The right external drive for my configuration

I am looking to get an external hard drive for backup purposes and also to extend the storage space of a sorely limited Powerbook G3. It has a 6GB hard drive. In other words, you can't use it for anything except the internet and a few documents!
I've done some research but am no closer to figuring out what drive would be best for me. The thing is, I need the convenience of a portable because I'll be using it for backup with all 3 of the computers in different places in the house (an iBook G4, a Powerbook G3, and an iMac G3). But because I'll be using it for 3 computers and want to store bootable clones of at least my iBook's 60GB drive and the iMac's 20GB drive, I need more storage space than I've seen in portables. I also need to be able to run applications off it for the Powerbook.
I don't think I can afford to get more than one drive, especially since portables seem pretty pricey. I'd really rather not spend more than $150 and definitely not more than $200.
Anyone have any suggestions for the best solution?

Hi amybl,
You can get a portable 120-160GB firewire/USB drive for less than you think. OWC's drives are rated highly too.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
John
If your PB is the Firewire model the Firewire 400 (w/o USB) is even cheaper.

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Migration Assistant is not moving files from my Macbook OS X 10.5.8 to My new Macbook Pro just purchased. Apple Support suggested I transfer thru an external drive. They suggested a 1 TB. They said it would be sufficient for migration and afterward for back up and storage of media and pics. What would be the best one for this purpose?
Thank You

Go to OWC and purchase a drive and an enclosure. Put it together yourself. Takes about five minutes and a screwdriver. Or you can purchase one already complete from them if you prefer.

What is the best external drive for my MBP using Bootcamp

Here is what I would like to do.
I have the latest MBP (5/2008) and I am using bootcamp with vista. I use my mac side and my vista side of the partition equally.
I am finding it annoying that I am running out of drive space on both side of my computer.
I am looking for an external drive that I can use with both vista and OS X. Do they exist? I am guessing any drive can be formated to work with one or the other but can any drive work with both at the same time?
Ideally the drive would be a wifi drive and I can save off all my music and pictures to the external drive and it would be able to stream the music back to my notebook on either side of bootcamp.
I would also like to plug the drive in and use it as an external drive when editing with final cut.
I would also like to use the drive wirelessly for backups with OS X time machine.
Is this asking too much from an external drive?
What type of drives work well with OS X/ FCP and video storage? Does it have to be firewire or can it be USB2.0?
Thanks for any help. I am asking because the 1TB apple time capsule is too expensive and will not work with vista.

Edit Update:
When I saw wireless-ly all I am really looking for is an drive that can also be used as a networked drive. The drive itself does not need wifi (might be nice) I just want to be able to be able to keep the drive away from my laptop (most of the time) and plug it into my router so it will show up as a networked drive for both all my computers on my home network.
Thanks for any suggestion
Healimonster

Picking the right external drives

i have been looking at the G-tech series, the G-DRIVE mini or G-RAID mini
but have heard that the Hitachi drives are too great? But hey, if they're good enough for Chase Jarvis surely they're good enough for me?
Also been looking at the Western Digital My Book series.
Ideally i would like a 2tb firewire drive for external storage with a possible RAID, a 1TB (or required amount) for a scratch disk and another 1tb drive for time machine.

rkaufmann87 wrote:
The drives themselves are fine it's the enclosures that cause problems. What we frequently see on these forums is people that have a WD EHD and they'll lose they're connection. Many will plug them into a PC and they can then be used so they then think it's a problem with their Mac. However when any other make is plugged in they work fine so it points the finger at the WD enclosures. People buy them because they're cheap however almost always when we get someone that is complaining.
I don't use WD enclosures, just WD drives. Perhaps that is why I haven't had the problem.
I'm glad to hear you have had good luck with them, have all the machines you have plugged them into been Macs?
They were all PC's until I switched to my iMac in 2009 and it has been either my iMac or MBP since then.
I'm sure you will be please with your new OWC drive and enclosure, OWC specializes in Macs so you know if you buy something from them it almost always works fine.
I also purchased 16GB of Samsung DRAM from them. It will go into my 27" refurbished i7 when it gets here on Monday.

