Can anyone recommend an external drive for an Apple?

[Twenty Inch]

Hi

We need a USB external drive for our Apple that we can use as a back-up for all our photos, docs etc. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Many thanks

TI

 

[Norm]

I have a Western Digital My Passport, which is small in size but large in volume and comes with software which is easy to set up and use for backups.

I only use it on Windows machines (XP, Vista and Win7) but the specs say that they also work on Macs with OSX 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

apple has one which works with airport & one which is an integrated airport extreme and massive storage device which automatically works with either time machine or umbrella 3 (depends which osx your on).
i use an iomega and wish i had bought apples own instead
hth

 

[Twenty Inch]

Thanks guys, I'll use the above as start points for further enquiries.

 

[arallsopp]

Something worth looking for is a standard file system and/or RAID support. You don't want to find your long term storage is barfed just because the case power supply no longer works, or the disk dies.

I use a ReadyNAS duo, which is possibly overkill, but bl00dy good.

 

[Norm]

I think that the OP is looking for a USB pocket drive rather than a twin disk NAS device.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Any of the Western Digital drives seem to work well. If you have OS 10.5 or later, don't bother with any other software - just plug it in and use TimeMachine.

 

[gaz]

anything with USB or firewire will work.

 

[Carwash]

Drobo if you're feeling rich. LaCie d2 if you're less rich but still like Firewire 800.

 

[Twenty Inch]

Something worth looking for is a standard file system and/or RAID support. You don't want to find your long term storage is barfed just because the case power supply no longer works, or the disk dies.

I use a ReadyNAS duo, which is possibly overkill, but bl00dy good.

Can you break this down into non-techie language, please? I understand "power supply", but I'm struggling with the rest...

 

[Norm]

arallsopp has suggested a network hard drive system, 20", a.k.a. NAS (for Network Attached Storage). They are fixed disks to be left at home and exist as file-servers (to keep all your user documents in a single location), media servers (so you just need one copy of your mp3s rather than having them on every computer) and security devices (to back up your computers and so the NAS itself can be easily backed up).

They are not portable and they are usually left turned on (although management software can suspend them if there is nothing connected) and prices for one with RAID support will start at around £200, rather than the £50 for a USB device.

Oh, and they are another piece of hardware which you will need to manage. It might be easy to do it, most you just need to plug in and leave, but there will come a point where the NAS and your network stop seeing each other, which very rarely happens with a USB drive.

IMO, an NAS is overkill for your requirements.

 

[arallsopp]

Sorry mate.

RAID is something you'll find written on the box / specs. Its an acronym for 'redundant array of inexpensive disks' but what it really means is '2 smaller capacity disks are often cheaper than 1 huge drive, and can be more resilient too'. RAID techniques vary from keeping a duplicate on the reserve drive to striping across multiple disks. Bear in mind in its common implementations, RAID reduces the storage space by approx 50%, so if you have a 500GB RAID device, it probably only holds 250GB (twice).

The advantage is that if one drive dies, you can put in another and it'll quickly mirror back from the copy without you needing to do anything. Most of the RAID NAS (network attached storage) solutions have 'hot swappable' drives that you can replace in a few seconds if you need to up the storage capacity, or replace a dead disk.

Of course, all of this is lost if its the drive chassis that dies on you. In that case, no amount of new disks will get your data back. For critical data (photos, music, archived PMs, etc ) you might want to read through the detailed specs of a drive to find out what filesystem is being used by the device. If its something that is readable by a normal PC or MAC, you can always whip out the drive and shove it into a tower unit (if you have one). That way, if one drive dies, you're fine. If the device dies, you're fine. If both drives and the device die, well, you're really unlucky.

Does that help?

 

[Pottsy]

Any of the Western Digital drives seem to work well. If you have OS 10.5 or later, don't bother with any other software - just plug it in and use TimeMachine.

+1. Exactly what I have and it all works perfectly. Virtually no set-up time, software included, backs up incrementally after the first one i.e. very quickly.

 

[arallsopp]

Oops. Cross post with Norm. Yep. Might be overkill. I came to NAS having discarded about 3 terabytes of external drives. My data use is kinda intense. YMMV. Sorry. )

 

[Norm]

Oops. Cross post with Norm. Yep. Might be overkill. I came to NAS having discarded about 3 terabytes of external drives. My data use is kinda intense. YMMV. Sorry. )

I have two NAS's now. I outgrew the first so I added a ReadyNAS with RAID for the second.

I still use a USB disc for backup though.