Need a good recommendation on an external drive

Digitizing DVCProHD footage. Our internal 3TB Raid keeps getting filled up. Wanted to capture straight to an external Drive. Was going to use LaCie bigdisk quadra via FW800 but FCP kept dropping frames during capture and would bust the capture. Currently capturing to Internal Raid (using Apple Pro Rez(HQ)) Then transferring files to external drives. Would like to skip this step.
If I use the eSATA connection with this drive can I capture straight to it or is there another external drive that would be fast enough to capture directly?

Why are you capturing DVCPRO HD as ProRes HQ? That is a HUGE waste of space. Capture DVCPRO HD as DVCPRO HD...zero quality loss. You gain nothing by going to ProRes from DVCPRO HD.
And ProRes HQ is for 2K workflows...all you are gaining over regular ProRes are files twice the size.
http://forums.creativecow.net/faq/applefinalcutpro#75
You are wasting a lot of space needlessly. And the ONLY external drives that can play back HQ are eSATA, Fibre and miniSAS. Firewire won't cut it.
Shane

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HT3275 I need to use a Western Digital external drive on both my Mac and a PC. To do this I need to format the drive in FAT 32. However, Time Machine won't recognize this format. Is there a work-around?

I need to use my external drive on my Mac and a PC, so I formatted it in FAT 32. I found that Time Machine doesn't recognize this format and cannot back up to it. So, if I want to use Time Machine I need to go back to a Mac format. Is there any way to get Time Machine to save onto a FAT 32 formatted drive?

It's usually not a good idea to use a Time Machine drive for anything else. It's too easy to make mistakes, or not do regular backups, or run out of space. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions #1 and 3.
But you can create a second partition on the drive, for use with Windoze.
See #5 in the FAQ for formatting instructions. You'll need to select 2 partitions. It's usually best to put the Time Machine partition first, and it should have the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Format. Make the second one MS-DOS (FAT), although you might prefer ExFAT.
Be sure to specify the GUID Partition table.

Recommend a quiet external drive?

I have a Newer Technologies miniStack - at 250 GB, small by today's standards, but it's big enough for my needs. However, compared to my nearly-silent iMac, it is annoying. It seems like the fan runs a lot more than it used to, even when it has no reason to be doing anything. Can anyone suggest a very quiet external drive? I'd like to spend $150 or less, although I can be flexible about that.
Thanks,
Faye

I bought a Mercury Elite-AL Pro from OWC. It is pretty quiet. $150 would get you a 320 GB FW 400 + USB.

Good application to index external drives

Does anyone have an application to recommend that will index external drives so that I can browse or search their contents when they are not mounted?

What you want is a disk cataloging utility. Look for them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

I need to take ownership of an external drive with NTFS file system from my previous laptop?

I have an external drive that was previously associated with my PC laptop that was stolen.
I wish to take ownership of folders.
Can anyone help me with this.

Use a third party tool to allow your computer to use ntfs formatted drives.
Or, just copy the folder/files to your computer then use them. OSx can read ntfs drives so copy will work. After you copy the files to your computer, format the drive for OSx then use the drive with your computer with read/write functionality.

Need to move pictures to an external drive.

can anyone advise me on setting a partion to an extrnal drive? I want to move pictures permantly to external drive so i can make room on my macbook. When I export pictures from iphoto (4,000 pictures), the folder on the extrnal drive has 798 mb. What's up? What am I doing wrong?
Im running 10.6.8 and increased memory to maximium.Macbook 2.16 GHz intel Core 2 Duo

I am confused by your post. Have you already done this and want to know why the folder is 798 mb, or are you asking for advice on how to partition the drive so you can move the pics? If you plan to partition you must do it before you move the Library.
Here is a guide on how to partition the drive:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1159150/partitionharddrive.html
Here is a guide on how to move the library:
http://basics4mac.com/article.php/move_iphoto_lib

Bought retina Mbp yesterday couldn't afford biggest hard drive, recommendations for future external drive?

I bought a retina Mbp yesterday. I bought the 8 RAM. It is the middle model. I couldn't afford the top model with more RAM and bigger hard drive. I have been told that in the future, I will probably need an external hard drive. Any recommendations on external hard drives?

