What 1Tb external hard drive should I be considering for my new 27 in iMac.

I'm going to be purchasing a new 27in iMac soon. I have begun searching online reviews for a 1TB external hard drive. I may have narrowed the search down to OWC Mercury Elite and G Technolgyand maybe LaCie. Any help would be appreciated.

I'll second the recommendation for OWC (macsales.com); I also have a couple of LaCie's - there is nothing wrong, but I do prefer the Mercury Elite.
FWIW, most external hard drives come with some sort of software - there is absolutely no need for it. I plug in a new hard drive, wait until I see the icon on the desktop, launch Disk Utility and partition/format the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and (under options) GUID partition scheme. At that point, you can decide to have one or more partitions on it depending on what you want to use it for. In any case, that process will wipe the drive clean - when finished, the new hard drive will be ready for whatever you want to use it for.

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What size external hard drive should I purchase

What size external hard drive should I purchase? I'm not tech savvy, so please speak slowly. I'm looking at OWC Mini Stack Classic to match my older Mac Mini. Do I need 500 GB, 1 TB or more? Plus, I have to add memory to upgrade to Snow Leopard. How much memory do I need and should I have an expert install it ?
Mac OSX version 10.5.8
Mac mini 3.1
Processor 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3
1 Processor
2 Cores
L2 Cache 3MB
Memory 2GB
BUS Speed 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version MM3.1.0081.B06
SMC version 1.35f0
Hard Drive
Format MAC OS Extended
Capacity 297.77 GB
Available 238.69 GB
Used 59.08 GB on disk

Good points raised by all.
In my mini configs - both older and newer flatter model - I have kept their ministack external drive on top of the mini; with 3 or 4 little rubber feet added to the mini's base to give it a bit more elevation from the surface they are sitting on and a bit better chance to breathe. I'm not impressed by the very small air intakes on the bottom and the hot air that often comes out the back or how warm the case feels. Especially in the heat of summer.
I do turn the ministacks on/off as needed (primarily for backups once a week) as they're not entirely quiet and sometimes seem to have a low hum vibration. Nothing crazy. I just like it as dead quiet as possible sometimes. Plus the fan does not turn off even if the mini and ministack drive have shut down. The newer wide & slim model does seem a bit quieter than the older model.
Check through system profiler to see if your system has 2x1GB or 1x2GB. Most likely it is 2x1GB and you'd need to remove both to double your ram. On the off chance it has a free slot; a single 2GB stick would get you to 4GB. Check on the cost difference between the 2x2GB kit and a 2x4GB kit. I have an older core duo mini that functions fine with 2x2GB of RAM and 10.6.8. But, if you plan to continue to use the mini for several more years as a primary machine including upgrading the OS to Yosemite; it might not be a bad idea to just max it to 2x4 8GB. Yosemite really likes RAM to maximize performance.
Along the lines of keeping the same mini and doing upgrades. The biggest speed improvements are made by replacing the original internal hard drive with a flash drive. Of course this is a more technical upgrade, you really need to take the mini apart more and you have to weigh the cost of the upgrades and possibly paying somebody to do them; vs the cost of a newer system which would have a significantly faster processor and other improvements.

HT2476 Why when clicking the right mouse button for my external hard drive there is no option for "create new folder"?

Hi there. I'm having a problem with my external hard drive. Actually with only one of them (others seem to be ok...). The problem is that when clicking the right mouse button (or using other ways to do the same), in the drop-down list there isn't an option for "create new folder". Please, can anyone help with this issue?

The drive is NTFS formated. Most probably that's the reason, but there is some info on the drive which I wouldn't like to loose. If there is a way to re-format the drive and save the files, that would be great. If there isn't such a way, then please, tell me how to re-format it. But bear in mind as well that I'm using Parellels and the drive is to be used in Mac and Win modes, both. Just to add some more info: my other drive is FAT32 formated and all seems to go well with it.

