External hard drive for Mac

firelook2 · June 14, 2007

Hi folks

Just purchased my first Mac (finally switched from the "dark side") :barb - bought a 15" Macbook Pro. I want to add an external hard drive and am in the process of researching the most reliable, powerful, etc that are compatible with Mac.

Any suggestions? One product that has been endorsed by MacWorld and won their "EDDY" award in 2006 is by G-Technology, Inc - the G-Drive Q (I'm looking at the 500GB or 750 GB). A little bit pricey, but the reviews are good and it has a 2 yr warranty. Anyone using this product?

P.S. Looking forward to adding a new Quad G5 this fall to my home office.

New equipment to work on my photo editing - yippee!

Thanks for any suggestions,

Marcy
Redmond, Oregon
www.highcascadesphotography.com

DavidTO · June 15, 2007

Congrats!

You can use any USB or Firewire drive with your Mac. The Mac ain't picky. You'll format it differently than you would for Windows, but that's about it.

I often buy from macsales.com

J Kacey · June 15, 2007

I have the G-Raid 320gb. It works great with my g4 17" powerbook. It works great for media also..... When I bought it everybody was haveing problems with Lacie. Have not had any problems at all. Highly recommend G- Technology Inc........... Here is a good forum at Creative Cow that can answer any questions you have http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_view_posts.cgi?forumid=176
Good Luck,
Jerry

firelook2 · June 15, 2007

Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the replies to my question about external hard drives. I really appreciate the response. So far, the best reviews are for the G-Technology hard drives, so that is probably what I'll buy.

I'm excited to get home and play with my new Mac - I'm currently on a fire assignment in Arizona for BLM, but fly home tomorrow. Hopefully it will be an easy transition from Windows PC to Mac!

Thanks again,

Marcy

firelook2 · June 15, 2007

G-Raid or non-Raid?

Jerry Kacey wrote:

I have the G-Raid 320gb. It works great with my g4 17" powerbook. It works great for media also..... When I bought it everybody was haveing problems with Lacie. Have not had any problems at all. Highly recommend G- Technology Inc........... Here is a good forum at Creative Cow that can answer any questions you have http://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_view_posts.cgi?forumid=176
Good Luck,
Jerry

Hi Jerry,
What is the advantage of buying an external hard drive that is RAID or one that isn't? Is that mainly for video/audio editing? I will be only doing digital photos no video - would an external drive with RAID still be advisable?

Thanks

Marcy

CatOne · June 15, 2007

I'll throw my hat in the ring for the G-Tech drives as well.

CatOne · June 15, 2007

BTW, Quad G5?

Er, you may wish to go Mac Pro instead. It's what all the cool kids are doing these days

But seriously, the Quad G5 is a pretty noisy machine. I assume you're looking at picking one up used as they haven't been sold for over a year now... but I'd probably recommend you look at options for a Mac Pro... as it's faster, has some legs (i.e. not based on a non-dead CPU), and is seriously > 20 dB quieter. The Quad G5 used cooling apparatus from AC Delco (yes, *that* AC Delco) and you could most certainly hear it. RRRRrrrrrrRRRRRRRrrrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrrrr.

Shizam · June 15, 2007

firelook2 wrote:

Hi Jerry,
What is the advantage of buying an external hard drive that is RAID or one that isn't? Is that mainly for video/audio editing? I will be only doing digital photos no video - would an external drive with RAID still be advisable?

Thanks

Marcy

For photos I'm assuming you'd want RAID 1 (redundancy), RAID 0 increases speed but if anything happens to one of the drives you're screwed. I would say buying an external RAID setup for travel with a laptop doesn't make sense. The point of RAID 1 is so that if one drive fails the other still has all your data on it, but i'd say if you're traveling any 'failure' would likely involve physical damage to the external unit which would kill both drives. If redundancy is a concern travel with a pair of 2.5" external drives.

firelook2 · June 15, 2007

re: Mac Pro

CatOne wrote:

BTW, Quad G5?

Er, you may wish to go Mac Pro instead. It's what all the cool kids are doing these days

But seriously, the Quad G5 is a pretty noisy machine. I assume you're looking at picking one up used as they haven't been sold for over a year now... but I'd probably recommend you look at options for a Mac Pro... as it's faster, has some legs (i.e. not based on a non-dead CPU), and is seriously > 20 dB quieter. The Quad G5 used cooling apparatus from AC Delco (yes, *that* AC Delco) and you could most certainly hear it. RRRRrrrrrrRRRRRRRrrrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrrrr.

