Silent external desktop hard drives?

hi all,
i am looking at buying an external hard drive for my imac. i am aiming for a capacity of 500gb, firewire connection, fast operation and most importantly silent or near silent operation.
my intension's are to use this drive for my audio content in my studio. therefore, reliability and noise level are the key features i will be looking for.
could anyone recommend a drive or knows where i can find more about these drives?
so far, the drives i have had my eye on is:
buffalo drive station combo
seagate freeagent pro
lacie d2 quad (cant remember the model number)
what do people think of these?

+i am looking at buying an external hard drive for my imac. i am aiming for a capacity of 500gb, firewire connection, fast operation and most importantly silent or near silent operation.+
My Maxtor 300GB is fast with nearly silent fan! Below is the same unit only with a 500GB HD...
Maxtor OneTouch™ III 500 GB FireWire 400
Here's the Lacie d2
LaCie d2 Quadra External 500GB Hard Drive
You can also use PriceGrabber.com and DealTime links to search and compare other brands.
Message was edited by: den.thed

Similar Messages

How do I stream purchased movies to my Macbook Pro if I've already downloaded them and moved the source files to an external desktop hard drive and I'm away from home?

I recently added a number of movies to my iTunes library by redeeming digital copeis that came with Blu-rays. Due to limted disc space on my MacBook Pro, and for safe keeping, once I downloaded the movies, I moved the source files to an external desktop hard drive. When I'm home and I'm able to access that external HD via my home network, I'm able to watch the movies without an issue. However, if I'm away from home and I want to watch them, I'm not sure how to do that. I thought I could "stream" purchased movies from within iTunes - even after downloading them - using "iTunes in the Cloud" but can't figure out how to do that, or it simply isn't possible.
What are my options?

I understand that I can't play my downloaded movies when my external HDD is not connected becuase iTunes is looking for the downloaded files. This is not the issue. The issue is that because my HDD is not connected (as in when I'm away from home) I'd like to be able to stream the movies via the cloud.
If I hadn't downloaded the movies when I redeemed my codes, would I have been able to keep the movies online via Apple iCloud and watched them anytime by streaming them or must the movies be downloaded in order to be viewed on my MacBook? I read that Apple allows movies purchased (or redeemed) via iTunes to be stored in the cloud via Apple iCloud so that they can be viewed any time, on any device. IF this is the case, how does it work? From what I can see, it looks like movies can only be "streamed" from the cloud when useing Apple TV; on my iPhone and MacBook Pro, it looks like they need to be downloaded in order to be viewed.
Can someone clarify this for me?
Also - Michael - when you said that If I've already downloaded the film but I'm away from my external HDD I should "Delete the entry from the iTunes library so iTunes only sees the iTunes in the Cloud version", what exactly would this mean? Would this mean that I could then stream the movie from the cloud or would I have to re-download it to my Mac's internal HDD in order to watch it?
Many thanks!

Toshiba 1TB USB 3.5" External Desktop Hard Drive I need help

Hi and I hope you can help me soon.
I have a Toshiba 1TB USB 3.5" External Desktop Hard Drive which has worked as a back up to my computer without fail and last week I had to get a new computer with W8 installed. I connected this external up to retrieve my backed up folders etc and it was OK at first but now it does not show up under the computer tab but is visble in the devices and printers section of Control panel, I can also see it in the disk management console. It is just the Computer tab where I cannot see it, the problem being that my backup program cannot locate it either and I need to retrieve e-mails etc.
I have a HP desktop running W8 with 8GB of RAM. it is also 64BIT
One other point is that I can access the external using a laptop of my daughters so I know it is OK.
Thank you for any help.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I reassigned it the drive letter..
Great, Jeff. That's actually not an uncommon problem.
My Drive does not appear in Windows Explorer view
-Jerry

I need to move the iTunes library to an External Hard Drive to free up space on iMac. Need suggestions on type of External Hard Drive to use. A Multimedia Hard Drive like LaCie LaCinema Classic HD Multimedia Hard Drive OR a Large Desktop Hard Drive?

I need to move an iTunes library to an External Hard Drive to free up space on iMac. I Need suggestions on type of External Hard Drive to use. Should you use a Multimedia Hard Drive like LaCie LaCinema Classic HD Multimedia Hard Drive OR a standard Large Desktop Hard Drive like Western Digital/Seagate/LaCie?

There is no benefit to the multi-media feature on the first drive you mentioned. If you are going to look at differences between certain drives, I'd look at the differences in reliability first.

