What size external hard drive

I'm thinking I want a 20G external hard drive for my computer just for music. Anybody know where to find one and how much? I can only locate 80G or more at retail stores and they're over a $100.
What's the least expensive way to keep these files off my regular hard drive, but still manage them easily?
Thanks

80GB drives (Seagate) at Walmart for $69. Best Buy has Western Digital 80GB drives for $29 (if any are left). A hard drive is the cheapest way to manage your music files.
Regards,

Similar Messages

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.

What size external hard drive do i need to backup my macbook pro?

I know I need to backup my computer, especially since I have been experiencing some problems with it and will need to take it into a store to get looked at, but I do not know what size external hard drive I need to back my computer on.

Drives are so low in cost today, go for something that will meet your needs for a while...if you are going to use Time Machine, get a drive large enough that you can have a partition double the size of the internal drive for TM backups, and a partition you can use for more storage and work space.
A decent drive like the Mercury Elite Pro 2 TB drive OWC sells goes for less than $200 (US) now. Has a fast interface and is easy to setup.

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.

What size external hard drive needed for Time Machine?

Can someone offer advice? What size external hard drive do I need to back up my system with Time machine? Hard drive is 232 GB but I'm only using 40 GB of the 232.
Thanks.

beach bum51,
Hard drive space is cheap, so I'm going to recommend that you get something with at least 500 GBs capacity. 500 GBs would be twice the capacity of your internal, which is apparently the "recommended" size, so I have no hesitation recommending it. The larger the drive, the lower the cost per GB.
What's not so cheap is speed. You'll be happiest with a drive capable of using the fastest bus provided by your computer. If your iMac has a Firewire 800 port, you'll get the best experience from using that port, and a drive that will use Firewire 800 transfer speeds.
Scott

What size external hard drive for cc?

I want to have Br, Ps, Ai, Ac and perhaps a few others on an external hard drive.
Any suggestions what size?

Hi doppelganger,
Each of the mentioned softwares will require around 1 GB or more disk space. All the softwares can be accommodated within 20 GB.
You can go ahead and purchase a 500Gb or 1TB Hard Disk as these are the most commonly available external hard disks used these days.
Regards,
Rave

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.

What brand external hard drive is best with time machine

what brand of external hard drive works best with time machine?

Contrary to the other two replies, I will relate what I've read here: WD drives are fine, but their (cheap?) enclosures are subject to failure. Some buy a bare WD drive and install it in an Oxford Chip external enclosure (OWC / macsales.com would be one source). And, I have two LaCie Quadras and one OWC Mercury Pro - both are generally recommended here. If you want it bootable, most WD drives do not support it:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1787/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvd GltZS8xMzUxNTIzMzIwL3NpZC9ueUFYc1g5bA%3D%3D
Please note: it's good to have an external hard drive which has its own power supply and, as mentioned, FW 800 or USB 3). You also do not need any software that comes on the external - you will most likely need to format it anyway because most come formatted for Windows, but that is easy using Disk Utility.

What size ATV hard drive to purchase

Is it worth paying an extra $100 for the 160GB ATV versus going with the 40GB. I am about to purchase my first ATV and am wondering which size hard drive to purchase? I have a lot of available disk space on my MacPro and room to add more if needed. Currently, I have 90GB of music and another 40GB of movies on my computer's hard drives.

It's all about how you intend to use the Apple TV. You don't have to sync anything from your computer to your Apple TV if you so choose. As long as you keep iTunes open when you use your Apple TV you can stream from your computer to your Apple TV. In this case the 40GB model is all you need. But if you want to be able to play music and watch movies without having your computer on then you'll need to sync things over to the Apple TV. If you look at the manual sync menu in iTunes you'll find that you can have the Apple TV only sync recent content, the latest five movies for example. You can manage what gets synced and what doesn't.
It's your choice. Personally I think the 160GB model is the way to go. That's what I have.

What size are hard drive caddy screws A1181?

I need to replace the HDD on this unit but don't what size screw tip I will need for the 4 torx screws on the hard drive caddy, help please?

You will need a Torx T8.

Can you recommend an external hard drive for me?

I have a white macbook- nothing special. the cd burner is broken for the zillionth time so apple will be mailing it away for repairs. they suggested i back everything up before turning it over to them. there isnt much on it except my itunes library, some pictures, and a few word/excel docs. here are my questions:
1- what size external hard drive do i need?
2- is there a cheaper/easier way to do this?
3- is there a recommended brand for macs? i heard western digital was good, but several mac users gave it terrible reviews.
thanks so much!!