WD 1TB External Hard Drive won't work with Snow Leopard

Hi all,
I recently purchased a Western Digital 1TB External Hard Drive. It came formatted for Windows with NTFS, but I didn't think this was a problem as the packaging stated it could easily be reformatted for Mac OS. To cut a long story short, it couldn't. When I plugged it in to my Mac (iMac 21" i3) and tried to use Disk Utility to reformat it, partition it, whatever, it just wouldn't work always returning some sort of error. I resorted to using a Gparted Live CD and succesfully formated it to HFS+ but yet when I plugged it into my Mac it wouldn't mount the disk. After following advice to let Disk Utility 'Repair' the disk, this is the output:
Verify and Repair volume “external”
Checking non-journaled HFS Plus Volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Unused node is not erased (node = 1458) [In red]
Checking catalog file.
Unused node is not erased (node = 5) [In red]
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Invalid directory item count [In red]
(It should be 1 instead of 0)
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume bitmap needs minor repair for orphaned blocks [In red]
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count [In red]
(It should be 244164065 instead of 244148705)
The volume external was found corrupt and needs to be repaired. [In red]
Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files. [In red]
If anyone knows what this means, and more importantly anything I can do to try and fix this, I would really really appreciate the help!
(Obviously I see it says reformat the disk, but this is easier said than done. Now Gparted crashes when it tries to read it and Disk Utility hangs indefinitely if I try to do anything to it)

asad.a wrote:
I believe the reasons behind this must have something to do with the errors highlighted by the repair process (as copied above)- errors I don't understand.
Disk Utility can't repair NTFS volumes.
If the drive is not seriously damaged ...
Go to Disk Utility
Click on the external Drive (not on the existing partition)
Click on Partition section in Disk Utility
In the Pane under "Current Scheme" highlite the Partition and then click the "-" (minus) sign down left.
Click on the dropdown "Current Scheme" and choose a matching scheme
On Format choose "Mac OS extended journaled"
Click "Apply"
Message was edited by: lupunus / typo's fixed

What size external hard drive do i need for Time Machine

What size external hard drive should I get to be my Time Machine backup? My iMac is 1TB. (also, I have MBP that is 250gb and will need one for it as well)
Thank you.

It is better to buy an external drive that has 3 times the storage capacity
as of the computer's internal HD.
Best.

Looking for best 1tb external hard drive for 2008 I-mac?

Hi, I'm currently running Snow Leopard 10.6.8, but might upgrade to Mavericks at some point. I have 3GB of RAM, but will upgrade to 6GB soon. I would like to get a reliable 1tb external hard drive. It's only for the desktop, so it doesn't have to be portable, although it might be nice to have a smaller one. I don't have much money to spend (not more than 90$), so if I could get a good one that doesn't cost too much (perhaps on sale?) that would be perfect. I mainly need it to store a lot of photos and videos, nothing fancy. What would be a good drive, or reliable company? I thought about this one: WD My Passport for Mac 1TB Portable External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 (WDBLUZ0010BSL-NESN) which I found on sale at 59,99$. It appeared to have a lot of good reviews on other sites, but many bad ones on this one, so I'm not sure. It also says on here that it needs 10.7 or higher to work, although someone else said it would work with Snow Leopard as well.
Any suggestions? Thanks!

Very easy. Plug in the drive, open Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder which in the Applications folder).
Select the drive in the sidebar. Select the partition tab, and select the number of partitions (one is fine).
Click options at the bottom of the screen. Select GUID.
Make sure the format is Mac OS Extended (journaled), name the disk and click apply.
It takes longer to type how to do it than to actually do it.

Going to upgrade to Lion. First have to back up computer. What external hard drive should I buy to back up computer using "time machine". Have 320 gb hard drive.

I am going to upgrade to Lion. First have to back up computer. What external hard drives should I buy in order to use time machine. I have a 320 GB hard drive. Don't have too much on computer.

patmc102 wrote:
I am going to upgrade to Lion. First have to back up computer. What external hard drives should I buy in order to use time machine. I have a 320 GB hard drive. Don't have too much on computer.
Buy an external drive 320G or larger (much larger is preferable). I do not recommend you use TM for this, instead download a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner and make a clone of your drive. Once this is done you have 2 choices, you can download and install Lion on your internal drive just as you planned or download and install Lion to the external clone, the 2nd method allows you to test the Lion install before committing to it. If the clone with Lion is to your liking then just clone it back to the internal.

