Recommended USB Hard Drive for MBP

I purchased a Lacie d2 external hard drive (250 GB) when i purchased my MBP. I had trouble understanding the "installation instructions" (this is my first mac). So i turned to the forum to assist, and in my travels discovered many people were not happy with the performance of the Lacie devices.
Is there an External Hard drive that works well with macs and is of good quality?
Richard
15" MBP Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Well, you just buy an enclosure that's to your liking / requirements (that is, USB 2.0, for a SATA drive), then buy a
Then you take your enclosure's manual, read how it's dissasembled (either screws, usually philips, or a simple latch of some sort - nothing complicated), open it up, put your hard drive inside (be sure to buy the right size, i.e. 2.5" if your enclosure is 2.5", 3.5" if your enclosure is 3.5"; and the right type - SATA in this case) and connect the cables (you CAN'T connect them wrong, shapes of the connectors makes it impossible) and close the whole thing up again.
That's it. It's no more complicated than putting a little box in a slightly bigger box and connecting two cables.
There's always a slight chance it will end up being incompatible in some way with your machine, but that happens with already assembled, brand name external drives as many posts on this forum can atest.

Similar Messages

CPU is very hot when using Thunderbolt display and mac attached USB hard drive for TimeMachine

Hello,
i've bought the new MacBook Pro 15" and a Thunderbolt display. Everything works fine for me due to the latest updates, but i experience an issue which i really don't understand. When i connect an usb hard drive for TimeMachine to my display it works like expected (CPU has a temperature of 64°C), but when i connect it to an usb port of the mac while using my display the CPU temperature goes crazy (spikes about 80°C) and it gets very noisy. Has anyone else experienced this behaviour?
May this has something to do with the dual graphics adapter and how the system handles the data stream to thunderbold ports and usb devices? Which graphics card is used for the external display, the internal gpu or the adapter from ati? I've googled a lot but haven't found appropriet answers about these questions.

Hi there ulairi9!
I understand how this would be a frustrating issue! I have an article here that can provide some troubleshooting steps for you, and can hopefully help you resolve the issue. That article specifically addresses the issue you are experiencing, and can be found here:
AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule: External USB drive becomes inaccessible
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3271
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!
Cheers,
Braden

What is a recommended internal hard drive for a Mac Pro 1,1 (2006)?

What is a recommended internal hard drive for a Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) model? I would like to
add more hard drive space by utilizing the three available slots. However, from my understanding,
Apple does not produce hard drives for my older computer so I'll need to turn to a third party.

You are very much over-due for some new larger more efficient drives.
the most common best approach goes something like this....
SSD 120GB for system
WD Black 1-2TB for data (and put all your data and media files, all your home account sub-folders)
Backup. I use WD Green but use what you want. I have a small boot volume, TimeMachine, and 3rd that is a clone image of the boot drive volume.
Very fond of WD 10K VelociRaptor drives. Not much louder now than the WD Black 2TB, $100-200 for 250GB to 1TB.
You can use any size SATA 3.5" drive, most now are 1TB and up to 4TB.
You should have always bought Amazon or Newegg or outside of Apple, Apple can often charge 3x what those places charge.
Probably want to add or replace FBDIMMs you have, these are excellent and price in the last year has fallen.
2x2GB FBDIMM DDR2 667MHz @ $29
http://www.amazon.com/BUFFERED-PC2-5300-FB-DIMM-APPLE-Memory/dp/B002ORUUAC/
WD Black 1TB $93
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Internal-Desktop/dp/B0036Q7MV0/
WD Green 3TB $149 - backup
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Green-Desktop/dp/B004RORMF6/
WD VR 10K 250GB $103 200MB/sec boot drive :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007V5A1BK/
Those last and last and make a nice boot drive.
SSD: Samsung 840 128GB
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-120GB-internal-MZ-7TD120BW/dp/B009NHAF06/
Over-due to upgrade and replace the graphic card most likely it sounds like also:
ATI Radeon 5770
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC742ZM/A
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-ATI-Radeon-5770-MC742ZM/dp/B003Z6QH6M
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/726537-REG/Apple_MC742ZM_A_ATI_Radeon_HD_5 770.html
Your OEM 7300GT isn't helping now and with Lion or the X1900 dust magnet and out of date too. If you have a functional 8800GT still working you are lucky and no need.

