Please advise me on external hard drive for PowerBook G4!

Hi, I have a PowerBook G4 12" and I'm constantly getting rid of photos and music as a result of getting the 'startup disk almost full' message. I don't have a large amount of music/photos, so I need a compatible external hard drive with only a reasonable amount of memory, and preferably costing no more than £100 (less if possible).
My CD/DVD drive isn't functioning, so I'd need something that will just plug in and work!
Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks!

Welcome to the Apple discussions.
You have two choices ... buy one or build one. For either option, recommend you get one with a firewire connection. Usually comes with a USB connection also. Powerbooks don't put out enough electrical juice on USB cables and can run into trouble using a USB-connected hard drive (unless it's through a powered hub). Also, if you want to be able to boot off your external hard drive, Powerbooks can only boot using a Firewire connection.
If you can find an external hard drive using the Oxford chipset, that is a plus, as they work well with our macs. Cannot recommend Western Digital external hard drives, as they have dodgy electronics in the case. The hard drives themselves are fine. You can look for something portable like http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go or something desktop-bound like http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATAFW800_FW400USB . OWC does ship internationally, and you may be able to find their brand in UK. Or something similar.
Build your own is actually pretty easy ... find a case you like, buy a hard drive (get a larger size than you'll think you need), bolt the hard drive into the case, plug it into the board, done! The advantage of doing that is you usually get a longer warranty than many external drive/case combinations you might buy. Many are one year and the drives can be three years. Some external drive/case combinations are up to three years warranty, too.

Similar Messages

OS is Mountain Lion, upgraded no problems, used an external Hard drive for my time machine, now my iPhoto will not show any of my photo's or ay new ones I import! Help please!!

OS is Mountain Lion, upgraded no problems, used an external Hard drive for my time machine, now my iPhoto will not show any of my photo's or ay new ones I import! Help please!!

Do you get this window when you hold down the Command+Option keys and launch iPhoto?
If not then you're not holding down both keys long enough.
OT

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.

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.

What is the best external hard drives for macbook pro?

I am looking to buy an external hard drive for my macbook pro urgently.
I was intending to purchase a time capsule but am really concerned with the reliability concerns of the time capsules where they stop working after 6 months to 18 months as posted on various forums.
I was considering purchasing a western digital external hard drive but they also receive a lot of negative feedback.
I have never used firewire previously but am interested in getting feedback as to how useful forum readers find this feature.
In terms of size am looking for 1TB approx.
Thanks in advance for your assistance as i need to purchase one immediately and i do not have time to research fully. Make, model number and approximate cost would be very helpful as well as where i could purchase hard drive in london. I am more concerned with quality rather than cost.

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I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up. I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?

I bought a new external hard drive for backups, but time machine won't do a full back up.
I think it is remembering backing up onto previous external hard drives, which I don't own anymore. How do I do a new full backup?
When I bought the new (used) iMac, I also bought an external hard drive for backups. It worked fine, but my husband stole it.
Then I bought a new external hard drive (Seagate) and it worked fine for three weeks, then died.
So I just got a new external hard drive, which was put together from an internal hard drive and a hard drive enclosure.
Time machine did the first backup today, and it should have taken 9 hours like it did on the previous first time full back up. Instead, it took 30 minutes. That can't be right. I want to start over and do a full backup to make sure everything gets onto my new external hard drive, but I can't figure out how to do that. Please help.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

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)

External hard drive for time machine back-ups

Can anyone please suggest the best external hard drive to use for time machine back-ups on my iMac?
I also use a 1TB external hard drive for my iTunes library, but I've noticed that it can be slower to access the music than if I used the iMac hard drive......any suggestions? My iTunes library is currently sitting at around 200GB.
Thanks.
Brian

i'd recommend a firewire 800 drive. many folks here speak highly of drives supplied by [OWC|http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire> and [LaCie|http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11156].
JGG

I am looking to buy an external hard drive for my maced to time machine.

I am looking an external hard drive for my mac and I do see one in PC world that is compatible with time machine. I do not want it connected to time machine and wonder if I can use it without connecting.

In my view you need to have one external drive connected to Time Machine all the time in order to receive the true benefits it can give. Do not use your internal HD for this purpose.
Having said that, to double up on back ups is a very practical thing to do. I would advise you get a portable HD, say 1TB, from WD or the like, back up your system, disconnect, then top up by connecting it every couple of months or so.
You can then store the portable away from the machine, perhaps with a trusted relative, so adding safe keeping against fire, theft or power disasters
Message was edited by: seventy one

Best External Hard Drives for MacBook

I have been doing some research on the External Hard Drives for the MacBook and have been getting mixed advise about the best one for the Macbook. I'm wondering if anyone with actual experience and knowledge with External Hard Drives and the MacBook could offer any advice on one I should look into.

You are going to get a bazillion answers and little agreement so be prepared.
An external drive is two components, case and drive. If you buy a generic no-name you have no clue about what's in the case or what the drive is. Even if you buy a name brand like Western Digital or Seagate you still can't be totally sure. Would WD put a Toshiba drive in their external case? Probably not but you still don't necessarily know which model WD you are getting.
I approach it two ways. For archival backups I build my own buying the case and drive to meet my needs. OWC is my usual source. For expansion and usage I tend to buy name brand externals. At the moment I have several Seagate FreeAgent drives. What I don't do is make drive purchases based on price - that's a great way to buy a drive that will fail just when you need it.

What's the best external hard drive for back-ups?

I have a Powerbook G4 and would like to buy an external hard drive for back-up purposes. It seems impossible to choose one because drives made by every company occasionally fail and only then do people write reviews on them. Every time I hear that LaCie, Maxtor and Seagate make the best hard drives, an equal amount of people say they suck and fail on a regular basis.
My question is:
Who makes a good, most consistently reliable hard drive that I can easily do back-ups with?

The problem with review sites is that your average Joe buys a drive, it dies, so he throws mud at the company without giving any thought to the fact that no factory can attain perfection. And of course this average joe wants the best possible price (in other words cheap as dirt) so the company's tech support is staffed by under payed workers in Bangalore.
Where I work part time we are selling a lot of Maxtor One Touch and Western Digital My Book drives and haven't had a single complaint. Its the kind of store where we get to know our customers (you know, the one where the prices aren't dirt cheap but the service is fantastic) so we'd hear about it if our customers weren't happy. I've had several Maxtor One Touch drives running 24/7 for about 2 years without any failures and I have no complaints about the WD drive either although I've had it for just a couple months.
I've also been very pleased with the items I've gotten from macsales.com. They also aren't dirt cheap (though good) and they have super support. No, make that stellar support.

Recommended external hard drive for R&R?

I just got my new T420 and I want to get an external hard drive for Rescue & Recovery backups. I used R&R to back up and recover all the time with my old T60, but it's too small. I'm looking at a couple of Seagate hard drives. Does anyone know if I need to re-format the external hard drive to get rid of any software on it before using R&R? Or does it even matter? Any experience with Seagate for R&R backups?

Just get a large enough drive. I recommend a drive or drive enclosure that supports eSATA for fast backup speeds.
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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.

How do i use an external hard drive for all my itunes music?

how do i use an external hard drive for all my itunes music?

Hi valleydave,
Here are two good links for you to check out:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
The first one goes over, in-depth, what you're looking for in regards to "off site" iTunes.

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!

Please advise me on external hard drive for PowerBook G4!

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