If you wanna save some money, go to an internet retailer/local computer store and buy an external enclosure. Then after that, buy a notebook/desktop hard drive (whatever fits, 3.5in = desktop, 2.5in= notebook). I reccomend getting a hard drive over 500gb, with 7200rpm, sata 6gbs (if desktop HDD) and at least 8mb cache. If your Mac supports it, do RAID 1, which basically sets the opposite disk as a backup. You can also buy an SSD, which is much more expensive, but up to 3x faster than a HDD. You can buy them at the same store and can format the drive to your liking. They usually come in 2.5 inch, are extremely light, have a large data cache, and are the future of memory storage.
Also, while you are over there buy 1600mhz 8gb memory. Get the single stick and replace only 1 of the already installed sticks. I personally think 12gb is enough, but if you want more, buy another stick of the same RAM.
I hope this helped!
PJ Bianchetta- Computer Enthusiast

Recommended setup of External drives

Currently I have an iMac, MacBook Pro, MacMini and an AppleTV all networked using an AEBSn. The advice that I need is that I'm thinking of purchasing two external hard dives, one to use for time machine that will be connected to the AEBSn via USB so that all of the computers can be backed up. The other will be connected to the iMac which is the main computer (via firewire) and be used for my iTunes and iPhoto libraries which are getting rather large. Is this the best configuration or should I be doing something else? Cost is not a big issue, however I would like to keep it as low as possible.

The networked Time Machine backup drive, if it's backing up three Macs, would need to be fairly large. To work effectively, it should be at least twice as large as the data to be backed up. If that data includes the data on the iMac's new FireWire drive, it may be more cost effective to get a separate Time Machine drive and connect it to your main iMac. This will also allow the hourly Time Machine backup (as well as the initial complete backup) to complete much faster and provide a longer backup history for data recovery.
So that's one USB drive for general network storage and Time Machine backups (for the MacBook Pro and Mac mini); one USB or FireWire drive for Time Machine backup of the iMac (including data on the FireWire drive); and one FireWire drive for the iMac's additional storage.
For the FireWire drive(s), I think you should get one with both FireWire and USB 2.0. Apple took FireWire off the newest MacBook, so if that's a trend, having both interfaces will allow for the best long-term usefulness of the drive.

Need help with copying files onto external drive

I need help! Trying to copy downloaded movie files from Vuze (which have downloaded successfully) and copy onto external hard drive to view them but it wont let me copy over to the external device. Any ideas how to fix this please???

Can you explain the steps you used, and the error message (or symptom), that says the copy did not work?

I need help! I bought an external drive to backup the computer. but although the computer recognizes it (shows up on the right side with the icon - mybook3.0 - I cannot get time machine to look for a hard disc - it only wants to use airport!

I want to use time machine. So, I got a mybook3.0 and hooked it up. the computer recognizes it fine (shows the icon on the desktop etc) but time machine refuses to look for any hard disk, going on airport instead and refusing to let me select anything or do anything manually (buttons are not clickable - and anyway, no HD at all shows)
I'm getting frustrated!!
PLEASE HELP

Just to clarify - when you run Disk Utility (in your Utilities folder) the drive you bought doesn't show up in the window under your boot drive?
If it appears on your desktop, you should see it in the Disk Utility window as this displays all mounted drives.
You then click on the drive (Mybook3.0 or whatever it appears as), and choose Erase from the options on the right.
Best Wishes.

Need External Drive Info

I am about to purchase a new iMac. I also realize that it is about time to get an external drive to back up all my photos and important documents. I am at a complete loss as to what I need to look for (with regard to external back-up). Any guidance about what would be compatible with the iMac and tips on how to use an external drive would be most welcome.
I know that this question is vague - but I'm not even sure what to ask. I've played with fire for years by not backing up my work, partially because I didn't know where to start. I've decided it is time to dive in.
Thanks!