I have a Free Agent external backup hard drive connected to my iMac Intel desktop via USB. Why do I get an error message, from time to time, upon startup stating: "disk was disconnected improperly, always eject disk before disconnecting"?

I have a Free Agent external backup hard drive connected to my iMac Intel desktop via USB, I never unplug it. Why do I get an error message, from time to time, upon startup stating, "Disk was disconnected improperly. Always eject disk before disconnecting."?

I never unplug the external harddrive, and the error message comes up only occassionaly upon startup. Maybe the USB connection gets disrupted enough to cause the computer to see it as disconnected and then reconnected while the iMac is powered.

External USB Hard Drive not showing up on Time Capsule

Hi all,
I have a 500 Gb Time Capsule that used to be able to detect my external USB hard drives. I had to store my things for a while and have just started using the Time Capsule again. The TC works fine, however, the same USB external hard drives I used to connect to the TC are not showing up anymore :s They show up on the desktop when I connect them directly to my MacBook via USB. I have been through most of the file sharing options in Airport Utility and System Preferences but have not been able to solve this. I can't think of any settings that would have changed from when they were showing up in the past. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thx

yosemite won't work with ntfs drives for some reason, i've had the same issue with my toshiba. i thought ok lemme buy another one, and transfer it over maybe it's a driver issue which i've tried over and over, apple support can't figure it out.
here's a simple fix, but the problem is i have an external where all my photography and video files are stored, so i can't access them right now and it's making my life ****.
http://guides.macrumors.com/Formatting_an_External_Device
that does work and make the drive mountable now, but problem being i can't obviously reformat the old drive and lose everything. once the new drive is formatted for mac i can't plug it into a pc to transfer the files from. which is the only problem now. but formatting the drive for mac only DOES work. but you're just screwed and not able to use it ntfs. hope the link helps SOME people.

Can You Now Install Windows 7 64-bit On an External Thunderbolt Hard Drive?

Hi. Will Windows 7 see external Thunderbolt hard drives as internal and install it finally to an external hard drive (for Boot Camp)? Has anyone tried it yet? Thank you in advance.
Gbu.

Yep, it works great.
I bought the Thunderbolt adapter for my Seagate GoFlex. Use the Windows 7 install USB stick that Boot Camp makes. Each time Windows installer reboots, you need to hold the option key to reboot back to the new installation. If you miss it and the computer boots back to OS X, no problem, just reboot with option. Once Windows is finished, run Windows Support from your USB stick.
    When you try to select Boot Camp in the startup disk control pannel, there is only one 'Boot Camp' even if you have a Windows installation on your internal drive. When you boot into 'Boot Camp' there is a high quality beatiful black and white ASCII boot manager screen that Microsoft made. You'll see 'Windows 7' and 'Windows 7' to choose from. There is a freeware boot manager editor you can use to uniquely name your various Windows boots, or you can use Microsoft's cryptic text based editor. Windows doesn't do Thunderbolt plug and play, so if you're on an internal Windows and plug in the drive, it won't appear or even start up. Reboot and it'll be available in the boot manager.
    I plugged the drive in through the Thunderbolt display, and everything worked fine. I was sure I would have activation trouble with all the peripherals in the TB display, but there was none. In the Windows Device Manager, every last thing has a properly working driver. I've never seen a PC with every device working.
    It all works because Thunderbolt really is a PCI express slot, just like in a desktop machine. In the GoFlex enclosure, there's an ATA controller just like on an adapter card. Windows hasn't a clue that it's external.

Choosing an external FireWire hard drive to boot from

Hi all, my iMac Hard Drive recently died so i was looking to get an external hard drive to to run it from. I didn't want to pay for an internal hard drive to be fitted because it costs too much and im not confident enough to fit it myself. My question is, would i need a desktop Hard Drive with its own power, or would a portable hard drive be okay? X

Find someone good with tools and a little patience. There are online guides on how to change the drive. I did it on the dining room table (lots of room around, lots of light).
I did it without really following the guides (except getting the screen cover off) and it took 34 minutes (interrupted by a trip to the hardware store to get a set of small Torx drivers).
It's a good opportunity to upgrade as well - I threw in a 2 TB drive. I recovered from the TM volume.
BUT: It would be nice if Apple put in drive access bays on the back of the iMacs. Shouldn't be too much of a problem to solve.