Hi,

Actually, I meant the Mac Pro - forgot it has a new name.

I plan to purchase a new machine with as much RAM, etc as I can afford.

Thanks for the reply to the G-Tech external HD question, too. With all the info I've read, I think that's where I will buy - just have to decide which one to buy. I don't do any video - only digital photos.

Thanks again,

Marcy

firelook2 · June 15, 2007

Sizam wrote:

For photos I'm assuming you'd want RAID 1 (redundancy), RAID 0 increases speed but if anything happens to one of the drives you're screwed. I would say buying an external RAID setup for travel with a laptop doesn't make sense. The point of RAID 1 is so that if one drive fails the other still has all your data on it, but i'd say if you're traveling any 'failure' would likely involve physical damage to the external unit which would kill both drives. If redundancy is a concern travel with a pair of 2.5" external drives.

Thanks for the info - appreciate your comments. I'm not a "techie" so not up on all the terms. I appreciate the info you provided and after talking with our IT person here at work, I don't think I need the RAID external drives.

Marcy

photobanks · June 20, 2007

firelook2 wrote:

Hi folks

Just purchased my first Mac (finally switched from the "dark side") - bought a 15" Macbook Pro. I want to add an external hard drive and am in the process of researching the most reliable, powerful, etc that are compatible with Mac.

Any suggestions? One product that has been endorsed by MacWorld and won their "EDDY" award in 2006 is by G-Technology, Inc - the G-Drive Q (I'm looking at the 500GB or 750 GB). A little bit pricey, but the reviews are good and it has a 2 yr warranty. Anyone using this product?

P.S. Looking forward to adding a new Quad G5 this fall to my home office. New equipment to work on my photo editing - yippee!

Thanks for any suggestions,

Marcy
Redmond, Oregon
www.highcascadesphotography.com

Hi,

I use a G-Safe (which is RAID 1 Mirroring), to protect my images. Fantastic product - firewire 800 and USB 2 compatible, so is quick transfer rates.

Highly recommended.

Michael

BRATCH · June 21, 2007

firelook2 wrote:

Hi folks

Just purchased my first Mac (finally switched from the "dark side") - bought a 15" Macbook Pro. I want to add an external hard drive and am in the process of researching the most reliable, powerful, etc that are compatible with Mac.

Any suggestions? One product that has been endorsed by MacWorld and won their "EDDY" award in 2006 is by G-Technology, Inc - the G-Drive Q (I'm looking at the 500GB or 750 GB). A little bit pricey, but the reviews are good and it has a 2 yr warranty. Anyone using this product?

P.S. Looking forward to adding a new Quad G5 this fall to my home office. New equipment to work on my photo editing - yippee!

Thanks for any suggestions,

Marcy
Redmond, Oregon
www.highcascadesphotography.com

You've gotten some pretty good suggestions from the folks around here, but I'd take a look at the MyBook drives by Western Digital if I were you.

I just purchased a 250GB FW400/USB2.0 drive for around $120. If you get the USB 2.0 only, a 500GB drive can be had for about $160. I somewhat prefer Firewire over USB 2.0, but 500GB for that kind of cash is almost too good to pass up.

I've put about 100GB of photos on the drive I just purchased. As soon as that is full I'll probably buy a 500GB and start on it. A lot of the times a USB 2.0 or Firewire external drive can operate faster than even the computer's internal hard drive. And when comparing various brands they are all neck and neck on speed, but having used Western Digital hard drives for years, I know they are reliable and that's all that matters to me.

Manfr3d · June 22, 2007

firelook2 wrote:

Hi folks

Just purchased my first Mac (finally switched from the "dark side") - bought a 15" Macbook Pro. I want to add an external hard drive and am in the process of researching the most reliable, powerful, etc that are compatible with Mac.

Any suggestions? One product that has been endorsed by MacWorld and won their "EDDY" award in 2006 is by G-Technology, Inc - the G-Drive Q (I'm looking at the 500GB or 750 GB). A little bit pricey, but the reviews are good and it has a 2 yr warranty. Anyone using this product?

P.S. Looking forward to adding a new Quad G5 this fall to my home office. New equipment to work on my photo editing - yippee!

Thanks for any suggestions,

Marcy
Redmond, Oregon
www.highcascadesphotography.com

Hi Marcy,

I know no external USB or Firewire drive that does not work with a Mac.
You can save alot of money if you dont go by the most advertised product.
The main difference is the Disk Enclusure (plastic, metal, connections, noise,
vibrations, heat). The Disks itself are all reliable brand drives from Samsung
Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, Fujitsu or Hitachi.

