury Elite Pro from OWC. They have a ton of pre-configured drives as well as the bare enclosures HERE.
Whatever you decide, be sure to get a drive with the more reliable Oxford chipset as the more common and cheaper Prolific chipset has given some Mac users fits.

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Are you looking at an external hard drive or a replacement for the internal drive? Big difference.
The only place I will buy an external drive for a Mac any more is this vendor:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
I had a "big-name" external that was supposed to be Mac-compatibible but gave me headaches with both Intel and PPC Macs. After fighting the issues for a couple of years, I bought the US$69 "do-it-yourself" enclosure from the link above, stripped the bare drive out of the "name-brand" enclosure, and installed it in the Mercury enclosure.
The old drive body has worked seamlessly and flawlessly since. The big-name enclosures seldom seem to have Mac-friendly hardware.
The vendor I linked is US-based but ships to some overseas destinations.

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Any external hard drive that will connect via Firewire 800, USB, or Thunderbolt will work.
I have a 750GB Western Digital Scorpio drive in an OWC case, sitting on a Backpack, which connects via Firewire. Western Digital Scorpio drives have 5 year warranties, the OWC (macsales.com) cases usually use the Oxford chipset which works well with macs, and the Backpack is a slick way to mount a backup drive without taking up desk space.
After you hook up whatever external drive you end up with, you'll partition and initialize it for OS X, then begin using it.
My opinion, I would not get a Western Digital pre-packaged external drive/case. While the hard drives are OK, there have been a number of people that have had issues with the electronics.

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Have a look here for the sizes and prices.
It is however, much better to get a USB external drive that comes with it's own power adapter to avoid issues when or if your USB port can't supply enough power to your external drive.
That issue however does happen rarely but it does happen. Especially when connecting other devices to your other USB port while your external hard drive is connected to your other usb port.

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Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Any external optical drive will work, so you can purchase the one you most like. Have a look at OWC to see some optical drives > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/

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Any kind soul able to disclose the make and model for these two HDD?
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There is no exact model. Apple has supply contracts with 3-4 different HDD manufacturers and which one you get in your machine would be luck of the draw.
But the HDD would be covered under the warranty, so as long as you keep backups, you'd only have the hassle of being without a system for a short time if it failed.

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Hi all
I am looking to buy an iMac 27", but it doesnt come with a HDD
So I wanted to know if I buy a new HDD for it, can I install Mavericks onto it and fit it to the iMac? How would I go about doing this?
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Where are you buying an iMac 27-inch, Late 2009 model that has no internal hard disk drive?
Having to assume it was removed by an original owner, does the computer work? Was it tested by use of an externally enclosed HDD with a correct bootable system installed?
There are various repair and upgrade guides online, several topics among them and several are free to view or use. There likely is an iFixit guide that may cover that vintage of iMac 27-inch build year model.
Not sure which iMac 27-inch model guide applies to your computer,
some appear here http://www.ifixit.com/Device/iMac_Intel
While considering the hard disk drive, be sure that if there are any sensors or special cables required to be in place and attached to a new replacement, they are in place and working; some users of later models found when a hard disk drive was replaced, their fans ran at high and uncontrolled speeds due to lack of sensor input. The default situation was for the computer act as though the unit was overheated. And third party fan control software to set a fan at low slower speeds does not take into account faster speeds are needed to cool iMacs. Yours may not exhibit this issue, but I am not certain either way.
When you get it set up, with HDD and original Snow Leopard installed & updated to 10.6.8, be sure to check to see if there are any hardware or firmware updates. I see there was one listed for your model and it may already be installed...
•27-inch iMac EFI FW Update 1.0:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1031
Hopefully this helps...
Good luck & happy computing!

External Hard Drive for iMac - Firewire or USB?

