Yet Another Question About External Hard Drives

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone could recommend any good external hard drives. I'm confused on what to get considering there never seems to ever be a good one from reviews I've read! Western Digital and Lacie being probably the main culprits.
I'm looking for at least a 500gb with a fire wire connection (as I'll probably do some editing with it too).
Cheers!

Let's demystify external hard drives. It consist of two parts- hard drive itself, which is called internal hard drive- either 2.5 (available for laptops as an internal ) or 3.5 inch. There some other for factor, but these 2 are most common. 2.5 inch (external hard drive) usually doesn't require power source (draws power from usb), so it is very good for using on the go. However they are available only till 320GB (there will be 500GB version soon on a market). 3.5 on the other hand are less portable, but available in bigger sizes- 1TB so far (correct me if I am wrong and there is bigger internal HD than 1TB). If you put in enclosure more than one internal hard drive, then you get more than 1TB. There are some enclosures with fan and without. Ones with fan inside tends to run more loud, because you hear not only spinning hard drive, but also fan. Advantage is that your fan is cooler and supposedly you get better performance. There are only one commonly used internal connection inside external hard drive- SATA( others are less common because they tend to cost more and hd cost more too). There are much more connections to a computer FROM a HD. Firewire 400/800, usb, e-sata. There are hd enclosures with one or two or even all connections on them. Most common is usb, but it is the slowest.
Things to consider are these- buy brand name enclosure or assemble one by yourself. Brand name external hard drives might be cheaper, but carry only 1-(2?) year warranty. Also you don't know WHAT brand hard drive is inside. Especially it is notable for no brand hard drives (seagate, western digital, maxtor probably would shoot themselves before they will put some other brand hard drive).
When you assemble enclosure yourself you know what you get- what components you used and what warranty you will get. There is bigger choice of external enclosures than external hard drives. I used brand name external hard drives and assembled myself and can say that there is no difference in performance- hard drives doesn't last because they are brand name or they don't fail if you assembled yourself (assuming that you used antistatic band and assembled correctly).

Similar Messages

Need help reinstalling Yosemite/Question about external hard drive

I have an early MacBook Pro and I have to reinstall Yosemite because I've been getting nothing but spinning beach balls, slow loading, lag in type showing up, and wi-fi issues. I took the laptop to the Genius Bar at the Apple store last week and they ran diagnostics on everything and all was perfectly OK. No hardware issues, no memory issue and he said my laptop was very clean. He saw the spinning beach ball many times while he was working on my laptop and suggested that I turn off File Vault as that could be causing the slowdown. He said if that didn't work (it didn't) to buy an external hard drive (which I received today) and to back up everything through Time Machine then reinstall Yosemite. I specifically bought an external HD that says "for Mac" and as soon as I connected it Time Machine opened and did the backup.
Now these are my questions. Are all my photos on iPhoto, and my Word for Mac documents backed up so that when I reinstall Yosemite, everything is going to be right where I left it? Will I lose Word for Mac and have to reinstall it? Isn't Word for Mac a one time use/install and will I have trouble and have to call Microsoft to input my authentication key in again and will they let me? I know silly questions but I'm really worried about losing stuff.
Also step-by-step detailed instruction on how to reinstall Yosemite would really be appreciated. Thank you!

YoJoLo wrote:
Are all my photos on iPhoto, and my Word for Mac documents backed up so that when I reinstall Yosemite, everything is going to be right where I left it?
If you have taken the backup using the Time machine then there is nothing to worry as all your photos from iPhotos and Word for mac documents are backup safely by your time machine.
Only keep one thing in mind that the external HDD which you use for the time machine backup should have the capacity size of about 3-4 times that of your backup data size. Or else, the time machine external drive will start deleting the files if the external drive is about to be full.
YoJoLo wrote:
Will I lose Word for Mac and have to reinstall it? Isn't Word for Mac a one time use/install and will I have trouble and have to call Microsoft to input my authentication key in again and will they let me?
You absolutely don’t have to reinstall the Word for mac if its install in the first place because Time machine will backup the system installed files of your MS Word which you had installed.
Word for mac is a one time install and you don’t have to call Microsoft for any authentication key after you have restored your Word backup files from the time machine drive. As I said before the time machine will backup your Word system installed files leaving you no chance to reinstall it again.
YoJoLo wrote:
Also step-by-step detailed instruction on how to reinstall Yosemite would really be appreciated. Thank you!
Here, Yosemite reinstall procedure......
Important: To reinstall OS X, you must be connected to the Internet. Make sure your power adapter is plugged in. Reinstall OS X using the built-in recovery disk.
In the menu bar, choose Apple menu > Restart. Once your Mac restarts (and the gray screen appears), hold down the Command and R keys.
Select Disk Utility, then click Continue.
Select your startup disk on the left, then click the Erase tab.
Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the Format menu, enter a name, then click Erase.
Important: Erasing the disk removes all the information from the disk. Be sure to back up the information you want to keep to an external device.
After the disk is erased, choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.
Select Reinstall OS X, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.
Hope this helps.....

