Which My Book would you recommend?

Gerard_Smith

I'm buying a My Book for back up purposes and I need some advice on which one to go for.

My first option is a My Book premium

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=318877

The cheapest of the 3. No Firewire 800 though my current iMac does have a Firewire 800 port so thats not a problem for now.

A My Book Pro

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=322613

€20 more expensive but has firewire 800 which will be handy when I eventually get a new Mac. Also on a purely superficial level its white so it will fit in better with my iMac.

My final option is a My Book studio edition. Its €10 more expensive than the pro but it is actually built for a mac. Its the only one formatted for a mac out of the box and looks like something that should be connected to an iMac.

Also would I have any problems creating a bootable copy of my hard drive on any of these drives?

Advice would be greatly appreciated before I part with my cash.

Thanks.

Sad Professor

Depends if you have a particular need for FW800. I already have two My Book premiums. They work great with my imac and I'd get the same again.

You shouldn't have any problems making a bootable copy either. If you've got an intel mac just make sure when formatting you choose GUID as the partition map. Or else it won't be bootable.

Gerard_Smith

Sad Professor wrote: »

Depends if you have a particular need for FW800. I already have two My Book premiums. They work great with my imac and I'd get the same again.

You shouldn't have any problems making a bootable copy either. If you've got an intel mac just make sure when formatting you choose GUID as the partition map. Or else it won't be bootable.

I have no need of FW800 at the moment. But at some point down the line I am going to have to buy a new mac so its more of a future proofing thing.

triple h

I just got a My Book Pro Edition today, but i have a problem, I fell like such an ejit , but i cannot sort it out. It's late now and i will have to wait till tomorrow.

Anyway i want to back up my system before i install leopard. At this stage now i just feel like installing leopard and not backing up tiger cause i cannot get it to back up.

When i open superduper i click copy Mac HD to My Book. then this message comes up --- My Book is formatted as Windows_FAT_32, which cannot properly host HFS+ files along with all their attributes, resources and ownership.

To use My Book with SuperDuper!, use Disk Utility to erase it, selecting "Mac OS Extended" or "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as the format.

So i click disk utilities, but i get no joy cause i have not got a fecking clue what to do and this does not help ( from the support page)

How to partition and format an internal slave drive or an external drive in a Mac OS X (all versions).

Question
How to partition and format an internal slave drive or an external drive in a Mac OS X (all versions).

Answer
In Mac OS X, you can use the built in Disk Utility to partition and initialize the drive so it will appear on the desktop.
Open the main drive (the drive that contains the operating system).


Open the Applications folder.


Open the Utilities folder.


Select Disk Utility.


The drives are displayed on the left side of the window. Click on the drive that you wish to partition (the top drive listing for the hard drive that you want to work with).


Once the drive is selected click on Partition.


Click on the Options button to select the partitioning scheme.


Click on Apple Partitioning Scheme or Apple Partitioning Map and then click on the OK button.


You will see several options for setting up the drive. Once you have selected the number of partitions, the format type you want, and a volume label, click the Partition button.


Following the completion of this process, the drive will appear on the desktop.


Help. i am lost

Sad Professor

triple h, the guide you posted actually explains it pretty well. So basically: open Disk Utility; click the new external drive in the sidebar; click the erase tab, select Mac OS Extended journaled as the format; click erase. All done. That's the simplest way, however the drive won't be bootable. But that isn't really necessary if you intend to use it with Time Machine or Superduper.

Oh and before you format the drive you should probably copy the WD software folder that's on it to your mac.

How are you planning to install Leopard - Upgrade? Clean install? Archive and install?

440Hz

This thread made me wanna buy some new space! Goddamn you!!!

shopping decisions, urgh!! I feel like such a girl! Cept not in a shoe shop or a bag shop!