Best Recommended External Hard Drive For IMac 3.1Ghz i5 Core

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.
You want a 3.5" SATA drive. If from Newegg, it will need to be reformatted for Mac. Mac OS extended Journaled. Partition Map Scheme: GUID.
http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html

USB hard drive for Time Machine backup?

I'm looking for a USB hard drive that actually works with Time Machine. I have a Western Digital 320Gb passport HD. When I try to run TM, currently with Snow Kitty and previously with Leopard, TM seems to hang at 'preparing backup' and then I get error messages that the drive was unexpectantly removed, even though I didn't touch anything.
Assuming it is the portable Western Digital HD what is a good brand/make to use for TM backups. If the particular drive is not the problem, what should I look at?

Did you prep the drive before you started using it? Do the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

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.
When asking for help, post your question in the forum. Remember to include your system type, model number and OS. Do not post your serial number.
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My TPs: Twist 2HU: i5-3317U Win 8 Pro, 4GB RAM 250GB Samsung 840 | T420 4177CTO: i5-2520M, HD+, Win 7 Pro x64, 8GB RAM, Optimus, 160GB Intel 320 SSD, Intel 6300 WiFi, BT 3.0 | T400 2764CTO: P8700, WXGA, Win 7 Ult x64, AMD 3470, 8GB RAM, 64GB Samsung SSD, BT, Intel 5300 WiFi | A20m 14.1" PIII 500 (retired). Monitors: 2x Dell U2211h IPS 100% sRGB calibrated w/ Spyder3.

Recommended new hard drive for MacBook Pro

Hi, my mate has a MacBook Pro 2.16 GHz. He wants to upgrade the hard drive to something bigger than the current 5400rpm 120GB.
Can anyone recommend some of the best drives (or the best) to go with at this point in time?
I think probably it's worth going for 7200rpm, don't you think? Probably looking for something in the 250-320GB mark.

Presently the largest drive you can install is the Samsung 500 GB Spinpoint drive. It's the only 500 GB drive that fits in a 15" MBP. It's a 5400 RPM drive with 8 GB cache. Other drives are available up to 320 GBs (they all fit) varying from 5400 RPM to 7200 RPM - some with 8 GB and some with 16 GB caches. Models are available from the main manufacturers such as Seagate, Toshiba, Hitachi, Samsung, Western Digital. You will need to choose between performance and price.
Good sources for drives are:
MacSales.com
Buy.com
NewEgg.com
Note that when you buy an OEM drive that vendors do not provide any warranty service. If the drive doesn't work you can get it replaced (right away.) But if the drive fails more than 30 days after purchase then you get your warranty service from the drive's manufacturer. New drives may come with 3 or 5 year warranties from the manufacturer. You will pay extra for the better option.

Transfering data from a Windows XP/PC external USB hard drive to MBP.

I recently purchased a 15.4" Macbook Pro and it is my first Mac computer. I have a USB 2.0 external hard drive currently attached to my Windows XP based PC and I am hoping to a.) get the information currently on this drive on to my Macbook Pro and b.) use this drive--even if reformatting is necessary--as an external device on my Macbook Pro.
Both computers are connected to the same wireless network (via a Linksys Wireless-G hub) and both have USB 2.0 ports--but my PC has no firewire ports.
I am simply wondering: what is the best way to get the information from the external harddrive to my Macbook Pro? The MBP didn't seem to "recognize" the drive initially when I plugged it into the laptop's USB port.

oh yes, you are unfamiliar with windows sharing. no prob.
First off you have to set up a network on your windows PC. I don't know how savvy you are with your PC, but basically you have run the network setup wizard. You might also have to set up a protocol in your network properties (usually IPX will do the trick). If you click on the windows start button and see a network button near the my computer button you are most of the way there.
Once you have your computer set up for networking you need to enable sharing, which you also do in the network properties (there is a checkbox somewhere).
Lastly, you need to specify which folder(s) you want to share! Just right click on the drive (D: for example) in my computer and click 'sharing'. Naviagate the menus and enable sharing.
Your MBP is already set up for talking to windows networks, so just go to finder and click on networks, pick the workgroup that you specified when you set up your network on your windows machine and click ok. A connection to your external drive should appear. Now you can drag and drop all the files you want.
Sorry if this is confusing, but I can't really rememeber all this stuff off the top of my head.
If you want more clarification, search for 'how to share in windows XP' or something like that.
Good luck