What type of external hard drive should I get?

First, I'm not sure were I should have posted this question but here goes....
I am officially 100% an Apple home environment now. I have an iMac, a Macbook Pro, and an Airport Extreme. I want to add an external hard drive and I need suggestions for what to get. I know the Time Machine router is available but I'm looking for a less-expensive option.
I want to add an external hard drive but I want to make it available to the entire home network so that both the iMac and Macbook Pro can write and access files on one shared external drive. I also want the ability to have both computers to be able to use Time Machine to back up to the external drive. External file access (i.e. via a cloud option/app) for accessing files from my iPhone or iPad is not necessary but would be appreciated.
Also, is it just as easy as hooking the external hard drive up to the network by USB cable to the USB port on the Airport Extreme?

There is no such thing as a Time Machine Router, however I think you are referring to a Time Capsule. Time Machine is an application for backing up. Time Capsule is something else entirely different.
If you want to hook up an external HD to an Airport Extreme that will work just fine as a network drive however DO NOT use it to back up using Time Machine, at best it's unreliable for using Time Machine.
Finally if you are looking for a good quality EHD I strongly recommend using OWC (www.macsales.com) Mercury Elite Pro series.
If you want to back up multiple Macs to a single EHD then you need the Time Capsule. You can get them refurbished from Apple. For example:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD032LL/A/refurbished-time-capsule-2-tb

What external Hard drive should I use for Final Cut Pro?

Hi:
I have a Mac Pro and I'm planning to work with HD. What external hard drive should I use?
PD: I have a NVIDIA on a PCI Express graphic slot.
Thanks,
Cabezon

You'll need to be much more specific; there are 20 or 60 different kinds of high definition. Some require nothing, some require superfast RAID, some require specialized hardware support.
bogiesan

I want to move my music and photos to an external hard drive from my iMac. What external hard drive should I get?

I want to move my music and photos to an external hard drive from my iMac. What kind of hard drive should I get? Will it remove it from iMac and only be on external hard drive?

How to correctly move your media:
iTunes: How to move the library to an EHD
iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD
It is important that the External Hard Drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled).
And also make sure that all is working to your Satisfaction before Deleting anything Off your Mac.

Ned to back up files. Trying to reformat a WD 1TB external hard drive but my utilities keeps saying "choose scheme from volume pop up menu.." also says cannot be modified. What can I do?!

Help would be appreciated! Before I upgrade my 10.6.8 OS X I need to back up files. Trying to reformat a WD 1TB external hard drive but my utilities keeps saying "choose scheme from volume pop up menu.." also says "this partition cannot be modified." What can I do?! Take it back to Currys! Many thanks

Select the Top Most Entry for that drive, it will be the drive model # and have the size listed, then go to the Partition tab and select One Partition from the Partition Layout area drop down. Then select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format, if that is the format you want to format it AS. Then click the Options button near the bottom of that windows and select GUID as the Partition Table. Close the options screen and clcik the Apply button.

Which external hard drive should I use to save my iTunes library?

Hi,
So I have collected so much music and movies in iTunes that my internal HD is practically full. (Library is over 500GB of 1TB and the rest is taken up with my apps and programs.) It's time to purchase an external hard drive to transfer my library to. Furthermore, I currently have a 2TB WD My Book for Mac that I am currently using for backup. The My Book is also full and Time Machine is deleting the oldest backups to make room for the current ones.
Here is where I need everyones advice. I am planning on purchasing a 3TB WD My Book for Mac. I am planning on purchasing more movies for iTunes. Which external hard drive should I use for what? Option A or B
Option A: Put my iTunes library on the 2TB external hard drive and use the 3TB for backup
Option B: Put my iTunes library on the 3TB external hard drive and continue to use the 2TB for backup
Also please give me your reasoning.
Thanks everyone for your responses!