[SOLVED] Kernel panic when using external USB hard drive

I have a desktop PC with a 64 bit arch install, on a Core2 Duo 6320 CPU. I have been using (and continue using right now) a 500 GB "Iomega Desktop Hard Drive" external USB hard disk without problems. But I have just bought a 3 TB "Seagate Expansion" external USB hard drive and I'm unable to use it from my Arch install. Each time I try to format it or to copy data from the PC, Arch freezes with a kernel panic. Sometimes it freezes faster and I cannot see anything, but others I am able to see the following kernel messages, repeating several times:
[11701.205071] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13380 tag 29, inflight: CMD
[11701.221297] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.221313] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.221323] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13500 tag 30, inflight: CMD
[11701.237550] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.237567] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.237576] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13680 tag 31, inflight: CMD
[11701.253922] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.253936] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.253956] sd 3:0:0:0: uas_eh_device_reset_handler
[11704.252182] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: LOGICAL UNIT RESET timed out
[11704.252196] scsi host3: uas_eh_bus_reset_handler start
[11704.252443] usb 5-6: stat urb: killed, stream 0
[11704.358882] usb 5-6: reset high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[11704.483206] scsi host3: uas_eh_bus_reset_handler success
Strange enough, the drive is listed by lsusb command as a 2TB but I don't think this is related to the problem (as the OS sees the 3 TB). This is the lsusb output:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bc2:3312 Seagate RSS LLC SRD00F2 [Expansion Desktop Drive 2TB]
I have tried the drive on other PCs and it works flawlessly. Also tried booting Windows 8 on the same PC I have Arch installed in, and in Windows it also works perfect. I have tried using ext2 and NTFS filesystems. Tried also changing the USB cable without success. And right now I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?
Last edited by doragasu (2014-07-03 11:06:25)

looks like it could be the UAS module , check https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=183190

Transfering iTunes files to new computer using external USB hard drive

Thought this could be useful:
If you want to transfer your complete iTunes library to a new computer preserving all your playlists and library information, but without using your iPod as a hard dive, or without burning a CD or DVD, you can do it by using an USB external hard drive following these easy steps:
1) Quit iTunes
2) Connect your USB external hard drive to your computer and acccess it thru My PC or Windows Explorer.
3) Create two new folders in your external hard drive (you can name them LIBRARY Backup and PLAYLISTS Backup).
4) Open the LIBRARY Backup folder.
5) Open another Windows Explorer or My PC window; open the iTunes Music folder (usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My documents\My music\iTunes).
6) Copy all of its contents (only the contents, not the whole folder) to the LIBRARY Backup folder you created in your external USB Hard Drive.
7) Close both the LIBRARY Backup folder from your USB external hard drive and the iTunes Music folder.
8) Open the PLAYLISTS Backup folder from your USB external hard drive
9) From your iTunes folder, copy the iTunes Music Library.xml to the PLAYLISTS Backup folder.
10) Close all the windows and extract your USB external hard drive from your PC ()
11) Install iTunes in your new computer.
12) Using Windows Explorer open the iTunes Music folder (usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My documents\My music\iTunes).
13) Connect the USB hard drive to your new computer and open it using another Windows Explorer window.
14) Open the LIBRARY Backup folder and copy all of its contents (only the contents, not the whole folder) to the iTunes Music folder in your new computer. After the copying is complete, close this folder.
15) Copy the PLAYLISTS Backup folder to you new computer’s desktop.
16) Close Windows Explorer and extract USB hard drive.
17) Open iTunes
18) From the File menu, choose Import. Navigate to the iTunes Music Library.xml file on the Desktop and click Choose. The imported playlist will show only songs located on the computer's hard disk or external media.
19) You can now delete the xml. file from your new computer’s desktop if you wish.
PC Windows XP Owner of 5th Generation iPod

Type "move itunes library" into the Google search bar.
Type "ipod touch not recognized by itunes" into the search bar at the top of this page by "Support"

I put my macbook to sleep and unplugged my external USB hard drive, now It

does not show up on the desktop and can not be verified in Disk Utility. This is my first mac but have been running linux for a while now. Any help would be appreciated.

rustytiger wrote:
I put my macbook to sleep and unplugged my external USB hard drive, now it
does not show up on the desktop and can not be verified in Disk Utility. This is my first mac but have been running linux for a while now. Any help would be appreciated.
Well I hate to ask the silly question here but... did you plug the external hard drive back in?

External USB hard drive doesn't mount until reboot

Hey there. I bought an external USB hard drive (a 250 GB drive by ComStar) last week, and I'm having trouble getting it to mount. The first time I plug it in, it works fine and shows up on the desktop. When I remove it (having properly ejected it first) and plug it in again later, it doesn't show up. It's not on the desktop, it's not in Disk Utility, and it's not in /Volumes (via the Terminal). If I reboot my Mac, it's there again.
Has anyone else had this problem with external drives? Are there any solutions or workarounds?