For super fast transferspeeds you want a Drive that Supports Firewire 800
and USB (for the sake of compatibility with other Computers).

My personal recommendation is to buy a WesternDigital "MyBook Pro" 500GB
Drive. It looks sleek, is very silent and thanks to USB and Firewire800 blazingly
fast. It is also not as expensive as a LaCie Drive. All in all highly recommended.

Edit: Here is a Amazon Link so you can see how it looks like:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-External-Triple-Interface/dp/B000G2BGFK

firelook2 · June 26, 2007

Hi,

Thanks for all the info - I've been looking at many different brands and did check out the 500GB Western Digital, but found a lot of negatives from people who had problems, so not sure. I'm sure they are like everything else, once in a while ya get a lemmon.

For quick and easy transporting, I bought a 160GB Western Digital Passport, but have to find out how to make it work. It brings an icon to the desktop, but when I click on the icon it just gives me a bunch of folders and I can't figure out how to install the HD. So, guess I"ll call WD and try to get them to help.

I may eventually go ahead and get a 500GB drive for storage of my photo library but want to have the images stored in another place also in case of failure with one drive, so probably need 2 500GB drives.

. To be honest, I'm really impressed with all the info I've found on the G-Tech products, so will probably go that route for the big HD.

Thanks again for your imput.

Marcy

Manfr3d wrote:

Hi Marcy,

I know no external USB or Firewire drive that does not work with a Mac.
You can save alot of money if you dont go by the most advertised product.
The main difference is the Disk Enclusure (plastic, metal, connections, noise,
vibrations, heat). The Disks itself are all reliable brand drives from Samsung
Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, Fujitsu or Hitachi.

For super fast transferspeeds you want a Drive that Supports Firewire 800
and USB (for the sake of compatibility with other Computers).

My personal recommendation is to buy a WesternDigital "MyBook Pro" 500GB
Drive. It looks sleek, is very silent and thanks to USB and Firewire800 blazingly
fast. It is also not as expensive as a LaCie Drive. All in all highly recommended.

Edit: Here is a Amazon Link so you can see how it looks like:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-External-Triple-Interface/dp/B000G2BGFK

firelook2 · June 26, 2007

Thanks for all the replies to my query
Hi folks,

Just waned to say thanks to everyone who replied to my question about external hard drives for the Macbook Pro. I appreciate your taking the time to post and your replies for very informative.

Thanks again,

Marcy

mrbill62 · June 26, 2007

You don't have to 'install' the HD. The Passport is bus powered - it gets the power to run off the USB connection. Plug it into your MacBook Pro, the drive icon should appear on the desktop. Double click the icon and you are accessing the HD. The folders you see are probably added by Western digital for PC users. They are what is on the Passport. It is probably formatted as FAT-32 so both Mac's & PC's can read & write to it. If you want to share the drive between Mac's & PC's leave it alone. if you want to use it as Mac only, run Disk Utility to reformat the HD.

I'm paranoid about data loss (have had several HD's die), I have 3 separate backups of my photos: 2 HD's (1 offsite) and data DVD's (also off-site).

firelook2 wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for all the info - I've been looking at many different brands and did check out the 500GB Western Digital, but found a lot of negatives from people who had problems, so not sure. I'm sure they are like everything else, once in a while ya get a lemmon.

For quick and easy transporting, I bought a 160GB Western Digital Passport, but have to find out how to make it work. It brings an icon to the desktop, but when I click on the icon it just gives me a bunch of folders and I can't figure out how to install the HD. So, guess I"ll call WD and try to get them to help.

I may eventually go ahead and get a 500GB drive for storage of my photo library but want to have the images stored in another place also in case of failure with one drive, so probably need 2 500GB drives. . To be honest, I'm really impressed with all the info I've found on the G-Tech products, so will probably go that route for the big HD.

Thanks again for your imput.

Marcy

firelook2 · June 30, 2007

Thanks for the info - appreciate the help. When those folders popped up I wasn't sure what the deal was.

Yeah, I know what you mean about being paranoid. I plan to have one HD at home and probably another one off site, then will also be using DVD's or CD's. I haven't had any problems (knock on wood) but I have heard horror stories from others.

Thanks again,

Marcy
Redmond, Oregon
(currently in Anchorage, AK for 30 days on a fire assignment for US Forest Service)

External hard drive for Mac

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