External Hard Drive

KidKeith89

Hey guys,

I'm not sure if this is the most appropriate forum, so sorry if it isn't. I'm looking to buy an external hard drive, preferably 320GB, online to back up my macbook with Time Machine and also to store movie, etc. How much should I pay and are there any specific ones people would recommend?

Cheers guys

zinzan

First off - is 320GB enough?!
In my experience you can never have enough storage, and with the cost of external HDs coming down, I'd go for a 1TB minimum if you can afford it. (The price difference between 320GB and 1TB is quite small now)

I've recently purchased one of these after searching around for best value (it also qualifies for free shipping): Buffalo 1TB

I'm quite happy with it, as most reviewers seem to be.

Generally all external HDDs are time machine compatible once they are formatted so that your Mac can recognise them. In general discs come formatted FAT32 so that Macs or PCs can read them, however if you are storing files larger than 4GB you will have to reformat the drive into the Mac. An interesting article here suggests you should repartition and reformat the drive before starting anyway to minimise the chances of problems occurring at a later date.


If you are looking to automate backups, then you might want a NAS enabled drive that your Mac can connect to over your network to though a direct cable connection is always quicker for data transfer. I think if you have an Apple airport extreme wireless router you can plug any harddrive into that and it will be accessible across your network.


Hope some of that is of use!

H.

KidKeith89

Big help man! Cheers

Alanstrainor

zinzan wrote: »

First off - is 320GB enough?!
In my experience you can never have enough storage, and with the cost of external HDs coming down, I'd go for a 1TB minimum if you can afford it. (The price difference between 320GB and 1TB is quite small now)

I've recently purchased one of these after searching around for best value (it also qualifies for free shipping): Buffalo 1TB

OP you have to decide what you want from an external. If you want something that's portable, that is powered by the usb alone then i would look at something different. I'd agree, you should be able to get more capacity for not much more cash. But the big decision to make is whether you want something that will fit in your pocket, versus something a lot larger.

KidKeith89

Alanstrainor wrote: »

OP you have to decide what you want from an external. If you want something that's portable, that is powered by the usb alone then i would look at something different. I'd agree, you should be able to get more capacity for not much more cash. But the big decision to make is whether you want something that will fit in your pocket, versus something a lot larger.

Well I'm definitely looking for something that's portable, i.e. I can put it in a shoulder bag and carry it around. I remember my friend had one a while ago that was small (about twice as large as a deck of cards) and light to hold. If the 1TB isn't a lot more expensive, I could go for that. But I mainly want it to backup my mac and store a few (not many) movies on. So I'm guessing a 500GB would do me?

This is something I don't know much about, so I'm depending on you guys to point me in the right direction

CaSCaDe711

Here's a nice 1TB USB powered drive LINK

zinzan

Portability does change the game somewhat - I meant to ask you about that but forgot as I got caught up looking into time machine backups and the like!

The Buffalo 1TB I posted is quite chunky and heavy (a little bigger than a paperback book) and then there is a power brick about the size of a computer mouse to go with it. So probably won't fit your requirements.

Portability comes at a cost though so you won't get the same capacity for price
that you would otherwise get. As Alanstrainor says, decide what features are important and then go shopping!

Sites that might be worth a look include (but aren't limited to!)

www.amazon.co.uk
www.7dayshop.com
www.pixmania.ie
www.dabs.ie
www.maplin.co.uk

KidKeith89

Thanks guys for the replies and the research you've done for it.

@CaSCaDe711 That one looks ideal, except for the price - £73 is a bit much for me. I think a 500GB for around €40/50 would be perfect.

I'm using the ehd to back up my mac, but it's just a precaution incase my mac crashes at some point. So quality or reliability isn't essential (sounds kinda stupid, I know).

CaSCaDe711

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-Juststore-Slimline-Portable-External/dp/B003M5N3NQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1301015285&sr=8-2

Own the above drive, have no complaints.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-Ministation-Slimline-Portable-External/dp/B004KSRM0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301015285&sr=8-1

Seamu$

I own the non-Mac version of this drive and am very happy with it. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Passport-500GB-Drive/dp/B002KQ3U4U/ref=sr_1_38?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1301068391&sr=1-38

I presume the built in backup functionality is different for the Mac hence the differentiation.