External Hard Drive for MacBook - Page 2

tadol · #16 11-13-2010, 11:02 AM

Nobody seems to have asked, but what does your daughter want to do with the drive? Use it for active data storage, or just as a back-up? What kind of projects does she do?

For my powerbook, I have a 500g USB powered portable external. I use it with Time Machine to backup my powerbook, plugging in every other night or so, and letting it run during the night when the book is re-charging. Speed is not an issue for me at all, and the backup gets tossed in the safe when not being used. I have my eyes open for a second one so that I can swap between them.

For my major data storage, I have a WD mybook(?) which is a 2TB unit with the drives set for redundancy - so it presents as 1TB, but is automatically backed up. I keep my music, movies, photos, and all my "big" data files on it. Its a firewire unit (for transfer speed), and I can plug it into my powerbook, but generally its plugged into the Mac mini that's at the heart of my home theatre -

Anyway - my point was that its not possible to make a good recommendation without a better idea of how she needs to use it -

Taylorplayer · #17 11-13-2010, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tadol

Nobody seems to have asked, but what does your daughter want to do with the drive? Use it for active data storage, or just as a back-up? What kind of projects does she do?... Anyway - my point was that its not possible to make a good recommendation without a better idea of how she needs to use it -

Very good point. My daughter wants to use it to store digital photos and music; and also to back-up her studies (she plans to attend grad. school to become a Physician's Assistant).

Yoder · #18 11-13-2010, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taylorplayer

she plans to attend grad. school to become a Physician's Assistant.

Excellent choice as a profession, I am trying to convince one of my daughters to pursue the same. I was just reading that a lot of the medical profession is beginning to adopt iPad's.

Taylorplayer · #19 11-13-2010, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoder

Excellent choice as a profession...

Thank you - I am very proud of her.

TBman · #20 11-14-2010, 08:17 AM

We have a HP "Simple Save" 300GB which is USB driven for our PC. Very handy. Very small and we move it from one computer to another as well when needed to backup things.

Yoder · #21 11-18-2010, 06:29 PM

Update: I have a 500 Gb Glyph and recently contacted Glyph about upgrading to a 7200 RPM 1.5 Tb or 2 Tb drive. They said they could do it for me, though I feel I could do it myself. So, I may have them pull the 500 and put the larger drive in the enclosure. They do it for a little more than the cost of a new hard drive, and I also get another 3 year warranty. I will use the 500 Gb as an internal drive for my Win7 box.

wcap · #22 11-18-2010, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi TP…
Check other world computing. I used their drives (their cases with other people's drives) for 8 years without failure in a studio. They are at macsales.com

I still use theirs as back up drives for my Macs...

I was just seconds away from also suggesting Other World Computing. I have several of their drives, and they have done well.