Use WRT350N and USB hard drive for backup

I intend to use a Western Digtal MY BOOK Essential Edition (500 GB USB external hard drive) with my WRT350N router for backing up my data every night. Has anyone used this combination? Can you tell me if there are any obstacles I should be aware of? The backup software I will use is Genie Backup Manager. I think I am going to need help in configuring the router to use the external hard drive.
Thanks,
poorolepaul

There were rumors floating around that the USB port in the 350N can not handle anything over 250Gb. Since the drive I used with the 350N was not that large I have no personal knowledge of whether that is true or not.
In any event, using the current firmware for the 350n (1.3.02) you can be assured that the USB will totally lock up about every day or two and the router and hard drive will have to be reset. Using the beta firmware that you can either request from Linksys or find available from someone on the Internet, that problem APPEARS to be fixed. The only problem is that a gigabit network connection will now lock up every day or two. That was my personal experience and what I have read by others.
My recommendation would be not to buy the 350N until they release firmware that fixes these problems otherwise you'll be as frustrated with the product as I am and others are.

Recommend A Hard Drive For My Mac Pro ...

Hi,
I am trying to troubleshoot some problems I am having with running FCP on my Mac Pro and it seems that I need a dedicated hard drive. Can anyone recommend one?
Is 500GB enough or am I just going to regret not having gone straight for the 1TB a year later?
Thanks in advance.

I'd buy from newegg.com. They're not the cheaper online seller, but they're reliable and they make RMAs simple and easy.
Also, you'll know what make and model you're getting before it arrives on your front porch.
The installation of a hard drive or three in your MacPro is extremely simple and easy. Pull the drive carrier out, screw in the four semi-captive screws that are contained in the carrier into the bottom of the drive and push the carrier/drive back into the slot. Close up, boot up, and go to Disk Utility to format the drive as Mac OS Extended. You can do that from either the Erase or Partition tab, but the Erase tab is a little more simple.

Looking for recommendations - new internal drive for MBP

Hi all,
I have a 17" MBP core 2 duo from a couple of years ago, with a 100GB 7200rpm drive. I want to swap out the drive with a new 500GB drive, still 7200rpm, so I'm looking for recommendations as to what people think are the current best of the crop. Any suggestions?
Cheers,
Antonio

I was looking for a 500GB 7200RPM drive for my MBP 15" at the end of 2008, but no one made one yet. I saw the Seagate ST9500420ASG 500GB 7200RPM 16MB BUFFER SERIAL ATA listed as coming soon on MacMall and a few other places in January 2009 and ordered it as soon as it was available.
I had done some research on power consumption and performance... Tom's Hardware had some good info on the subject. The fastest drives at the time were the 320GB 7200 RPM and 500GB 5400 RPM. If the trends I came across during my research held up, power consumption for the new Seagate shouldn't have affected my battery life too much. All my research seemed to confirm this.
Now that I have been using the drive for a few months, I can tell you that my batter life has taken a HUGE hit. I used to easily get 5 hours with my old 120 GB stock drive... now, I'm lucky if I get 2 hours. Plus, it seems that this drive gets hot enough to cause performance issues.. I'm not sure if that's the case yet, but I will be bringing my MBP into the Apple store to check on it.
At this point, I'm willing to sacrifice some speed for more battery life and a cooler running computer.
All this to say, be sure you're willing to sacrifice some battery life for the biggest and fastest drive around.

Please recommend replacement Hard Drive for imac G5 17in

My 160gb drive died, and I would like to replace with a larger drive. Can I please have your recommendations for a replacement. The original drive is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Model # st3160023as
I'd like to find something at least 250gb and 100% imac compatible... any suggestions???
Thanks!

