Looking for a good/ reliable external HDD for iMac

[dmoney1980]

A friend of mine has a 27" iMac, and he's looking to backup all of his family photos/ vids. I'm a newb when it comes to apple hardware....do you guys know of a fast / reliable external HDD for the iMac? Can he just buy any external HDD (or a HDD plus an eternal enclosure) ?

 

[Kaido]

A friend of mine has a 27" iMac, and he's looking to backup all of his family photos/ vids. I'm a newb when it comes to apple hardware....do you guys know of a fast / reliable external HDD for the iMac? Can he just buy any external HDD (or a HDD plus an eternal enclosure) ?

Anything will work. B&H currently has a 4TB USB backup drive on sale for $229:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._DX3_Hard.html

They also have a faster 7200rpm drive available for $10 more:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...kpro_Hard.html

Just be sure to format it for Mac:

1. Open the Disk Utility app from Spotlight search (upper-right magnifying glass icon on the menubar)
2. Select the drive on the left (it should be orange)
3. Set Volume Scheme to 1 Partition
4. Go to Options and select GUID Partition Table
5. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format
6. Click Apply and wait for it to format

It will sort of look like this: (random picture from Google Images)

http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1_files/DU 1c Disk Utility format.png

When it's done, it should pop up and ask if you want to use it for Time Machine backup. That's Apple's automatic backup system - click OK if you want to, otherwise he will need to manage his backups manually.

 

[dmoney1980]

thanks Kaido!

 

[jonesthewine]

Another option is Dropbox or iCloud. Store it in da cloud, access it from any web connection.

 

[TheStu]

Another option is Dropbox or iCloud. Store it in da cloud, access it from any web connection.

Yea, but if you want to backup the whole kit and caboodle, and want to be able to recover from that backup, then external is the way to go.

Couple that with DropBox, iCloud, Skydrive and whatever else you like, and now you have a solid backup for your critical documents and can get everything without downloading if you have to reformat.

 

[Kaido]

Yea, but if you want to backup the whole kit and caboodle, and want to be able to recover from that backup, then external is the way to go.

Couple that with DropBox, iCloud, Skydrive and whatever else you like, and now you have a solid backup for your critical documents and can get everything without downloading if you have to reformat.

Well, two factors there - #1, stuff like Backblaze is pretty awesome. In this case, you get unlimited backup for $5 a month. If you need a fast recovery, you can have them ship you a USB stick or hard drive with your data on it for $100 - $200. So the system takes care of everything for you, with no initial hardware investment, and does it off-site.

#2, on the flip side, you're stuck with really slow upload speeds. Even high-speed upload connections are not very fast, so uploading HD videos of your family into the cloud can take forever. But, if your house burns down or your computer gets stolen or whatever, your local USB backup drive goes with it, so the cloud is nice for that. I use both...USB backup (Time Machine & SuperDuper) and cloud backup. It's all set & forget, which is really nice!

 

[TheStu]

Well, two factors there - #1, stuff like Backblaze is pretty awesome. In this case, you get unlimited backup for $5 a month. If you need a fast recovery, you can have them ship you a USB stick or hard drive with your data on it for $100 - $200. So the system takes care of everything for you, with no initial hardware investment, and does it off-site.

#2, on the flip side, you're stuck with really slow upload speeds. Even high-speed upload connections are not very fast, so uploading HD videos of your family into the cloud can take forever. But, if your house burns down or your computer gets stolen or whatever, your local USB backup drive goes with it, so the cloud is nice for that. I use both...USB backup (Time Machine & SuperDuper) and cloud backup. It's all set & forget, which is really nice!

That's what I was saying, that you really should have both local and cloud backups. I keep hearing about Backblaze, I should probably check it out at some point. Right now, my personal critical files fit within Skydrive's 25GB limits.

 

[Tegeril]

I'm in the process of moving 1.3TB up to Crashplan's servers and with a 35/35 FIOS connection the limitation is them, not me on speed. Large backups take a very long time to push into the cloud so having both options is ideal.

 

[cheez]

Another option is Dropbox or iCloud. Store it in da cloud, access it from any web connection.

Not an idea, at least for me. I have several Terabytes worth data (MPEG2-TS video files ) and back all that up to iCloud? Not to mention streaming?

I don't think the internet is fast enough and the cloud space is limited. Unless you can get at least 50 MB/Sec bandwidth I wouldn't mind. This is impossible with current ISP's.

And say NO-NO to USB external hard drive. Say NO-NO to 5200 rpm hard drives too. They are too slow and take forever to transfer my HD files over it's not worth a damn...

The only solution is dedicated NAS for your home, with 1Gbps network connection. SSD or multi SCSI / SAS or Raptor drives w/ Raid0 array is the only way. This will be very expensive setup and I can't afford it right now.


I hate my 3TB USB 5200 rpm external drive. It's the gheyest (gayest) thing available on earth.

 

[cheez]

I'm in the process of moving 1.3TB up to Crashplan's servers and with a 35/35 FIOS connection the limitation is them, not me on speed. Large backups take a very long time to push into the cloud so having both options is ideal.

Sorry but the use of icloud via internet for backing up large files (in TB's) is a bad idea. It's too time consuming and not good for streaming either. Dedicated NAS or souped-up SSD storage via USB3.0 or Firewire or gigabit lan is the only way...... no other options.

 

[KeithP]

I'm in the process of moving 1.3TB up to Crashplan's servers and with a 35/35 FIOS connection the limitation is them, not me on speed. Large backups take a very long time to push into the cloud so having both options is ideal.

I don't know if you are aware, but Crash Plan will send you a 1TB drive so you can start your backup locally. That would save a lot of time although it costs $125.

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.p...seed_your_initial_backup_to_crashplan_central

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that if you are backing up more than around 200GB, you are probably better off managing your own off site backups. Buy two external drives, use one for every day backups and use the other for once a week backups. Keep the once a week backup drive in your car or at a friends house and just bring it home when needed.

As for external drives, I would stay away from Seagate. I have two of their external drives, different models but they both have firewire and USB connections. The Firewire connections have been unreliable with my new MacBook Pro under 10.7 and 10.8. If my Mac sleeps, they sleep but don't wake along with the Mac which forces me to shut them down in order to get them back. I have seen others complaining about the same problem in their support forums.

-KeithP

 

[MotionMan]

I do not use a cloud backup (except if you count Photostream, which I clear out from time to time).

I have portable drives that I backup to periodically. I then bring one to the office and put it in my desk. They are rotated as I backup. I do not create a lot of data at home, so I am mostly concerned with my pictures. Those reside on the camera/phone for at least two HDD backup cycles.

Someone asked me what I would do if my home backup and office backup both failed. I said that if something happened to my home in the Valley and my office in the Westside, I probably having bigger problems to worry about than my backups.

MotionMan