External Drive for 10.5

[TangoJuliet]

I plan on buying a new imac after macworld in January. I wanted to buy an external drive to use with Leopard's time machine but after reading a lot of reviews a bunch of the drives dont work properly.

I was looking at the 1TB WD drive but read a lot of reviews saying it froze all the time with TM. I am going to get the imac with the 500GB drive so I'm not sure if I'm overdoing it with the 1TB. I was planning on matching the 500GB imac drive and then have another 500gb for storage.

 

[timswim78]

I might suggest getting two 500GB drives, one for backups and one for storage. If you are worried about cluttering your desk with multiple drives, you can get a networked drive (such as a NAS) and hide it in a closet/basement/etc.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: timswim78
I might suggest getting two 500GB drives, one for backups and one for storage. If you are worried about cluttering your desk with multiple drives, you can get a networked drive (such as a NAS) and hide it in a closet/basement/etc.

I could do that as well. Which 500GB drives would you suggest? I am planning on getting an airport extreme and I think I can connect a drive directly to that.

 

[randomlinh]

I dunno how well the airport hook up is working for folks, but I wouldn't rely on it. Time machine doesn't work with it yet I don't think.

matching the drive is good if you want to have a quick and easy way to recover your entire system. Time machine is nice, but it's only really meant for "oh crap, i deleted this" or "damn, I needed that old revision." Something like carbon copy cloner or super duper will give you an exact bootable copy.

but then you have to worry about data on that extra 500 gb you'll have, if you go the 2x500GB route. then again, I'm paranoid about data loss

Whatever you do though, I'd spring for firewire drives. The speed difference from any USB device I've used on my system is nice to have.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
I dunno how well the airport hook up is working for folks, but I wouldn't rely on it. Time machine doesn't work with it yet I don't think.

matching the drive is good if you want to have a quick and easy way to recover your entire system. Time machine is nice, but it's only really meant for "oh crap, i deleted this" or "damn, I needed that old revision." Something like carbon copy cloner or super duper will give you an exact bootable copy.

but then you have to worry about data on that extra 500 gb you'll have, if you go the 2x500GB route. then again, I'm paranoid about data loss

Whatever you do though, I'd spring for firewire drives. The speed difference from any USB device I've used on my system is nice to have.

okay how about this? I'll get a desktop external drive just for the imac (500GB). I have (2) 500GB WD SATA drives that I can use in an RAID enclosure and use it as a networked drive to store data.

now, which 500gb desktop external drive should I get that works with 10.5 and TM? I had asked a similar question like this before about the networked drive and someone gave me a link to a company that sells the RAID external cases....just dont remember where.

lastly, which router should I get being that you said the airport isnt working right with 10.5 and would be compatible for my situation.

THANKS!!

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: alkohoLiK
lastly, which router should I get being that you said the airport isnt working right with 10.5 and would be compatible for my situation.

I meant in respect to TM. And I have heard a few things about loosing connection on heavy transfers.. but nothing solid.

And remember, RAID is not a backup system, it's redundancy. If that enclosure decides to blow up, you're SOL As you can tell, I may be a little overly paranoid about data loss... I guess it doesn't help that I deal with it at work too, heh.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: alkohoLiK
lastly, which router should I get being that you said the airport isnt working right with 10.5 and would be compatible for my situation.

I meant in respect to TM. And I have heard a few things about loosing connection on heavy transfers.. but nothing solid.

And remember, RAID is not a backup system, it's redundancy. If that enclosure decides to blow up, you're SOL As you can tell, I may be a little overly paranoid about data loss... I guess it doesn't help that I deal with it at work too, heh.

so u mean using the airport extreme as a NAS thru TM, right?

im paranoid about data loss as well, i lost everything last year when my brand new data drive crashed and I was too laxed about backing up everything right away. I know that RAID isnt a backup system but I plan to backup everything on routinely and what are the odds that the enclosure blows up?

This is what I am thinking anyways for the setup

24" imac
Airport Extreme
500GB external drive (desktop) to use with TM
RAID (500GB x 2)

The RAID drive will be hooked up directly to the airport.

Sound good?

