Question regarding portable storage & macbook pro

nightspidy

My original plan was to burn cd's while out on the road, but now I am thinking of backing up. I was originally thinking of just picking up some flash drives and using those, but they don't hold that much and it would be a lot cheaper (and I'd get more GB's) if I bought a portable storage device. However, there are so many choices and I am not really "computer literate" and so on, so which one would be the best to take along with me while I'm traveling and that would work with my macbook pro? Thanks in advance.

Van Isle

any USB or Firewire drive will work with your Mac. Get as big as you think you need, but 120GB or 160GB should probably do you to start. And USE IT! In addition you should continue to burn DVDs/CDs to back up your stuff. Make 2 or 3 copies and mail a few home. You can also consider backing stuff up online. Use all of these together and you'd have an ACCEPTABLE backup strategy

Seagate, Western Digital, and Lacie are some drives that many recommend. 2.5" drives are (duh!) smaller than 3.5" drives. Any backup strategy that is regular is better than no backup strategy, so congratulations!

VI

Pupator

Van Isle wrote:

USE IT! In addition you should continue to burn DVDs/CDs to back up your stuff. Make 2 or 3 copies and mail a few home. You can also consider backing stuff up online. Use all of these together and you'd have an ACCEPTABLE backup strategy

I think for normal data, (doesn't involve your entire livelihood or government secrets) backing up to the external HDD daily and burning DVDs of that weekly (and putting them in another location) OR online backups is sufficient.

While I'm all about backups, if my laptop HDD died the same day/week as my external backup drive AND it turned out that my previous weeks DVDs (which I verified when I burned) had gone bad - well I'd just assume I wasn't supposed to have that data anyway.

Richard

Pupator wrote:

While I'm all about backups, if my laptop HDD died the same day/week as my external backup drive AND it turned out that my previous weeks DVDs (which I verified when I burned) had gone bad - well I'd just assume I wasn't supposed to have that data anyway.

Paul makes a good point...best not to thwart the digital deities.

dmmattix

nightspidy wrote:

My original plan was to burn cd's while out on the road, but now I am thinking of backing up. I was originally thinking of just picking up some flash drives and using those, but they don't hold that much and it would be a lot cheaper (and I'd get more GB's) if I bought a portable storage device. However, there are so many choices and I am not really "computer literate" and so on, so which one would be the best to take along with me while I'm traveling and that would work with my macbook pro? Thanks in advance.

Since you are talking about on the road. I find I use the Western Digital Passport 160GB drive. The case is about the size of a 3.5" hard drive, it is USB 2.0, and powered by the USB cable which makes it very portable. It is not very fast (probably due to the USB power) and it does get pretty hot if you use it for a long time (hours) but it really does the job for quick, portable backups and it will fit damn near anywhere in your bag as it is only
3.25" W x 5" H x .6" D.

nmh

nightspidy wrote:

My original plan was to burn cd's while out on the road, but now I am thinking of backing up. I was originally thinking of just picking up some flash drives and using those, but they don't hold that much and it would be a lot cheaper (and I'd get more GB's) if I bought a portable storage device. However, there are so many choices and I am not really "computer literate" and so on, so which one would be the best to take along with me while I'm traveling and that would work with my macbook pro? Thanks in advance.

Are you interested in only storing your photos, or do you also want some sort of backup for your computer?

If the former, you may be able to use a psd as you mentioned (I have heard many recommendations for hyperdrives). You can transfer pictures from your cf/sd/whatever to the psd, and then copy them to your computer (2 copies - psd + computer).

If the latter, you can use an external disk and periodically sync it to the internal disk in your computer. If you are using an apple laptop, I suggest you consider enclosures (or preassembled units) with 1394 - ime, it usb bus power doesn't work as well. Of course you will want to use 2.5" or 1.8" drives.

DonRicklin

I upgraded the drive in my MacBook to a 200GB 7200rpm Hitachi from OWC. I then put the stock 2.5 HD Laptop drive in a USB sleeve cheap from eBay. It makes a great portable drive for stashing images on the road. I have a second 160GB one I use for TimeMachine. Cheap and easy.

Much better than lugging the 300GB LaCie with bulky AC Adapter around on a trip. (Which I have done).



Don