A simple question about external hard drives.

hi. this may be a stupid question but i kinda need to know the answer.
can you use any external hard drive on a mac mini?
also does the mac mini come with a wireless card?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
can you use any external hard drive on a mac mini?
Nearly any, but not necessarily all. Some bus-powered hard drives will not function at all, or may function inconsistently, and not all external drives will satisfactorily daisy chain, but by and large any mains-powered USB or Firewire drive will work. If intended for use to boot an Intel-based Mac (or to be bootable for such a system in case of problems with the internal), it will need to be partitioned in the GUID scheme (achieved easily via Disk Utility).
Firewire is better than USB if you have the option, simply because FW is more consistent in data transfer performance. USB drives are typically cheaper if cost is a significant factor.
In some ways, choice of drive may be affected by intended use. For example, if you intend to boot the system with it, a fast (meaning 7200rpm) drive with Firewire interface would be a good choice, while if being used for storing an iTunes library, a slower 5400 rpm drive with USB2.0 interface would be perfectly adequate.
also does the mac mini come with a wireless card?
All current Mac minis come with 'Airport' wifi already installed, though the original entry-level mini did not have wifi as standard. If your mini is one of these earlier ones, wifi can be added in a number of ways. If it's a later model, an Airport icon is normally set to show on the menu bar. It looks like a fan and if switched off, the fan will be blank, in on but not connected to a network, it'll show 4 grey arcs, and if on and connected, the arcs will be black.

Questions about external hard drive

I'm running out of space on my macbook and am going to get an external hard drive, at least 500Gb. I see all kinds of different prices here and at places like circuit city, best buy, etc. I was wondering if just any external drive that uses USB will be fine, in which case I'd look for the best deal. But I play a lot of video files on my macbook, which is what the new drive will mostly hold. Will accessing/playing video files on the external drive be slower than it is on the macbook itself?

Any external drive would likely be OK. Firewire would be faster than USB, so preferable. You can also make your own external drive.
Although you can buy a complete FireWire or USB drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

Advice about external hard drive recovery

Does anyone have experience or advice about external hard drive recovery?
I have a USB external drive that crashed during a power brownout, I couldn't mount the image at first but used Diskwarrior to rebuild it. Now I can see and navigate the drive but I am unable to pull many files off without the finder crashing. It would transfer about 130mb of 10gb then stay at that number and not progress past that amount.
Should I try a different recovery program or would removing the drive and placing it in another external drive enclosure solve something like this?
any help appreciated

When in DW there is a Preview to see the old and new volume.
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/topic4557.html#d10aug2010
Data Rescue 3 demo will show you what it's scan finds, costs $99
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
you need to have another drive to recover your files to.
Yes I would try another case, maybe the power brick was all that is now half-dead also
And you really need a UPS - never be w/o
http://pondini.org/OSX/UPS.html
MacBook Pro:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro

I have downloaded some videos to my ipad via my SD card now my storage is full, how can I transfer the videos off my ipad to clear the storage but keep the videos on another media device (external hard drive)?

I have downloaded some videos to my ipad via my SD card now my storage is full, how can I transfer the videos off my ipad to clear the storage but keep the videos on another media device (external hard drive)?

