External Hard Drives

Post by **GypsyRR** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:41 am

Currently own a Lacie 250 GB (USB/Firewire). I'm about out of space and need to purchase more GB.

Anyone have any experience with this one? The price looks good and the user ratings look good, but????
http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... e=51326471

Post by **mcooperstein** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:49 am

WD drives are ok, I use them a lot, as well as Maxtor and Seagate. However, that particular one is a bit pricey imho. Check out these:

TigerDirect external hard drives

Mark

GTR350cc · Post by **GTR350cc** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 1:14 pm

do not buy western digital for a Mac. Period. Their software is incompatible with Mac operating software. Updates to Apple software wreak havoc.

Best Mac workable external drives are La Cie .

http://www.lacie.com/products/clearance ... /?id=10007

http://www.macconnection.com/Search?Cat ... &DefSort=N

Post by **mcooperstein** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 1:21 pm

Thats...interesting. I'm not a Mac user, but am astonished that the device driver for external USB, IEEE1394 or SATA drives aren't imbedded in the OS like Windows, or even Linux.

hirsty · Post by **hirsty** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 1:37 pm

I have a LaCie for my iMac & they work flawlessly together.

maduko · Post by **maduko** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:52 pm

I roll my own. For less than $100 you can have one up and running. Takes about 10 minutes to stick a drive into the Comp USA enclosure.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... ode=312100

If you have a nice enclosure just put another drive in it.

When it's about time to get another/larger drive I start watching their sales. Usually they put something on sale/rebate at least once a month. The last one I bought was a WD 200 gig for $40 after rebates, etc.

PS- also have a couple of Byte CC enclosures that have fans and accept CD/DVD drives.

Post by **mcooperstein** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 5:20 pm

Maduko. Thats a good suggestion too. The advantage of buying a seperate case then hard drive is (as you pointed out) that you can update the drive when you need to. I personally have a drive case that can accept either an IDE or SATA drive, and the output can be either USB, Firewire OR SATA, so it's a *very* convenient drive case. Gypsy, if you go this route, make sure you get a good quality case, one that has a fan and is made of metal. The one's made of plastic are flimsy and don't do adequate drive cooling.

Mark

ps - Gypsy, you must have put the hoodoo on me with this thread. I went downstairs to my Vista based computer, (I hate Vista, but that's another topic of discussion) to find my hard drive literally smoking! It's fried!!! Good thing I did a backup yesterday!!!

Post by **GypsyRR** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 6:13 pm

What's hoodoo?

Shopping online tonight. I've been satisfied with the LaCie already. What GTR350cc causes me concern that another might not work as well with my Macs as the LaCie. Every Mac owner I know personally, uses the LaCie - so I guess there is something to it. I'll keep researching though, and get one delivered asap. Both lG4 and G5 are choking on photos and the LaCie has little room left. Life use to be much easier/cheaper when I had no hobbies.

Post by **wncbmw** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:47 pm

do not buy western digital for a Mac. Period. Their software is incompatible with Mac operating software. Updates to Apple software wreak havoc.

I profess to be pretty much a non-geek but I have a question about this. I have a WD external harddrive we owned pre-Mac, for storage of pictures mostly. I have had no issues whatsoever with it working with the iMac.

It would seem to me, saying they were incompatible is not exactly correct. I have no doubt others may be better, but I see no reason to scrap the one I already have.

Post by **toner87** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:42 am

I installed a 500GB WD MyBook on a friend's new iMac and it works flawlessly.
T.

Post by **GypsyRR** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:17 am

toner87 wrote:I installed a 500GB WD MyBook on a friend's new iMac and it works flawlessly.
T.

wncbmw wrote:It would seem to me, saying they were incompatible is not exactly correct. I have no doubt others may be better, but I see no reason to scrap the one I already have.

GypsyRR wrote:Life use to be much easier/cheaper when I had no hobbies.

edit: Life use to be much easier/cheaper when I had no hobbies and there were not so many choices.

GTR350cc · Post by **GTR350cc** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:02 pm

To be more clear...

Firewire implementation on the WD My Book series is not compatible with Mac OS X and the system firmware.

Western Digital My Book FAQ's

"Problem:
The WD My Book hard drive will not function when connected by FireWire (1394a and 1394b) to PPC based Apple computer.

Cause:
This is caused because the Apple ROM code and Open Boot architecture check for the first SCSI LUN. The WD My Book architectural design uses the first SCSI LUN as the "communication" port to talk with the firmware of the drive.

Resolution:
There is currently no resolution to this issue."

Post by **MikeCam** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:22 pm

Vann,

Everybody ignored your question/comment (except me- your loyal friend).

If you are using the USB port on an Intel/Mac implementation of the Mac OS and the Western Digital is formated w/ GUID it is not a concern. (Until you ask WD for any help with any problem. They will then tell you to BUY a newer drive.)

The problem referred to above is for FW ports on PPC Macs running 10.4 or earlier and using version a or b of the 1394 standard. WD does not comply with the industry's hardware/firmware/software interface standards and will not attempt to. WD will not replace or refund for this problem. Basically, WD devices are USB devices that might work with some FW applications. (All this for Apple Mac PPC digestion. WIntel and Intel/Mac folks need not concern themselves.)

Post by **Boxer** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:29 pm

I didn't ignore him. I just didn't know what to say. I'm still confused about who this guy MAC is and why he likes apples so much.

Post by **GypsyRR** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 5:54 pm

GTR350cc wrote:To be more clear...

Firewire implementation on the WD My Book series is not compatible with Mac OS X and the system firmware.

I started seeing that same info as I shopped/researched further last night after the different answers I was getting. To be fair, I had not mentioned that firewire was a pre-requisite in my selection.

I don't want to use USB, so when I started looking at firewire choices, and other specs, and comparing prices, I was led back to the LaCie.

I ended up ordering a LaCie 500GB d2 Quadra eSATA, FireWire 400 800, USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - for $190. It seemed like the best deal from the short list of places I checked.

Thanks.

Post by **wncbmw** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 6:46 pm

Mike - I appreciate your loyalty, believe me.

And I see the issue now. Of course, I have a USB connection on a newer Mac, simply because that is what I had the cables for!

That is different than not incompatible but now that GTR350cc has clarified what he was saying, it appears his recommendation would be good, if you are ordering a new one.

Which is apparently the same conclusion Gypsy reached!

I just did not want to buy a new HD or copy all of my stuff over!

And Boxer, I am still a little confused by this MAC guy once in a while myself. Except of course, our own MAC, Mr. Chew!

Post by **MikeCam** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 4:57 pm

Funny thing for a geezer like me. Not too many years ago someone asking me for a recommendation for an external hard drive would be told:

"Swift Run Gap on a snowy foggy morning."

Post by **wncbmw** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:51 pm

You sounded pretty geeky for an old geezer!

Post by **MikeCam** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:44 pm

I am geezy.

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