I need an external hard drive for my new iMac. Can you clarify the difference between a firewall connection and a USB connection? I assume you use one or the other, but not both. If I use firewall, will that free up a USB port (which I'd like to do)? Also, some USB hard drives require 2 USB ports; this I do not want!
Also, do these hard drives work like a zip drive.....no more complicated?
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I think you are starting to put the cart before the horse. Back up (pun intended) and think about what your goal is. Is it your intention to back up just your user documents, photos, and music? When disaster strikes (note that I didn't say if) are you okay with installing the OS from the DVD, reinstalling all your software, reconfiguring your printer, your scanner, your internet, and setting everything up the way it was? Notice that I'm really piling it on here! I don't know about you, but it took me about a week to fully move into my new computer and if my hard drive died tomorrow, I don't want to spend (I don't have) a week putting it back together again.
My backup plan, in the nutshell, consists of three parts. 1) a clone of my hard drive; an exact duplicate so if my drive dies I can reboot and get right back to work. So that when I install the new drive I can immediately repopulate it as it was. 2) an incremental backup, especially of my data. If I discover I deleted a file I didn't mean to, I can go back a few days to a pre-delete backup and restore that file. 3) a backup of crucial material that leaves the house so if file destroys my computer or a thief makes off it with I haven't lost the most very precious information.
I believe everyone should adopt a plan similar to mine. The particulars of how you achieve the plan will vary but I think all three steps are vital. If you agree then your hard drive needs to be large - 120GB probably doesn't come close to cutting it. To estimate how big a drive you'd need to implement this plan, determine how much of your drive you are currently using. Double it. That is once for the clone and once for the complete (non-bootable) backup Time Machine will make. Now, at the very least, add the full contents again. That is for a couple weeks worth of incremental backups. Now add another 50% for growth as you add new programs, music, photos, and data.
So if you are currently using 30GB of your computer's hard drive, 105GB is the very smallest drive you want. The 120GB drive you are talking about is okay. Barely. When you get it make a 40GB partition and a 80GB partition. The 40GB is for the clone you'll make using SuperDuper! and the 80GB is for Time Machine. Of course, if you are using more than 30GB then you need a bigger drive for your backup. And if you know you intend to add a goodly amount of stuff to your drive soon, then plan for it now.
Now if you are okay with getting the computer back together more slowly - maybe being without it complete if the drive dies - you can dispense with keeping the clone. In that case, you will want to determine your current disk usage and buy a drive about 150% to 200% of that. It'll take about an hour to reinstall the OS on the hard drive and depending on how much you have in data and other programs, another half hour to a couple hours to restore that.

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).
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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
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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!

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LaCie is one. The Macally 500BC Firewire/USB 2.0 enclosure with a separate Pioneer S-Drive is another viable option.
I personally use multiple ADS Tech 1394 Pyro FW Enclosures with a Pioneer 110D S-Drive as well as a few ext. FW HD's and they all work well on mult. G4 systems (completely interchangeable via FW 400).
This link may help you to build your own S-Drive if you wish:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4022274#4022274
Good luck
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I've been happy with my silver FW Western Digital drives, I use two daisy chainned together (1TB, 2TB). These were the ones sold for mac's so they have a aluminum look to them. Only a bit more expensive than their black USB brothers.

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MacBook Pro, with an aluminum unibody enclosure **As of September 15, 2008, our company has completely switched to Apple. Having used ThinkPad products for over 10 years, we had desperately tried to find just one reason to continue using these products, to no avail. We are of the view that ThinkPads are no longer premium products. We wish you the best of luck with your ThinkPad! Happy computing…**

There is also a review of it at NBR and a discussion at TPF that are interesting.
Message Edited by nonny on 02-13-2008 07:57 AM
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Jane
2015 X1 Carbon, ThinkPad Slate, T410s, X301, X200 Tablet, T60p, HP TouchPad, iPad Air 2, iPhone 5S, IdeaTab A2107A, Yoga Tablet, Yoga 3 Pro
I am not a Lenovo Employee.
I AM one of those crazy ThinkPad zealots!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"!

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Hi Guys!
I'm in need of a external hard drive for my iMac,
I have never used a external hard drive for a Mac but i have for Windows PC's
I need something Fast & Easy to use,
Thanks in advance!

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
Before you buy, find out what brand drive is installed. Stay away from Seagate. They appear to be turning out junk now. An external drive is not specific to any iMac model.
You can also just buy the same empty enclosure from OWC and get a decent deal on a bare drive from Newegg.com. Takes twenty minutes or less to DIY. How to video on the OWC site. Needs just a phillips screwdriver.
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http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html

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is if there is a Firewire out that can send my Color display out to my Trinitron monitor, like FCP
No, absolutely not. COLOR does not support FireWire output. The developer intended the application to be used with a PCIe Video I/O interface, (Kona, for example, as opposed to GPU) supporting HD-SDI output, and the fixed output gamma characteristic of 2.2 was assigned as default to support that.
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Good external FW800 HDD for iMac?

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