There are some wireless external hard drives that can be used with the iPad.
Best iPad External Hard Drive Storage Options
http://www.unlocktips.com/2012/11/best-ipad-mini-external-hard-drive-memory-stor age-options/
iPad Storage Solutions
http://www.ipadstoragesolutions.com/iPadWirelessStorage.php
 Cheers, Tom

Yet another question about installing ilife 06 with limited drive space

I received iLife 2006 as a gift for my birthday. I am a happy user of most the iLife 2005 programs (except iDVD, which is useless on my machine with only a Combo drive). I am interested in making use of iWeb and the other improved features of iLife 2006.
My problem is that my 40 GB drive is nearly full, with about 2 GB free. Of this, my iTunes library uses about 15 GB, and the IPhoto library takes another 2 GB or so. I do have a 60 GB iPod with about 25 GB free.
I have read about complications with restoring the iTunes Library from the hidden folder on the iPod. But I wonder if the library could be more easily backed up to the iPod, temporarily deleted from my main hard drive, then restored after installing iLife 2006 (I have read that somewhat less than the full 10 GB is needed after install is complete).
Alternatively, will the iLife 2006 installer allow me to install to the iPod as an external drive, from which I can make adjustments as needed?

You can tell your wife that if you don't get an external hard drive to store your iTunes and iPhoto Library you are a prime target to lose your images and tunes.
Yes, using iWeb you get a new url. I used Contribute to do the fiveafertfive.com site for my daughter's band.
iWeb can create very nice pages and you can see many of them by visiting this link on the iWeb forums. It's eight pages long and lots of sites to look at.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1705138#1705138
Unfortunatley, the ability to send albums directly to .mac is no more with iPhoto 6. You can only send them to iWeb to make your page. Then in iWeb you publish your page to your idisk in a different folder.
check out this thread for more info
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1519726&#1519726

Moving library from one computer to another, music on external hard drive

Purchased 60GB iPod and imported approx. 50 GB of music into the library/iPod on Laptop 1. The music sits on an external hard drive (100mb). Laptop 1 only has 20gb drive. Everything was working fine, was able to import CD's listen to music everything that an iPod owner can do.
Laptop 1 no longer recongnizes the music in the folders on the external hard drive. It sees the music folders (titles) but when you click on the folder it is empty- no songs inside the folder.
Laptop 2 - hook up the external hard drive to it. Can see the music/songs within the folders. So laptop 1 can't see the music, yet laptop 2 can.
The iTunes music library is sitting on laptop 1 - how do I get the library over to laptop 2? I can not use the iPod as a hard drive, since the iPod will try to go to the music folder (external)and get the music so it can "transfer" to laptop 2. When I put the iPod into "hard drive" mode it goes to the external hard drive and can't find the music/songs. It does not see the music within the folders.
Both laptop 1 and 2 have 20gb hard drives. The external hard drive is 80gb, with only 23gb still available. I just upgraded laptop 1 from iTunes 5.0 to 7.0. I could use the new functionality to back up onto CD/DVD IF it could see the music/songs on the external hard drive.
All the documentation I've read would work for me IF laptop 1 recognized the music/songs on the external drive. Since it does not does anyone have some ideas to help me get the iPod library from laptop 1 to laptop 2, not using the iPod as the hard drive?
Thank you for any input.

I've got the same type question. Is it possible to transfer my purchased songs from a computer at work via a flash drive? The firewall at work will not allow me to share files with my home computer, however, the computers at work download the songs I buy in about 15 seconds, my slow a** dial up at home takes over 15 minutes per song. I think this is still considered stealing, but I'm not sharing the songs with anyone, I just want to download them at work, then transfer them to my main home computer iTunes library.

Sync-ing iTunes with another Mac &/or external hard drives?

Can u use iSync or another app 2 sync iTunes music between 2 different macs &/or an external HD? If so how? I have an eMac & an iBook & it's a pain in the a@@ 2 always have to transfer music files back & forth using an external HD or downloading 2xs. Does anyone else have this problem & agree?

No, you cannot - using either iSync, .Mac Sync or the Backup application available to .Mac registered users.
iSync synchronizes only Calendars and Contacts, with mobile handsets and Palm handheld organizers or smartphones.
.Mac Sync synchronizes only Bookmarks, Calendars, Contacts, Keychains,
Mail Accounts and Mail Rules, Signatures and Smart Mailboxes with other Macintosh desktop and portable computers through .Mac, and with the .Mac servers themselves.
Backup will back up and restore your iTunes library to and from .Mac, external hard drives or removable media, but will not synchronize your library.
You are really asking the question in the wrong forum. You should consider posting your message in of the subcategories of the iTunes forum, here:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=149
You could use an application like ChronoSync to synchronize your libraries, but you are liable to get the best advice about iTunes synchronization in the iTunes discussion areas. More information about ChronoSync is available here:
http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/ChronoSync/chrono_overview.html

Question about Ext Hard Drive with Time Machine

Hello
Here is the case
I have a macbook upgraded to leopard
Since Tiger, i use and external hard drive (maxtor 320gb) to storage all my 80 gbs of music and photos.
Now i want to use this same external device with Time Machine. but without having to delet my music.
What should i do?
Partition it?
or just opening Time Machine preferences, and selecting it as my back up drive will do?

