Suggestion for backup drive for Air

I've enjoyed getting to know my MacBook Pro this past year or so, but I'm still new to the Airbook and need some assistance. I'm going to help an elderly friend move data from her old iMac to her 1st Gen. Airbook. I'm insisting she get a backup drive, but the Seagate Free Agent I recently bought won't work for her, because it is either FireWire, which Airbooks don't have, or it requires two powered USB ports. Given that the Air has one USB, would we be able to get around it by using a powered USB hub? Is there a specific drive that anyone can suggest? I'd prefer Mac formatted/ready to go, but not absolutely necessary. An external drive with a built in power supply tends to be bigger than we'd prefer. What about a USB flash drive? I don't think she's filled the 80 GB solid state drive on the Air so she doesn't likely need a huge capacity drive. Any help you can give would be most welcome.

Hi SFMacNewbiew,
Happy to hear that you're enjoying your MacBook Pro.
I have the following drive currently:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/TR043ZM/A
What's nice about it, is that I have FW flexibility. The cable for the USB has the double USB cables and I've been backing up to it using the single USB (power & data) without problems for 4+ months now.
I've also used this one as well:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/TV523VC/A
When you think about it, the second one is a better bang for the buck. It is, however, USB only.
One thing you mentioned is that she has an older iMac, so getting a drive with a FW interface wouldn't be all that bad and with enough storage she could theoretically use the HD with both machines. I've yet to come across a reasonable priced portable HD that I've had to use with a powered USB-hub.
Regarding the thumb drives, I'd recommend against them. Even a "base install" with some data is 12-19 GB on most MacBook Airs unless she did a custom installation.

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Tim,
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Message was edited by: SPD

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Australia.. !!
But same back to you.. with knobs on!!

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DevonC wrote:
I haven't set up Time Machine yet because it wants me to completely format my external hard drive, and it seems to want to use it for TM backups exclusively?
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Lets see if we can address some of these:
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USB3 is "backwards compatible" with USB2 so plugging a USB3 drive into a USB2 port should work, but at USB2 speeds.
Is it common for drives to have both Thunderbolt and USB2 connections?
Drives sold as Thunderbolt often (not always) have USB as well, drives sold as USB never (in my experience) have Thunderbolt connections.
Are there "hubs" for Thunderbolt like there are for USB? Considering the limited number of ports, I'm wondering the best way to connect 2 external drives. My iMac has 4 USB2 ports on the back, and I connect one drive separate to each of those ports, rather than going through a hub.
Yes there are (but don't expect them to be comparable in price to a USB hub) e.g. see here: http://www.belkin.com/uk/p/P-F4U055/
Is Thunderbolt just an Apple thing? Or is it a new standard widely used by peripherals now? I just never heard of it before. Is it faster than USB3?
I'ts an Apple technology (like firewire) and is far from widely used on peripherals. There ARE Thunderbolt drives etc by companies such as LaCie, WD etc but they are still very expensive (3 or 4x the price of an equivalent sized USB drive). For some this was a worthwhile expense since Thunderbolt is many times faster than USB2. But the arrival of USB3 has, in my opinion, changed the landscape. Yes, Thunderbolt is theoretically faster than USB3 (up to twice as fast) but benchmark tests have shown that in real world situations, the speed difference varies from no difference to Thunderbolt being 25 or 30% faster. When you take into account that USB3 drives are more common than Thunderbolt and are only a little more expensive than USB2 drives at present, then it's a "no brainer" as far as I am concerned.
Hope this helps.
Jon

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