[coconut wireless]

I'm interested in buying an external harddrive to back up my I-Mac and only want 80g

Looking at the following three: comments would be greatly appreciated

Mercury Elite-AL Pro FireWire 400+USB2
80GB to 500GB
from $129.99

80GB OWC Neptune 7200RPM FireWire Solution w/2MB Buffer. Includes FireWire Cable, Intech SpeedTools utility, & Dantz Retrospect Express. New with 1yr Warranty. (OWCNPFW7080GB)
$105.99

or

LaCie mini*80GB
FireWire 400 - Companion hard drive $119

not doing tunes or anything fancy
actually am going to install Tiger and just want to be sure I have a backup

coconut wireless

[gigabyta]

I would suggest the LaCie..
Or search deals on roosster.com.

It seems like lately 250gb externals have been around 140$. Good luck

[scrouds]

When I made mine, I just went out and bought a box and a hdd. I got the hard drive I wanted.

If i can ask, why only 80 gig? I got a 250 gig hdd, knowing i'd eventually use it (and I did).

[DMBand0026]

Hard disk space is too cheap to not buy too much. Get a huge drive now and put it in an external firewire enclosure. Not only will it save you money over the drives you're looking at, but you'll have a larger drive for less money. Of course, there's always that strong sense of self satisfaction that comes from having built your own drive too.

[coconut wireless]

Originally Posted by gigabyta I would suggest the LaCie.. Or search deals on roosster.com. It seems like lately 250gb externals have been around 140$. Good luck

thanks for the great tip
I find this at www.xPCgear.com ever hear of them ?
120GB (USB 2.0/ IEEE 1394 Firewire COMBO) External Portable Hard Drive: 120GB EIDE ULTRA-ATA/100 Western Digital HD with UFE720 Enclosure, Cooling Fan and Anti-Shock Design

This one is at Frys but don't have one in Hawaii.
Hard Drives & Network Storage : ACOM Data 80GB Firewire 400/USB2.0 External Hard Drive

Are all brands of hard drives equally compatible with Mac and in their ease of set up?

No satisfaction here for building my own - gotta keep it real simple - plug and play

[DMBand0026]

It is plug and play. Plug the hard drive into the case, plug the case into the computer. Sure, it adds another step, but from what I've found you can save nearly $100 US in some situations if you get a case and HDD separately.

I found a 250gig Seagate hard drive at NewEgg for $112 US (there were cheaper options, but Seagate makes great drives and you can't beat the 5 year warranty.) Link is here. Keep in mind that you can go lower on your space if you want to knock a few bucks off the price

Than there's the MacAlly Aluminum enclosure for $35.99 US. Link is here.

That brings your grand total to $147.99 US, which I'm sure easily bests any price to space ratio that you've found on pre-assmebled external drives. I'm certainly not saying you have to go this way, but for the price conscious consumer, it really can't be beat.

[coconut wireless]

Originally Posted by DMBand0026 It is plug and play. Plug the hard drive into the case, plug the case into the computer. Sure, it adds another step, but from what I've found you can save nearly $100 US in some situations if you get a case and HDD separately. I found a 250gig Seagate hard drive at NewEgg for $112 US (there were cheaper options, but Seagate makes great drives and you can't beat the 5 year warranty.) Link is here. Keep in mind that you can go lower on your space if you want to knock a few bucks off the price Than there's the MacAlly Aluminum enclosure for $35.99 US. Link is here. That brings your grand total to $147.99 US, which I'm sure easily bests any price to space ratio that you've found on pre-assmebled external drives. I'm certainly not saying you have to go this way, but for the price conscious consumer, it really can't be beat.

Called Seagate tech support and they said it is a little more complicated and I would have to know what i was doing and I clearly don't.
I appreciate your reply but for this TECHIE NEOPHYTE I need to have plug and play - so suggestions for those would be great-it looks like the smallest Seagate has is 160g and newegg sells it for $187 plus extra shipping to HI
coconut wireless

[torifile]

It's not hard to put an internal drive into an external enclosure. It's seriously about 2 steps. All you need is a philips screwdriver.

[Luca]

Seagate tech support will obviously tell you not to do this because they just don't want clumsy people dropping their hard drives or spilling Pepsi on them and demanding a refund. It is EASY. I'm not kidding at all. If you can fill your car's wiper fluid you can easily put together your own external hard drive. Don't be afraid of it just because it involves working on stuff. A lot of people are unnecessarily afraid of working on computers and unless you stand up to it at some point you're going to end up calling up Best Buy and paying them $50 every time you want to do a five minute job like install a wireless card or RAM.

[ThunderPoit]

step 1: Plug drive into case (ide cable and power cable)
step 2: Put mounting screws in
step 3: Put case together (snap together or screw closed)
step 4: Plug and play

total saved $: one shitload

You know you can do it.


a little OT, but still dealing with hdd's:

been looking to make myself a 3 or 4 disk external raid for my tivo pc, but the last thing i want is 4 daisy chaned FW drives all requiring seperate power adaptors and needing a 3-6 foot fw cable to go to the next plug in that is 3 inches away. i remember seeing a while back, acom data made an external drive that was literally stackable, needing only 1 data and 1 power cable, but it looks like they no longer make or sell them. does anyone know if somone makes drives like this? perferably with FW. or an external case that can hold multiple drives so i can then raid'em on my pc?

[ThunderPoit]

hmmm, had i only searched a little better at the source, i may have found this:
http://www.acomdata.com/rpp/fs.html
but does anyone know of any other products like this?