Choosing the right external drive

Hi
It's about time I backed up my systems before it's too late.
I'm going to purchase an external firewire hard drive to backup an iBook G3 900Mhz & an iMac intel core duo
1) Can I use a S.A.T.A. drive?
2) Should I partition it with the Apple Partition Map scheme?
3) Or should I get an external caddy and use two separate drive?
regards
Steve

Hi Steve,
When I acquired an external hard drive I had a few complications. For example, I got an external thinking it was a hard drive, but found that it was only an empty hard drive enclosure that did NOT even contain a hard drive at all. Then I got an enclosure that actually contained a hard drive inside, but there were compatibility issues and no customer support that I'd call supportive.
I ultimately ended up with a very affordable 300 gig AppleMac compatible Seagate. It has one USB and 2 Firewire ports. I don't recall if it came with those cables, or not. Although they provide an easy to read user manual, when I DID need support and assistance, I found their customer service to actually be very helpful. They had me up and running in no time.
My external is partitioned. Although I could have partitioned it almost any way I wanted, I partitioned mine into 2. One side is for storing space-hoarding media and storage-greedy software programs, while the other side of the partition is a bootable snapshot of my hard drive that contains everything that was on the hard drive at the time that I installed the external. I think that it is the SATA type, but I'm not certain. I hope this helps you out a little bit.
Oops! I almost forgot. If you are going to back up the two differently formatted computers i.e., G3 versus Intel, then you WILL need 2 separate hard drives. If you do NOT plan to snapshot your hard drives for the purpose of booting, then you may be able to use the one install disc, that comes with the external, on both computers for backing up your files, and applications as long as the backed up data is compatible to (and stored on) both units.
Be aware that this will NOT work if you plan to use the external for the purpose of booting either one of the aforementioned computers, because they are totally different platforms. I could pull it off on my 2 Pismos, because they are the same platform, but I cannot accomplish it on an iBook and on a Pismo if either one of them has been snapshot for booting. Just in case the expense is not necessary, I would buy one drive and see if it can used for both platforms, before investing in a second external.
Good luck,
A Little Fish in the Big Mac pond

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I just checked the Epson folder in my HD & your model printer is NOT listed among them.

Is this the right Hard drive for my macbook??

Hi,
I have a macbook core duo, 1.83GHZ 1GB Ram and 60GB hard drive.
iam looking to upgrade it to this hard drive i have found, will it work in my macbook?
Here's the link http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk/catalogue/item/SEADR506.
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Ho dood,
found this on amazon.co.uk (there may be more, I suppose): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lindy-4002888430128-5pc-Precision-Torx/dp/B0000934GO/ref =pdsbs_ce2/026-2526034-8773264
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HT3275 New macbook, old external drive for time machine

I got a new macbook pro a few weeks ago and set it up using my last backup from time machine. I want to use the same external drive for backups but there is no room. Can I delete all of the old files from the old computer or do I need to keep them?

kat.hayes wrote:
I want to use a 3 TB external drive for Time Machine to backup multiple 500GB hard drives in my Macpro. I have lots of large video files from HD cameras.
1. Will Time Machine backup all of the hard drives in the Macpro?
As long as they're formatted HFS+, yes. Be sure there's enough room, though -- Time Machine needs considerably more room than the data it's backing-up. See #1 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Partition external drive for time machine

This deals more with Time Machine in general rather than Time Capsule, but this seems like the place to post the question. Is is possible to make Time Machine only use a certain amount of space on your external drive for backups? Basically, I use the same external drive for my backups and for storing other large files and videos. Time Machine always uses up every last bit of spare space, so every time I want to add a new file I have to go in and manually delete an old backup to create space for the new files. Is there a way to allow Time Machine to only use a certain amount of space for backups, say 300GB, and leave the rest of the drive available for my other uses?

Hello coltonbh. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Yes, but you will basically only have two choices to do so:
1) Temporarily remove the TC's internal drive (voiding your waranty); repartition it, and then, reinstall it, or
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I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

no.

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
A bootable clone is a bit-for-bit copy of all essential files in the startup volume. If using the Lions, clones can be made using CarbonCopyCloner or just plain old Disk Utility. These backups represent the safest protection of your info, but take the longest to do. Recovery is an inverse process: you copy the clone back into the internal drive.
Incremental backups start with a complete backup of the startup volume and only copy whatever changed from the previous run. OS X includes the fully integrated Time Machine backup utility to do this. It is extremely easy to do and takes the least amount of time. Recovery is another matter altogether since you have to start with a freshly installed instance of the OS and have to apply all intervening backups to bring the result to the latest saved version.
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Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

I have the G Drive 1 TB (GEN4 1TB) external drive purchased in 2010. I need to connect to my new MacBook Pro. I'm using the external drive for media storage of my video editing projects. Will a 800fw to thunderbolt adapter cable work?

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I doubt this can be relocated or moved so you might want to just repost in the macbook pro area.
MacBook Pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os?view=discussions
Can you afford a new Thunderbolt case and cable? any case with FW800 is going to be slow 72MB/sec and less, and any new 1TB drive is capable of 75MB/s minimum up to 125MB/sec.
Thunderbolt storage can of course when setup properly reach 100's of MB higher using multiple drives.
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G-Technology 1TB G-DRIVE mini High-Speed Portable Hard Drive
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If the external drive can be seen at all in Disk Utility, follow the instructions for repair here.

The right external drive for my configuration

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