If you aren't sure how big your computer's drive is, select the hard drive icon on the desktop and Get Info from the File menu. At the top of the Get Info window you'll see the icon and below that some disclosure triangles - the second one pointing to General. If the triangle isn't pointing down, click on it and you'll see information about your drive. Look for Capacity and that is the formatted capacity.
You'll want a drive that is at least as big as your computer's drive so you can back up everything. Some people only back up their data but that, in my opinion, is silly. Look for a drive that is slightly larger that your drive's capacity. For example, you might see your capacity is 78.7 GB so get at least an 80GB drive. I say at least since you might want to consider using this new external drive with TimeMachine so you can always have an up to date backup. With TimeMachine you should get a drive that is at least twice as large as the data you are backing up.
The cheapest way to do it is to run down to your local discount store and pick up whatever they are selling. That's the cheapest but not necessarily the best. I strongly recommend that you buy a drive that includes FireWire - getting one with FireWire and USB ports will provide a good deal of flexibility. I also strongly recommend that you buy a drive with an external power supply. I recommend drives that derive their power from the computer only when the drive needs to be portable too. A backup drive isn't usually portable.
Name brands such as Seagate, Iomega, and Western Digital are all easy to find and okay. I think everyone has been burned by one brand or another so just about every manufacturer will get slammed with a particular horror story.

HELP My PC external hard drive doesn't shw up on my mac.

I am not sure what my external hard drive is configured to, but I tried everyway to play it in restarting etc. to get it to show up but it doesn't. I have a large music library with a small 4GB ipod so it would take a long time to transfer. Any suggestions?

Ok, first go into utilities and open up an app called 'disk utility', assuming the HD is connected to the computer it should show the disk even if it can't read it.
Don't format it or press any thing because it may erase the disk.
Tell me what disk utility says and we will go from there.
TC

I need recommendations in purchasing an external hard drive, to back up everything in my computer. What brand and Size?

I have a mid 2010 iMac, version 10.8.2, memory 4GB, 1TB sata disk.
Apple sent me an e-mail last year stating that my imac maybe affected to a recall. They said I have to back up my computer before sending it in to them. So its a great excuse to purchase an external hard drive.
But I am clueless. I would like to know what brand and size of memory is recommened for my imac and my needs. I will be mostly be backing up homevideos and alot of pictures, music, and some documents.
If someone could also explain about time machine? I guess its a whole separte thing from your media. I also would like to keep it affordable. I just purchased an external hard drive from www.macmall.com Seagate Backup Plus 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Drive - Black (STBU1000100).
But I don't know if that was a really great choice because for it to work with time machine I have to reformat certain things, and Im not sure if I would like to have that hassle.
I also wanted to know whats the difference between usb 3.0 and firewire. I read some forums saying that if you are to transfer videos you need to use firewire, and some agreed disagreed. Is that true?
Please help!?
I definitely would like to know what brands of external hard drives are highly recommended and good at price. The one I purchased is it any good?
Thank you!
-wjrlelidepaula

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10554
http://www.newertech.com/storage/

What external hard drive to you recommend to free up space on an old Macbook Pro?

My Macbook Pro is approx. 5 years old. I have since gotten an imac, however would like to use my old Creative Suite 2 on the macbook. When I updated it to "Lion" - it denied access to my creative suite apps. I have since contacted Adobe, and they have given me a solution to get it up and running again, however, my startup disk is just about FULL. Therefore I can't upgrade or really even open more than one app without getting the warning pop up about getting rid of some files asap or risk malfunction of the laptop.
What external hard drive do you recommend to get the most bang for my buck in terms of offloading a massive amount of photos to in order to be able to use the laptop again?

Your picture folder would have to be 10 times larger and then it would be close to 1 TB in size. I have an aphorism, 'one cannot have too much storage'. If the bank account can afford it, follow Ralph's advice and do go for the larger storage drive. Given enough time, you might just grow into it..
Now there is an issue that you should consider. Since these pictures will no longer be on your MBP, do you want to have them backed up? If so, you then are going to need an additional HDD to store the backups. All HDDs will eventually fail, you just do not know when.
Ciao.

I moved my entire iPhoto Library to an external hard drive, which seems to have worked. But now my Mac Pro shows a backup of the same size in the storage info and has not freed up any space. help!

I moved my entire Iphoto Library from my Macbook Pro to an external hard drive. (Prior to this, I also copied the entire library to a different ehd, plus I have 2 other ehdrives with backups). I was trying to get more space on my hd. It has a capacity of 500GB, but was down to 70GB usable, with about 300GB used up by photos. I moved the library by going to Finder, using Command+Drag+Drop onto the new Seagate ext hard drive icon. The move seems to have worked, as the library shows up on the ehd, plus will open from there. My problem is that now my Macbook Pro shows that I STILL have only 70GB available out of the 500, and that 300GB is used up by "Backups", which it did not indicate before.
I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
Thanks for any and all help!

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

What size external hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for