[Franz Josef]

Originally Posted by coconut wireless I'm interested in buying an external harddrive to back up my I-Mac and only want 80g

I would just reinforce some of the comments above: if you do in fact go for something external, get a big HD (and 80 GB just looks a little small for an external drive - personally, I would probably not get anything smaller than say 200 GB) for 2 reasons; firstly it's very cheap to get lots of storage and secondly, HDs fill up quickly and it would be a shame to have to buy a second external HD any time soon.

[AWR]

Hello. I am bumping around the interweb looking at external HD information and options. My task of choosing one is complicated by two matters: (1) I'm a n00b and (2) I'm in Switzerland (thus I read reviews for things that I can't find here or find things here which I can not find reviews of).

I am looking for a 250GB model, either internal with case or already boxed to back up the new HD in my iMac. It was my understanding that there is only a small difference between the USB and Firewire speeds, but then fumbled upon this (http://www.macaddict.com/issues/2005...ews/minidrives. Maybe the speed issue does not really matter for me though, as I plan on using the drive for weekly syncs only.

Someone bloody help me.

- Should someone with my needs care about USB or Firewire
- Can I use a drive that is Ultra ATA 100
- Should I stay away from SATA, as noted in another thread
- What's the difference beween 2MB, 8MB, and 16MB cache for someone using the HD as a backup only
- Another consideration: I often find myself without a spare USB port, as the iMac only has 3 (2.0s). I guess I could kill two birds by getting an external HD with a few extra ports.

Comments appreciated.

[awilso]

Originally Posted by AWR Hello. I am bumping around the interweb looking at external HD information and options. My task of choosing one is complicated by two matters: (1) I'm a n00b and (2) I'm in Switzerland (thus I read reviews for things that I can't find here or find things here which I can not find reviews of). I am looking for a 250GB model, either internal with case or already boxed to back up the new HD in my iMac. It was my understanding that there is only a small difference between the USB and Firewire speeds, but then fumbled upon this (http://www.macaddict.com/issues/2005...ws/minidrives). Maybe the speed issue does not really matter for me though, as I plan on using the drive for weekly syncs only. Someone bloody help me. - Should someone with my needs care about USB or Firewire - Can I use a drive that is Ultra ATA 100 - Should I stay away from SATA, as noted in another thread - What's the difference beween 2MB, 8MB, and 16MB cache for someone using the HD as a backup only - Another consideration: I often find myself without a spare USB port, as the iMac only has 3 (2.0s). I guess I could kill two birds by getting an external HD with a few extra ports. Comments appreciated.

I like firewire, because I think the connector is more robust and will last longer, both on the PC as well as the cable. However all wintel systems seem to use USB and most hubs, so if you think you might be moving the gear around from computer to computer I would go for USB.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by AWR Hello. I am bumping around the interweb looking at external HD information and options. My task of choosing one is complicated by two matters: (1) I'm a n00b and (2) I'm in Switzerland (thus I read reviews for things that I can't find here or find things here which I can not find reviews of). I am looking for a 250GB model, either internal with case or already boxed to back up the new HD in my iMac. It was my understanding that there is only a small difference between the USB and Firewire speeds, but then fumbled upon this (http://www.macaddict.com/issues/2005...ws/minidrives). Maybe the speed issue does not really matter for me though, as I plan on using the drive for weekly syncs only. Someone bloody help me. - Should someone with my needs care about USB or Firewire - Can I use a drive that is Ultra ATA 100 - Should I stay away from SATA, as noted in another thread - What's the difference beween 2MB, 8MB, and 16MB cache for someone using the HD as a backup only - Another consideration: I often find myself without a spare USB port, as the iMac only has 3 (2.0s). I guess I could kill two birds by getting an external HD with a few extra ports. Comments appreciated.

Ah! Revenge of the old thread!!!

A few things to remember:
- A drive/enclosure combo is almost always more cost-effective than buying a pre-built solution (i.e., you can get 200 GB for under $110 US, where as if you just buy an external drive you might only get 80 GB for that)
- Firewire is immensely faster. Unless you're just leaving the computer alone overnight to do the backup, USB isn't the best solution for you, IMO.
- Ultra ATA drives of any speed (66/100/133) will work in any IDE hard drive enclosure.
- Most firewire enclosures have an extra port on them for daisy-chaining (you can still hook another device through the same port as your--very handy if you only have one firewire.

I'll leave the SATA and cache questions for someone else.

[AWR]

Thanks for the information fcgriz and awilso. I guess Firewire seems to be at least one thing settled. Cost, while important, is hard to calculate in my circumstances. It might be cheaper for me to buy a pre-built in the US and send it priority mail to Switzerland. I suppose the problem with that is if or when it goes tits-up, I would have to send it back to the States. That said, the selection here is pretty lame.

Cheers.

[AWR]

Another question: howzit that numerous internal drives appear to have 5 year warranties, while with enclosed drives, they only give you one year?

Considering that the Maxtor that came in my iMac lasted 4 months, the extra coverage has to be worth considering.

[awilso]

Originally Posted by AWR Another question: howzit that numerous internal drives appear to have 5 year warranties, while with enclosed drives, they only give you one year? Considering that the Maxtor that came in my iMac lasted 4 months, the extra coverage has to be worth considering.

It depends on which drives they use, the extra heat in enclosed drives and the fact that most people tend to bang enclosed drives round more. I am loosing count of the number of drives and backups I take. You cannot spend too much on protecting your life (digital or not). Make a habit of buying cases and filling them with hard drives, you always find a use for them.

If you doubt this, just find someone who has lost all his data; his face is white, his hands shake and his legs are wobbling - man it's trully terrifying (There speaks the voice of experience )