The first time I plug it in after a boot up. It doesn't matter if my Mac has been up for three weeks -- if it's the first time I've plugged in the hard drive since the last reboot, it always works perfectly.
It's very strange and annoying. It's almost like it's not getting ejected properly.
That being said, I just ejected and unplugged it, waited five minutes, and plugged it back in. The stupid thing worked this time. It's driving me nuts! I don't mind things that don't work, but things that work sometimes are really frustrating. If no one else is having this issue, it's probably something unique to this particular drive.

500 GB external USB hard drive USB 2 configuration problems

Hello Sirs.
I recently adquired a 500 Gb external USB hard drive part number PX1269E-1G50.
I have some problems with the USB 2.0 configuration in windows XP. When i connect it to an usb 2.0 port i receive the message "High-speed USB hard disk drive plugged into a non-hi-speed usb hub", and the device stays in low USB (12 mbits/s) speed. (I checked the port with another usb 2.0 peripheral and the port is working in usb 2.0 mode correctly).
I checked the PXI1269E-1G50 in others pc and i have same results. I cant get it to work in USB 2.0 mode. I also have some problems with the virtual CD partition that is always present when you insert it and mount. Exist a way to remove it ?
I only use the hard disk for daily data back-up and i don't want to use any more drive letters in my system.
The main PC is an ASUS P4P800-E deluxe with windows XP SP2 fully updated and build in USB 2.0 intel controller.
Best regards
PAMF

Hello again everybody
OK. Finally i had to send the disk to my dealer. Toshiba in Spain says there is not solution. Sorry. This is an erratic product. Sometimes with one cofiguration simply works and sometimes with a different configuration does not connect in USB 2.0 mode. I don't want such a product in my desktop... and the Virtual CDrom is impossible to turn off. (I'm not interested in security tools. I only want to make daily backups)
Thanks to everybody in the forum for your help.
pamf
[Edited by: admin on 09-Jan-2007 20:51]

External Firewire hard drive won't mount after 10.4.10 update

I see many posts about USB drives not mounting after 10.4.10 update. Just lending my voice to that issue (my USB drive won't work either) as well as the 10.4.10 update breaking Firewire drives.
Hope a fix is coming. No backups are scaaaary.

How to fix the problem of a missing external Hard Drive (Firewire) after it vanishes from you desktop after installing 10.4.10 update.
I have a iMac PPC (Non intel). Aparently my system upated installed the wrong version of 10.4.10 and thus my external firewire hard drives a 320 GB Westerndigital My Book, and Acomdata 80 GB, and aWestern Digital 160 GB media center all vanished from the desktop.
The instructions below should be credited to several different people. I found various version of these steps in the Discussion. I combines a few of them into this one 10 step fix and it worked for me. I hope it works for you.
1) Shut down you computer
2) Unplug all peripherals (i.e USB and Firewire, I left computer power plug in as well as ethernet and Keyboard+ Mouse) and leave along for 30 Minutes
3) Restart holding down the Command (Apple) + Option + P + R keys for three startup bongs, then release the keys and your computer will start up as usual.
4) Verify and repair disk Permission using Disk Utility. (Several things were repaired here)
5) Instal 10.4.10 Combo PPC
6) Restart Again
7) Again repair Disk permissions (None of mine needed to be repaired fyi this time)
8) Unplug Power cable and Firewire cable from External Hard Drive (leave along for 1 minute)
9) Reconnect power to Firewire External Drive first then the Firewire cable to the drive second, then the firewire cable from the Drive to the computer last.
10) Turn on your Firewire Drive... you will head it spin up and eventually show up on your desktop just like it did before the 10.4.10 update.

Is 250GB External USB Hard Drive compatible with Mac OSX on an iBook G4?

Hello,
I just bought a Toshiba 250GB External Usb Hard Drive because the seller recommended it to telling me that it works in my computer iBook G4 Mac OSX.
I prepared it and I see it on my desktop with a folder named System Volume Information and 2.32 GB available.
I tried to copy a file and I received a message telling that the disc can't be modified.
Where can I find the instructions to initialize it if it is compatible?
Thanks in advance,
Joan
Message was edited by: jinglada
Message was edited by: jinglada

I have a feeling this is a similar problem to my 400GB Usb2 drive. I reformatted it to the default Mac format in Disk Utility and it mounted!! Try this

Silent external desktop hard drives?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for