Recommended backup storage device?

AlanD

Hi all,

I'm a 3 day old Apple MacBook newbie. Spent my life on Windows so this is all very new to me. So far I love it, but I know I've a lot to learn.

So I have a brand new MacBook running Leopard. I only managed to get an 80gig drive and I know I'll fill that quick quickly.

At the moment, I'm copying across my music, pics, etc. from the PC to the MacBook. Doing it over a home net wirelessly and it's going fine. Just taking a while. Would an ethernet cable be faster? I'll try it anyway.

So, if I wanted to buy a 500gig external harddrive to kick time machine in to action, what would you recommend? Any particular brand or are they all pretty much the same?

Is it possible to use, say half of the external drive for time machine and half for normal storage? Not sure how it should work.

K.O.Kiki

• Ethernet is faster than wireless (except possibly 802.11n).
• Seagate drives come with 5yr warranty, so I'll recommend them.
• Don't put all your eggs in one basket...

Sad Professor

I'd recommend a Western Digital My Book. I've got two of them.

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

AlanD wrote: »

Is it possible to use, say half of the external drive for time machine and half for normal storage? Not sure how it should work.

Sure, you can partition the drive if you want but that's not even necessary. Time Machine will just use whatever free space is available and won't inferrer with any other files on the drive. But I agree with K.O.Kiki about not using the same drive for storage and backup.

AlanD

How about http://www.expansys.ie/p.aspx?i=140792

Good point about not using one for backup and storage at the same time.

From your own experience, if time machine was backing up an 80gig drive, how much space will time machine need to provide reasonable backup coverage? Is 500 gigs too much?

I could get two smaller ones. One for backup and one for extra storage.

DadaKopf

I have a MyBook Pro. Very happy with it, and you have the option of USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and 800. Essential for MacBooks.

AlanD

DadaKopf wrote: »

I have a MyBook Pro. Very happy with it, and you have the option of USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and 800. Essential for MacBooks.

which is faster, USB, firewire 400 or firewire 800?

might determine which external I'll buy.

akadesign

800 Firewire is screamly fast, would recommend it. Just makes back-ups that little bit easier...

AlanD

akadesign wrote: »

800 Firewire is screamly fast, would recommend it. Just makes back-ups that little bit easier...

actually, should have asked, which is faster USB or Firewire 400? I have a MacBook and I don't think I have Firewire 800.

WizZard

A test on which is faster is here.
I would choose FW400 over USB2 as USB2 requires the CPU to regulate the transfer, FW does not (so less impact on normal applications while a backup is in progress).
Sustained speeds on FW400 (e.g. for a long backup) are much better than USB2
I'd advise this drive.

Welcome to Mac

Hotblack Desiato

That's good value for a Firewire-capable drive.

Peats and the Sony Centre are doing Iomega 500GB USB2 drives for 119.99 at the moment. I bought one and the speed is okay, perhaps not quite as good as Firewire 400 would be but fine for backups. No problem booting off it either, there was a firmware update recently which improved booting from USB drives. I made a backup of the whole HDD using Superduper, booted from USB, used DiskUtility to resize my Macbook's partitions, then restored it using Superduper, no problems at all. Took about an hour to do the whole backup and 45 mins for the restore.

Chardee MacDennis

i have 2 500gb Mybook essentials find them great, much better than my iomega drives anyway.

WUSBDesign

Ever considered a NAS which is hooked up to your router/network?

I've moved from a FW-based external HDD, then to a NAS, and now a RAID-1 NAS. Works nicely for backup purposes, not the best speed though.

Doubles up as a filesharing system for my Mac's, where I cansquirrel away a specific version of an application (yes, I still use Panther).

AlanD

i'm liking the idea of a firewire 400 device.....maybe 320gig. It seems time machine will use what's available.

I don't change much on my machine, but I'll soon start recording some songs on it and I'm sure that will take up quite a bit of space.

After moving pics, songs and movies from my pc, my little 80gig HD is almost full.....

440Hz

I bought a MyBook recently, its alright, only fair tbh. Next time I'll go back to sticking with my usual LaCie option I think, or Iomega. I just prefer them with Macs, and they are also quieter, and more compact.

AlanD

LaCie have some good affordable options......are you saying they are pretty quiet? I love how quiet the MacBook is compared to my usual IBM laptop, so a PC style noisy HD wouldn't be my preference.

Chardee MacDennis

if you want to spend a bit I have heard amazing things about the Drobo.

http://www.drobo.com/

if i had the money it would be my first choice anyway...

whiterebel

Strange the different things people like/recommend. Personally I'd gladly put an axe through LaCie. HD packed in after 14 months in an external, and a DL DVD re-writer just would not work with the Mac. Applestore very kindly replaced even though I had bought it 6 months previous.
3 Year warranty on the WD Pro series too. Might have a look at the Seagate next time, but it looks awful.

Sad Professor

The thing about the My Book's is they don't have any rubber feet so the vibrations can make quite a bit of noise especially on wood. But I have both of mine sitting on an old mouse pad which makes a really big difference, much quieter.

440Hz

AlanD wrote: »

LaCie have some good affordable options......are you saying they are pretty quiet?

Yup! In fact saw a lovely one today in a shop (remember those places), 500GB for €139, cheaper than a lot of online options I've seen.

macdave

most mac users recommend firewire to usb.

More reliable transfer rate. You can also daisy chain firewire drives plug one into the other. Its also possible to boot you Mac from a firewire, use it as start up drive in the event of you Macbooks internal packing it in. Your Macbook has a firewire 400 port.

Go for as big as you can afford. Since Leopard has got time machine to make regular backups.

If you want to clone your MB HD you'll need something like Superduper.

fortuneg

440Hz wrote: »

Yup! In fact saw a lovely one today in a shop (remember those places), 500GB for €139, cheaper than a lot of online options I've seen.

What shop did you see it in as a matter of interest?

440Hz

fortuneg wrote: »

What shop did you see it in as a matter of interest?

In Tralee, unfortunately not much use to you I would think. Not part of a retail chain.

fortuneg

440Hz wrote: »

In Tralee, unfortunately not much use to you I would think. Not part of a retail chain.

Damn;)