Limnos,
So, let's go one step further with this. I read your reply to moving iTunes library to an external hard drive: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4594518?tstart=0 However, if I move the iTunes library, will this include all the movies and apps that I have purchased?
Thanks!!!!

E4200 No Longer Sees My Iomega 1TB External Hard Drive

Hello - I had an Iomega 1TB External Hard Drive connected to my E4200 router. I had shares confgured and they were properly running on the network.
As of yesterday, this all stopped working. The router does not see the drive; it is as though it is not plugged in.
I rebooted the router and it still does not work. I've connected the hard drive directly to my PC to verify that it works there, and it does.
The router is running Ver.1.0.03 (Build 14) of firmware (the latest).
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I've done as you suggested - I did this during a chat session with a support resource from Linksy. Things still behave the same.
I have tried your suggestion of trying another disk. I had an old Maxtor drive that I connected to the router; it works fine!!!
I've since done a chkdsk on my TB drive, and it checked out clean.
I'm guessing here - it appears that the 1TB drive is not identifying itself to the router's satisfaction, but it is OK for Windows XP. What's odd is that this all worked a week ago. The only thing I can think of is that we had some power outages during a recent storm that messed something up (which shouldn't be the case since it is all connected through a decent surge protector).
Any other ideas are appreciated.
Thanks!

I have installed a lacie porsche design 1tb external hard drive but how do I move things onto it so my mac speeds up

Hi Can anyone help? My Imac (about late 2008) was running very slow and I realised I had very little memory left on it so I was advised by the online chat buddy at Apple to buy an external hard drive. I have bought a lacie porsche design 1tb external hard drive which is great but how do I transfer things on to it so my computer works faster. I woudl imagine the buggest files I have are both photos and music (all bought form itunes).
Any help would be very much appreciated?
Thanks

How much free drive space is there? Right click on the Macintosh HD folder (or however you may have renamed it) and select Get Info.
The OS needs around 10 GB for its operation, but not all of that room is necessarily always needed. Depending on how close you get to the edge, creating more free space won't necessarily do anything to speed things up. It can certainy happen, but it's mostly a myth that low drive free space is a cause of slowdowns. This applies especially to zombie suggestions you may often see here to clear a certain minimum percentage of the drive out.
My recommendation would be to keep 10 GB free, plus room for anticipated expansion of your own files. So a ballpark might be at around 20-25 GB, but your mileage may vary, depending on how you use the computer.
If you have at least 10 GB free, then I'd say low drive space isn't causing your performance issue. Of course, moving things out isn't necessarily a bad idea either, if it's really needed--but you do realize that whatever you move out to an external drive will need to be backed up as well.
First backup everything, as this may be a symptom of a failing hard drive. This won't exhaust all the possibilities for the causes of the slow downs, but here are some things to start with: Open Disk Utility and select the drive, not the startup volume. What does it say for SMART Status, verified or not? You can better check to health of the drive with the demo of SMART Utility.
Next, open Activity Monitor. It's in the Applications folder inside the Utilities sub-folder of the main Hard Drive folder ("Macintosh HD", unless you have renamed it.) Go to the System Memory tab and take a screenshot of the bottom section only. (Screenshot is Cmd-Shift-4.) To insert it into your post use the camera icon above. Being low on RAM/memory can cause these kinds of symptoms. Like this:
In addition, see if there's any process or application consuming an inordinate amount of CPU. How much CPU is idle?

1TB External Hard Drive, Who Has One That They're Happy With?

Hi, I'm looking to get a 1tb external hard drive to store video, and was wondering if anyone was super happy with their's? I was looking at the Maxtor One Touch III, Lacie, or WD external hard drives??? Any advice would be awesome. Thanks.
Dan

I have used the Lacie 1TB drive for backup use only, which it works well for.. However, a few people I have met have mentioned that the pre-RAIDed drives like these always have issues and will cause trouble in the future with heavy use..
So what are you using it for? Backup, or heavy daily read/write work, because apparently this is important for those drives.

What 1Tb external hard drive should I be considering for my new 27 in iMac.

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