Best Mac compatible 1 TB External Hard Drive?

r3nu4l

I'm looking for a 1 TB External Hard Drive for my MBP. I won't be using Time Machine, this is simply for file storage, can anyone recommend a fast, quiet drive? I live in the UK so no problem using Amazon, Play etc but obviously any cheap deals for a reliable drive would be cool too

Thanks in advance.

Sad Professor

Any USB or FireWire external drive should work with a Mac. You just have to format it to HFS+ using Disk Utility. Maybe a Western Digital Elements or a Seagate.

The_Illuminator

Hi,

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I'd also love some feedback on this.

I would personally be using a hard drive to transfer between Windows and Mac, so would an NTFS or FAT32 drive work better? Is HFS+ a better format?

Sad Professor

To use it with Mac and Windows it will have to be in FAT32.

conor.hogan.2

i could be wrong but if you are also going to use it on windows then format fat32

r3nu4l

Sad Professor wrote: »

Any USB or FireWire external drive should work with a Mac. You just have to format it to HFS+ using Disk Utility. Maybe a Western Digital Elements or a Seagate.

Thanks for the replies so far

Why HFS+?

Also I will be using it on a Windows machine occasionally so FAT32 is okay then?
If I buy a preformatted for PC drive can I just reformat that on the Mac without any problems?

Sad Professor

r3nu4l wrote: »

Thanks for the replies so far

Why HFS+?

HFS+ the file system used by OS X, so it's preferable. It will probably be NTFS out of the box which OS X can't write to. FAT32 is fine if you plan to use it with Windows and Mac, but it has a file size limit of 4GB.

If I buy a preformatted for PC drive can I just reformat that on the Mac without any problems?

Yep.

conor.hogan.2

Sad Professor wrote: »

FAT32 is fine if you plan to use it with Windows and Mac, but it has a file size limit of 4GB.

Ah that would be a problem - can windows write to hfs+?

Sad Professor

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Ah that would be a problem - can windows write to hfs+?

No, it can't even read it. But there are utilities available to get around this.

Nemanja91

I use a western digital MyBook and it is great, I don't know much about computers but once setup is done everything is done for you!

mathepac

Sad Professor wrote: »

... But there are utilities available to get around this.

+1 a utility something like TransMac for Windows (no affiliation) would let you use HFS+ disks etc on Windoze.

Gregor Samsa

I got two of these recently (Western Digital WD Elements 1TB):

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/4091095/art/western-digital/wd-elements-desktop-usb-2.html


One for storing video files, and one as a backup for my Time Capsule.

€65 is a great price - the cheapest I found when i went looking. I've always found Western Digital drives, both internal and external to be very reliable. These are very quiet, but pretty basic - just one USB 2 port and the power supply socket on the back. They don't even have a power switch. There's a small LED on the back - without checking the Mac they're connected to, it's the only way you'd know it was on.

r3nu4l

Thanks for the replies folks, haven't had time to update this thread but I ordered a Drive at the weekend.

phutyle wrote: »

I got two of these recently (Western Digital WD Elements 1TB):

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/4091095/art/western-digital/wd-elements-desktop-usb-2.html


One for storing video files, and one as a backup for my Time Capsule.

€65 is a great price - the cheapest I found when i went looking. I've always found Western Digital drives, both internal and external to be very reliable. These are very quiet, but pretty basic - just one USB 2 port and the power supply socket on the back. They don't even have a power switch. There's a small LED on the back - without checking the Mac they're connected to, it's the only way you'd know it was on.

Would you believe I ordered the same drive I got it for £53.22 (roughly €61) with free delivery (UK) I had to buy it from PC World though (hate buying from there ).

I do have a question regarding the formatting for Mac. I briefly connected it last night (less than 2 mins as I was also working) and opened the Disk Utilities app but didn't know where to go from there.

Any advice? Different websites seem to say different things. I've now decided to use this Drive solely on the Mac and therefore will he using HFS+.

I ONLY want to us it for storing Photographs, nothing else.

Gregor Samsa

Connect the drive, open Disk Utility, select the drive on the Left, hit the erase tab, select Mac OS X Extended or Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) from the Volume Format dropdown and then hit Erase. It will only take a few seconds to do it.

To decide whether you want Mac OS X Extended or Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) take a look here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2355 . Personally, I just went with Mac OS X Extended, but either will do. You can turn Journaling on or off at any stage without erasing the data on the disk.

conor.hogan.2

ye I got that same one aswel.


Is it ok to split that drive into several partitions and using it for time machine, storing files and one for transferring between pc and mac?

MACHEAD

I'm not familier with that particular drive but, partitioning for multiple use shouldn't be a problem. I have an Iomega MiniMax 2.0TB attached to an Airport Extreme and split in 3 partitions, two for backing up our Macs via TM and one as a shared file store for photos/music etc.