 

[randomlinh]

As long as you understand what RAID is, you're seem good. I'd look more on the apple support forums on how well the airport usb port is working for folks. I remember hearing problems early on, but it's been through at least one revision and I'm sure firmware updates.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
As long as you understand what RAID is, you're seem good. I'd look more on the apple support forums on how well the airport usb port is working for folks. I remember hearing problems early on, but it's been through at least one revision and I'm sure firmware updates.

cool, thanks. got any recomendations for the 500gb desktop external drive?

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: alkohoLiK

Originally posted by: randomlinh
As long as you understand what RAID is, you're seem good. I'd look more on the apple support forums on how well the airport usb port is working for folks. I remember hearing problems early on, but it's been through at least one revision and I'm sure firmware updates.

cool, thanks. got any recomendations for the 500gb desktop external drive?

 

[hiromizu]

I like the Lacie drives - NOT the cheaper Porche designed models. Solidly built and looks good.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I like the Lacie drives - NOT the cheaper Porche designed models. Solidly built and looks good.

This one any good?
Link

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: alkohoLiK

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I like the Lacie drives - NOT the cheaper Porche designed models. Solidly built and looks good.

This one any good?
Link

That's the series. Yes.

 

[bigrash]

I bought this external enclosure and added my own 500gb hd on my last mac: link. Works perfectly

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: bigrash
I bought this external enclosure and added my own 500gb hd on my last mac: link. Works perfectly

I was planning on buying this external case from them. I probably wouldn't go with the ministack v2 since it doesnt support FW800. However the v3 supports both FW400 and FW800 and is TM approved.

v3
I like the design of the case better then the LaCie case as it looks like the airport/apple TV.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: bigrash
I bought this external enclosure and added my own 500gb hd on my last mac: link. Works perfectly

I have that case too. V1 sucks, the drive mounted very uncomfortably. I bought one after the V2 since I didn't need all the extras. V2 has been great though. I love the fact it shuts down the HDD when I shut off the computer

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: alkohoLiK

Originally posted by: bigrash
I bought this external enclosure and added my own 500gb hd on my last mac: link. Works perfectly

I was planning on buying this external case from them. I probably wouldn't go with the ministack v2 since it doesnt support FW800. However the v3 supports both FW400 and FW800 and is TM approved.

v3
I like the design of the case better then the LaCie case as it looks like the airport/apple TV.

These are not built anywhere near as solid as the Lacie drives. Just an FYI.

 

[bearxor]

I'm a bit late, but under no circumstances buy the WD MyBook Studio drives. I just got two of the 1TB ones in and they're both dead.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: bearxor
I'm a bit late, but under no circumstances buy the WD MyBook Studio drives. I just got two of the 1TB ones in and they're both dead.

what happened exactly?

 

[GTaudiophile]

A friend of mine recently bought this drive, and after having helped him install it, I would say it's pretty solid.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
A friend of mine recently bought this drive, and after having helped him install it, I would say it's pretty solid.

yep, that was the drive I was originally looking at. it has now been recommended 2 times here.

hiromizu what makes the LaCie a better drive then the v3 in your opinion?

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: alkohoLiK

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
A friend of mine recently bought this drive, and after having helped him install it, I would say it's pretty solid.

yep, that was the drive I was originally looking at. it has now been recommended 2 times here.

hiromizu what makes the LaCie a better drive then the v3 in your opinion?

Lacie support and the fact that it's built like a rugged tank - plus I've never had any strange problems with them while supporting video producers who swears by them for years. Everything else feels cheap.

 

[LtPage1]

I have an older 250GB Firewire Lacie drive that's working flawlessly with Time Machine.

I'd highly recommend their drives.

edit: It's one of the cheaper F. A. Porsche designed models, so I'd recommend the nicer, triple-interface ones even more highly. :thumbsup:

 

[randomlinh]

It's interesting the Lacie recommendations... I got the impression they weren't too good. And I know a few people, including my father, who's had issues with them. The one my dad has in particular is odd, it won't work with any other USB cable other than the one it came with. Yes, I've tired it against 3 different windows machines and my imac.

 

[TangoJuliet]

I think I am going to go with the Lacie drive after all. If I don't like it I can just return it to the store.