External HDD for iMac/MacBook?

[Gromit]

Hi folks,

It's really about time I backed-up all my photos/music etc on both my iMac and McB at home as they're taking up masses of space - especially the music as it's all lossless files.

Basically, I'm after a good solid (reliable!) external hard drive and wondered what you guys would recommend? Probably don't need much more than 1TB of storage, at a guess.

Thanks.

[Bikerhoss]

I can't recommend a good one, all I can say is don't get a 'WD My Passport',
I got one for the same reason as yourself, and it lasted less than two months

[Merecat]

I use an Iomega 1TB to back up pictures and music and a 1TB WD my passport as a media storage for the Raspberry PI.
Not had any trouble with either although the Iomega software is streets ahead of the WD.
I use "SynchBack Free" software which suits my needs for sending files to various drives.

HTH

[Boxered]

Very difficult to recommend one over another as internally the Hdd will be either a Seagate, Hitachi or a WD in all likelihood. I personally like My Hitachi Touro 1TB.The biggest problem people have with ext HDDs is the fact that they are portable and so tend to get knocked about much more so than in a PC, HDDs don't like being moved whilst they're spinning. So any of the bigger brands should be ok as long as you handle it like it is TNT.
The other thing to consider is what type of connection you have, do you have USB 3 on your mac? or usb 2 or Firewire (1394) or E-sata?
the latter being the fastest transfer speed ( depending on how many USB devices are connected) Heat build up is also an issue, Only connect it when you want to use it, I never leave it running all day.

HTH

Steve

[Gromit]

Thanks guys.

This HDD would only sit on the desk next to the computer so wouldn't really go anywhere. Connection-wise there's Firewire on the iMac but not on the Macbook, sadly. AFAIK it's USB 2 on both - they're both reasonably old now (early 2008 for the iMac, late 2009 for MB).

I'll check out the ones you've mentioned.

[sandbar]

........and wondered what you guys would recommend?

Get a PC!

sandbar

[Gromit]

........and wondered what you guys would recommend?

Get a PC!

sandbar

Wash your mouth out

[Spud]

As an alternative, I bought a NAS drive, the Western Digital My Book Live (2 TB) to hang off my router last September. It even survived the recent house move. It stays tucked away nice and safe and automatically runs a backup each week for the couple of PCs we have at home. I've even tried a restore and it worked ...

It also means you can hook it up to your TV if you have one with ethernet capabilities ... which is good for when granny comes over and wants to see pictures .....

[Gromit]

Spud - hadn't actually considered a NAS drive to be honest, as all I'm after is something to back-up photos/music on in case the Macs go u/s at some time in the future.

However, a NAS drive would be extremely useful for music streaming. A large part of what I listen to on my hifi is from my MacBook into an aSync USB dac. Could then use my Squeezebox with the NAS and it would mean not having to have the computer running.

I shall investigate further.

[qwakers]

ive strongly gone off western digital in the last 6 months. the number of stb's with wd hdd's in that ive had to replace in the course of my work with failed hdd's is insane........ we're talking of upwards of 30% of my work atm....

[McBoxer]

ive strongly gone off western digital in the last 6 months. the number of stb's with wd hdd's in that ive had to replace in the course of my work with failed hdd's is insane........ we're talking of upwards of 30% of my work atm....

WTF?? Way to many TLA's in that sentence BTW. LOL.