Any external drive will do however like all things to look for are features and quality. I tend to buy better drives for backup because if my backup drive fails I'm sunk if I need it. Like most people I keep my memories there so I want them as secure as possible. If you intend on using the drive for Time Machine (I'm assuming you know what that is) the drive should be 2-3x the size as the amount of data you have on your HD to cover for growth. Because new iMacs come with 1 & 2TB HD's that doesn't mean you need a drive 2-3x that size just the information stored on the drive. I currently have about 500GB of data I need backed up, my 1.5TB external drive works just fine.
Like many others I also keep a bootable clone (Google it) of my internal drive to safeguard against my internal drive crashing. If the internal drive crashes I can boot from my clone and be up and running in minutes. Here is a good article that discusses backup strategies from Macworld.
As far as specific drives I recommend these three:
OWC (www.macsales.com) Mercury Elite Pro series
Lacie Quadra D2 series
G-Tech G series
All are high quality, similar feature set and price points. You can get them in a variety of capacities.
Roger

Recommend External Drive?

So I finally got my MBP and am going to be using the machine primarily for Logic and on the go music related stuff. I need to get an external firewire drive to store all my samples so that paths can remain consistent between my G5 tower and my new MBP when transferring Logic files back and forth.
Any recommendations on what external drive to get? I want to go with a bus-powered drive for less crap in my travel bag, but I have heard of people burning out ports with these types of drives. Is that something to worry about? Also, 7200 rpm spin speed will be most efficient since I'll be working with audio files. Will a drive rated with that spin speed be able to draw enough power from the MBP's firewire port? Also, no less than 100GB of storage.
Basic questions, I know, but I haven't been in the laptop game for a while (about 5 years) and would like to make the best decision I can.
Thanks in advance!
G5 Dual 1.8 (Rev. A), 20 Cinema (x2), Logic 7.1.1, MBP Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hello,
I just got one of these drives and put it inside of one of these enclosures. Spent about $160 & couldn't be happier.
Firewire bus powers it. Haven't tried USB though. The enclosure has a power switch. It's nice & small. The LED is super-bright. If you read the reviews on newegg.com you'll see that that is the main issue have with the enclosure. Personally I don't mind it so much....
So far, I'm loving it. I'm rendering After Effects comps to it right now. I feel good recommending this setup to anyone.

Recommended External Drive for iTunes

Can anyone recommend a good 2-3 terabyte external drive to be attached either to Mac Mini or Network and to hold all my current and future iTunes media ??
I have 500gb already and dont want to use up the entire Mac Mini drive
Tha

I have been using a Western Digital 3TB drive for about 3 months now ( upgraded from a 2TB other make ) and have had no issues. It is quiet and reliable and fast enough sending movies to ATV over LAN that I don't notice any delays.
Sometimes it will sleep but wakes upon accessing a movie.... the movie starts playing after a few seconds buffering.
No complaints.

I am new to LR and before I install it I want to know if it can be installed on an external drive which would allow me to us it on both a desktop and laptop (both Macs) as needed.

My thinking is that if both the program and the library are on the same external drive it's easy for me to use the desktop when at home, and use the laptop when away from home. All I need to do is take the external drive with me. Is this possible? Are there any watch outs or downsides to doing this?
MTIA

You can store the images and the LR catalog on an external drive, yes. But you would need to have the LR application installed on both the laptop and desktop machine and just move the drive with the images and catalog back and forth. That's pretty common...

Need 10.6.8 External Drive for Back Up

My external hard drive died just this week, right before I need to upgrade my OS from 10.6.8 to something newer that's fully compatible with Adobe's new version of Connect (9.3). So I can't use my old backup drive to back up my iMac before I upgrade from 10.6.8. I was looking at new external hard drives, and I noticed that one of them specifies that it's compatible with 10.7. I don't know if that means it's NOT compatible with 10.6.8, but does anyone know of an external hard drive that IS compatible with 10.6.8 so that I can backup my iMac before upgrading? Thanks.

You don't need to worry about whether an external drive is compatible with your operating system. Given that you have 10.6 right now your computer can use a USB 2 or USB 3 external drive. (If you buy a USB 3 external it will operate at the slower USB 2 speeds but it will be compatible.) Windows and Mac computers don't use the same drive format so unless the drive specifically says it is formatted for the Mac you'll need to format it. See this Apple support document for instructions on formatting the drive.

Need a good recommendation on an external drive

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