Hello ADAMB
When i open up TM preferences, it allows me to set it as my back up drive, but i havent let it do a back up yet for the same reason that i dont want to lose any data.
In the other hand, i opened disk utility and this is the info i got
Disk Description : Maxtor 3200 Media Total Capacity : 298,1 GB (320.072.933.376 Bytes)
Connection Bus : USB Write Status : Read/Write
Connection Type : External S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
USB Serial Number : 2CAHD13Z *Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record*
I do have Intel macbook
Thanks for the help

New To MacBook Pro. Question re: External Hard Drive

I just purchased a Macbook Pro today. I used to have a Dell Inspiron on which I used a Western Digital 500GB My Book external hard drive to store my pictures and iTunes files.
My question is is that hard drive compatible with my new MacBook? I know the hard drive works with Macs, but I'm wondering if I can just plug it into the MacBook and have it work without having to reformat it and lose my data.

Wrt exFAT. The newest Macs ship with an exFAT driver included. This driver will probably also be part of the upcoming OS X 10.6.5 update.
For more info, see this article on a Dutch Apple website. (translation)

Do you know about external hard drives?

I have an acer notebook and I would love to be able to play The Sims 2 PC games. And so, someone recommended that I get an external hard drive to play it.
I was wondering if I would be able to play any PC games on my acer if I had an external hard drive.
And if so what are my options on external hard drives would be best for me to get?

Bianca, I agree with starflyer. Playing visualy complex games like that isn't really a function of the size of your hard drive ( though an external HD for a notebook is always prudent investment ) but rather, its a function of the capability of the cpu, the amount of internal memory, and what your graphics platform you have. Most notebooks have "intigrated" graphics built into them and are very limiting when playing demanding games. Graphics cards are one solution, but, I don't know of any notebooks that actually use a separate card for graphics given the size constraints and the severe power and heat demands they can put on a system. I can recommend 3 things : by all means, get a good external hard drive, preferably one that is considered "portable" in your case. Find out how much internal memory you can install and have a knowlegable person install it. Finally, go to www.cpuid.com and download cpu-z, it will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about your system, useful if you want to upgrade.

Yet another question about super raid - GS70

Yes, another question about Super Raid...I recently picked up the cheapest model of the GS70 on newegg which comes with 1 mSata SSD...just a mediocre one if I remember reading correctly. I'm interested in using MSI's Super Raid once my warranty is over with and have been reading a couple posts here:
1. Walk through of how to reinstall OS
--> https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=167198.msg1224063#msg1224063
2. I'll need a Super Raid card with links to get some, for about $100 each
--> https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=171722.msg1252847#msg1252847
3. I can't get Super Raid unless it originally came with it?
--> https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=171185.msg1249640#msg1249640
So what's the bottom line? Would I still be able to enable super raid in the future or am I SOL since it didn't come with it originally?
thanks!

The GT70 CAN come with an adapter that has 2 (on the older, GT70 0NX models) or 3 (on newer GT70 20X models) sockets for mSATA drives. It's an optional part, that takes place of the primary SATA drive in the notebook, and physically has a different part that connects to the motherboard. If it doesn't come with the SuperRaid adapter, then it just has support for a single 2.5" SATA drive.
The GS70 on the otherhand, has this built into the motherboard and there is no swapping it out for a normal 2.5" SATA drive. You can only use mSATA drives (on those ports). The GS70 is meant to be an ultrabook, and therefore does not have the same ability as the GT70 to house up to 2 full size 2.5" SATA drives.
That's really the main difference here. Without physically seeing a GT70 to see how the SuperRaid adapter works, it's slightly difficult to explain.
But in the end, I wouldn't worry about the SuperRaid....The GS70 should have support for Intel Raid Management Engine, in which case that's all you really need.