Cabaal

Can't comment on the pro models but I have

3 of these - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=318909

and

1 of these - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=341413

can't fault em

440Hz

Cabaal wrote: »

3 of these - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=318909

can't fault em

Oh buy I can.... "Ode to Firewire"

triple h

Sad Professor wrote: »

triple h, the guide you posted actually explains it pretty well. So basically: open Disk Utility; click the new external drive in the sidebar; click the erase tab, select Mac OS Extended journaled as the format; click erase. All done. That's the simplest way, however the drive won't be bootable. But that isn't really necessary if you intend to use it with Time Machine or Superduper.

Oh and before you format the drive you should probably copy the WD software folder that's on it to your mac.

How are you planning to install Leopard - Upgrade? Clean install? Archive and install?

Thanks very very very much Professor. It did not seem clear cut to me. It looked like double dutch to me.

Anyway I have 2 hours to spare this morning and i copied my Mac HD to the WD Book. all went well. Then, the electricity went out. Which leads to my next question, down below, but first, the electricity came back after 20 minutes and i was worried because my Book was stilled attached to the computer. But i was lucky the book was not effected and all files were still on the Book.

But my question, the Book is meant to power down when your computer is shut down, but what about when your computer is asleep???

I am going to upgrade Professor.

I have disconnected my Book from the computer and i am going to upgrade later this evening, when i get the chance to. If all goes well, fingers crossed i will then connect my Book to the computer and use it as time machine.
When i am installing leopard i can by pass time machine until a later date, yes, i reckon ????

ZENER

Heh heh, you're not thinking Mac 'h - you're trying to make things more complicated than they are !!

As for Time Machine you can enable it and configure it ( not much to configure really . . . ) from the System Preferences or the dock icon any time you like.

ZEN

440Hz

MyBook arrived today, bit annoyed though, its annoying me.
I go tot Disk Utility, make the main drive (outer wrapper thing) Mac Os Exteneded (Journaled), all fine, go back in to Disk Utility to check the "inner" drive to make that Mac OS Extended (Journaled) only to find that the main drive has reverted to MS-DOS(FAT) so the machine will only recognise it as a regular ext drive and time machine has to be setup each time I connect the damn thing. I've done this on other drives without this much hassle, no idea what its doing tbh.

Sad Professor

And is it formatting successfully? No errors? Try doing the same thing via the partition tab instead.

440Hz

Sad Professor wrote: »

Try doing the same thing via the partition tab instead.

Have a gold star!!!



Thanks, that worked, would have taken me ages to think of trying that.

setanta5

Triple H,
i might be wrong here but i think i read that with superduper they don't recommend using the bootable backup drive with any other data....or said in plain english, your bootable backup disk should be on a partition all on its own.

I got mine and made a 160gig partition just for backing up. (the size of my HD in MBP) and then made a 40 gig partition for FAT32 (for use when i'm in Windoze) The rest is given over to media and such.

Superduper works a treat for me and have never had one ounce of trouble with the drive...occasionally when i plug it in it needs to be re-indexed. Not really sure what causes that, think its from not being powered down correctly but once it does its thing its fine so i haven't really investigated why it does it.

setanta5

PS i tried using my external HD's with usb in various applications and i've noticed that iLife works ok with it but things like skimming for example can be a bit jerky and sound doesn't follow the speed when yuo skim. With Firewire (400 & 800) its perfect. Also using 800 means yuo can daisy chain two or more HDs ( i have rugged Lacie drive for on the go as mybooks are supposed to be a bit fragile) through the same port

440Hz

Im finding it really annoying that I keep having to set up the drive as my Time Machine drive. I thought it would recognise it when it was plugged in, instead of having to manually set it up each time. booo

Sad Professor

440Hz wrote: »

Im finding it really annoying that I keep having to set up the drive as my Time Machine drive. I thought it would recognise it when it was plugged in, instead of having to manually set it up each time. booo

So it's not remembering the drive at all? Is it remembering the settings in prefs?

EDIT: Also the Mybook isn't connected via a hub is it? I've heard Time Machine doesn't like them.

440Hz

Nope, not connected via a hub, and not remembering any settings at all. I have to go into TM and re-associate the drive everytime. Grrrrr