I’m interested in getting an external HD for my Macbook Pro for backup purposes. I’m looking for the best balance possible of value and dependability/longevity. I hope to just clone my entire HD onto it, but just my personal files (which I can almost save on one standard CD-R) would be fine too.
Opinions?
I highly disagree.
The Seagate Externals are having all sorts of problems. I have a bricked one sitting on my CPU as I type :mad:. On NewEgg, almost half of purchasers have given the 1.5 TB external only ONE start out of FIVE.
I have one of those very same 1TB drives, and have had no problem. It seems that if it fails, it does so early, and well within warranty. And one commenter suggests it’s the USB cable at fault.
I prefer Western Digital external drives, but there’s little difference between brands. So I think the big question is whether you want a 2.5" or a 3.5" drive. The smaller 2.5" drives can be powered entirely off the USB port while the 3.5" drives need an AC adapter. I prefer not having the AC adapter, so lately I’ve been using only 2.5" external drives.
I’ve had one of these for over a year now, that I put a spare hard drive in. I realize it may not be the best solution for you, but it’s worked out pretty well for me so far.
Even if you don’t have a spare hard drive, you can buy one separately. The advantage being, if that one ever fails, you just have to buy a new internal one which is usually cheaper than the external ones. Plus, if you ever have a hard drive you need data off of, but no computer to put in it, swapping out the drives is pretty easy (It takes both IDE & SATA drives). It looks like they make the same enclosure in Firewire, eSata and USB 3.0 varieties, too.
Edited to add, the only drawback is it has an external power source. If you just want it for backup purposes, it may not be a big deal, but if you decide you want to take it on the go, you’ve got to find a plug.
Well unfortunately it worked long enough that I was able to get pictures of an entire trip to Europe on it. And I’ve tried multiple USB cables and nothing has worked out. Considering 49% on NewEgg rated it 1/5, I’d still recommend the OP stay away.
I actually just use a SATA Dock, similar to this one: Thermaltake BlacX N0028USU External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5" & 3.5" USB 2.0 - Newegg.com
Then I keep a couple of extra drives around. I don’t like the ‘All-in-ones’. Another that I keep in the toolkit is APRICORN ADW-USB-KIT IDE/PATA/SATA to USB HDD Adapter - Newegg.com for general purpose connectivity to HDD’s I have laying around.
I have two Western Digital MyBooks on my desktop, one 1TB and one 500GB (a backup for my backup). Never had any problems.
Your CPU? Maybe you have bigger problems than the hard drive.
Also for the OP I’m wondering if you intend to use time machine at all? Whats more important you, speed, size, portability or price?
Like Electronic Chaos, I built my own. I used a 1 TB Western Digital “Green” series drive in an external enclosure. It runs at 5400 RPM, so it runs cooler and quieter - you don’t need 7200 RPM for a backup device.
Then, I just pointed Time Machine at it, and let it take care of backups.
Say, those look nice. I was gonna order a new enclosure sometime in the next couple days; that Thermaltake docking station looks like a serious contender…
As to the OP, we’ve got a bunch of externals at work (I’m the IT guy), all of which have been in use for between 1 and 4 years. Of 4 or 5 1-1.5TB FreeAgents, we’ve had 1 totally crap out after a year’s use, but the others seem fine. We also have a few LaCie drives – the one “Rugged Drive” (portable 320GB USB/Firewire) is fine, but we’ve had issues with the “Bigger Drives” (desktop 2TB USB/Firewire). I know we have some others around (WD portable Passports and the like), but they’ve not presented any issues, so I never hear about them.
This may be an unjustified personal bias, but (like Khendrask) I feel that an enclosure/internal hard disk is better than the “all in ones” (i.e., more robust, lower failure rate, easier to replace on failure, more flexible, etc.). Since it might affect the OP’s choice, any other opinions on that?
Have you considered a Time Capsule?