Question about swapping Hard-Drives/Creating Recovery Discs

I have a laptop, Toshiba Satellite C655-S5082, with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit OEM Operating System already installed on it so it did NOT come with an Installation or Recovery disc.
My problem here is two-fold... First I would like to change the hardware on the PC by changing Hard-Drives from the one that came with the laptop to a large capacity one however since the laptop came with the Operating System already installed onto it I can not install it onto the new Hard-Drive (which for all further purposed we will call Hard-Drive B) now I thought that I could create the recovery discs using Toshiba's Recovery Media Center to create the 4 DVDs however I do not even know if this will help at all since Hard-Drive B does not have a recovery partition on it.
This however is where my second problem comes into play, when I try to create the recovery discs using the Recovery Media Center I insert the DVD and begin the burning process, however about 75% of the way through the first disc the program slows down and a window pops up asking me if I would like to open the disc with Windows Explorer as if it has just recognized the disc again, I exit out of this and it comes up a few minutes later with an error code of 020150-20-0000000 and a message stating it can not read a file located within the ZZImages directory and then crashes, freezes and I have to end the process via the Task Manager then eject the disc via Windows Explorer 'My Computer' link.
As you can see my problem is two fold so my questions to the Toshiba Support Team/Administration are...
1. If I insert the new HDD into the laptop and begin using the recovery discs created via the Recovery Media Center will it be able to install the OS to that HDD and allow the OEM Product Key to be used to verify the OS?
2. If I can do the above process how do I fix the Recovery Media Center application from crashing and effectively ruining my DVD's, so that I may create the proper recovery dics?
3. If I can't do the above process due to the Recovery Partitions not being located on that new Hard Drive is there a way to copy and or transfer that Recovery Partition to the new Hard Drive so that the recovery discs do work?
4. If neither of the above processes work will Toshiba be willing to send me a Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit OEM Installation disc via the mail or the .iso/.img file of the disc via e-mail so that I may burn them to a disc myself and install the OS onto the new Hard Drive?
I do have the appropriate Product ID/Product Key for the OEM OS as well as the Serial Number of the specific laptop itself. Please get back to me as soon as possible. Thank you!

Satellite C655-S5082
create the recovery discs ... comes up a few minutes later with an error code
This sometimes occurs because of the media. Try using a disc from a different source.
Follow the instructions in the section Creating recovery DVDs/media, which begins on p. 68 of the User's Guide.
Satellite C640/C650 Series User’s Guide
I do not even know if this will help at all since Hard-Drive B does not have a recovery partition on it
It doesn't make any difference what's on hard drive B. All of it will be replaced.
For this, see the section Restoring from recovery DVDs/media, which begins on p. 71 of the User's Guide. You want to recover to "out-of-box state."
After you have restored to the new hard disk, it will contain everything that the original had, including even all the recovery partitions. So you will even be able to burn recovery discs again from the new hard drive.
..the OEM Product Key
The version of Windows which is restored (not installed) to the new hard drive is pre-activated. You won't need to fool around with the product key.
..will Toshiba be willing to send me a Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit OEM Installation disc
If all else fails, you can always order recovery discs from Toshiba directly.
Order Toshiba Recovery Media
Your questions indicate that you do not understand the procedure above. If my explanation is insufficient, please feel free to ask for clarification.
questions to the Toshiba Support Team/Administration
One more thing. There are no Toshiba support folks here. We are all users just like you.
-Jerry

Question about replacing hard drive

Hey everyone. I had a question about replacing a hard drive for a 2012 midyear pro. I have replaced hard drives before on windows machines, but this is the first mac I have owned. It didn't come with a hard drive when I bought it, but I do have mavericks installed on a usb. As far as a new hard drive, will any 2.5 laptop hard drive work? I read it needs to be 9.5mm thick. Is that correct? As far as I am concerned, hardware is hardware and should be the same as replacing a hard drive on a dell laptop but wanted to see if apple has any weird restrictions.
Also, is there anything I need to consider or be aware of when putting in a new hard drive? Or can I just hook up the hard drive and plug in the USB and install the software onto the hard drive. Thanks
Excuse and ny ignorance as I am new to macs.

scottrf8 wrote:
As far as a new hard drive, will any 2.5 laptop hard drive work? I read it needs to be 9.5mm thick. Is that correct?
Yes. Any SATA drive will do with those specifications.
Also, is there anything I need to consider or be aware of when putting in a new hard drive? Or can I just hook up the hard drive and plug in the USB and install the software onto the hard drive.
Assuming that the installer is functioning correctly, install the HDD in the MBP and engage the installer. You should come across a 4 option menu. Select Disk Utility from it. Open Disk Utility>Erase and format the HDD to Mac OS Extended (Journlaled). One you finish that, you may install the OSX.
Ciao.

Yet Another Question About External Hard Drives

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