Hi dstusnick-
Greetings and welcome to the Apple boards
Take a look here: Mac Drive Upgrades/Compatibility Database
Luck-
-DP

Hard Drive for MBP 15"

Hello,
I am thinking to choose the otional 750Gb/7200rpm HD for a new 15" MBP. Does anybody can tell me in comparison to the standard 500Gb/5400rpm ...
- noise
- sensitivity / durability
- power consuption
- speed advantage of "normal" everyday work (Email, internet, iphoto, photoshop elements, office, a little video, parallels/WinXP)
... and, which HDs (brand, model) are built in (the 500 Gb and the 750 Gb)? I cannot find any specifications for the new MBP 15" late 2011.
Thanks

Isn't there anybody out there, who can help me with my questions?

USB hard drive is not recognized on MBP running Lion

Hello,
I have:
- Freecom ToughDrive Pro USB hard drive
- New MBP running Lion 10.7.3
When I plug the disk in an USB port in the MBP, the light that indicates operation starts blinking but very lighltly colored and the disk is not recognized by the computer. I have put data on it using iMac Snow Leopard. I have plugged the disk into a MBP running Snow Leopard and it works. I have also tried another Lion (older MBP) and it also works.
What is wrong? How come the disk is not mounted or shown in Disk Utility. Can it be a power issue? Any ideas?
I have noticed there a lot of similar posts in the forum and none has been satisfactorily solved. Is this a mayor Lion bug? If yes, how can I downgrade to Snow Leopard?

dafnedr wrote:
Thanks for the reply.
However... how is it possible that with all other MBPs I have tried it works just fine? Has Apple lowered the power levels in recent models? The other MBP where I have tried the disk on are just over a year old, my current one is only a month old.
Are you saying that USB ports on different Apple computers are supplying different levels of power? That's psychotic! It should be a standard power level... or it should go up on newer models... not down!!!
I think I'm just gonna return this piece of scrape and get my old (one year old) MBP back... Snow Leopard was bliss compared to this... I rather go back than have to jump to a store to buy a cable to make something work that should work by default.
On the one Mac it does not work on that Mac does not put out enough power to fully power the drive. If it works on other Mac's we know that the drive works, so that question is answered. And it doesn't work on your newest Mac then there can only one answer, Not Enough Power is being put out by the USB port to fully power it.
Yes the one Mac that it is not working on has a lower USB power output. Why, I have no idea.
This is Very Common you can find posts about it on all notebook forums. Psychotic, No. Yes Mac is touted as "It Just Works" which is a flat out LIE.
Do what you think is best for you. Good Luck

Unable to eject external USB hard drive

I've been using a 500 gb WD Passport external USB hard drive for about six months now, and recently it's had trouble ejecting. I'm not sure if it's the drive itself or my OS; sometimes I can eject it, other times I get the "the disk __ wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it.".
There are NO programs using the drive, and no users connected to the drive from elsewhere. Is there some process in the activity monitor that may be preventing the disk from unmounting?
I've tried to log out, relaunch the finder, quite all programs, etc - but the only sure fire method is to restart the computer - which leads me to believe there is some underlying system process that is causing the eject sequence to hang...
Any ideas? Will I potentially harm my disk's contents by force ejecting every time (so long as I'm certain no programs are writing files)?
Thanks!

I'm aslo having problems with a USB drive. In this case it's my Time Machine drive. Similar symptom that the only way to eject it is to restart the computer. Otherwise I get the same message. I also tried the Terminal command with the drag/return. What showed was an empty command line:
+ip-109-43-193-109:~ user$+
Now, the reason why I've even tried to do this is because I'm having problems backing up withTime Machine. Upon boot up, the first backup always works, but typically any subsequent b/up will fail with the following error code:
+Starting standard backup+
+Backing up to: /Volumes/Jimz TM 2/Backups.backupdb+
+Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.ModelID path:/Volumes/Jimz TM 2/Backups.backupdb/user's MBP size:13+
+Error: (-50) Creating directory 2010-07-08-112436.inProgress+
+Failed to make snapshot container.+
+Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.ModelID path:/Volumes/Jimz TM 2/Backups.backupdb/user's MBP size:13+
+Backup failed with error: 2+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
+Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk!+
Also, this is the first time that I've seen the error lines regarding ejection of the disc.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this.

Recommended USB Hard Drive for MBP

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