Need a external hard drive for my laptop. Suggestions?

NinjaPoodle · #1 12-02-2007, 02:19 AM

I have an Apple Ibook Powerbook 6,5, G4 processsor 1.2 Ghz, Memory 512 MB, Cashe 512kb, BUS speed 133 MHz. Firewire max speed up to 400Mb/sec

Senusret I · #2 12-02-2007, 10:22 AM

I have a Maxtor "300" GB and a Western Digital "750" GB.
Neither have given me any problems, but just be aware than you NEVER get the full gigs that they advertise. My Maxtor is more like 279 and my WD is 698 -- a far cry from 750!

SoEnchanting · #3 12-02-2007, 01:02 PM

I'm glad someone brought this up... I am about to buy an external hard drive as well as a Christmas present and was wondering about the gigs. I was debating on a 500 or 750 GB - He keeps a lot of music and movies on his Mac. Any suggestions on the memory size?

Senusret I · #4 12-02-2007, 01:13 PM

It depends on what he considers "a lot" AND if he is one who constantly downloads music and movies.

I would always err toward the larger size, but that's because I know my downloading habits well.

SoEnchanting · #5 12-02-2007, 07:05 PM

He is a constant downloader - from iTunes to movies to whatever. I like your point about erring on the side of a larger size. I'd hate for it to fill up and have to buy another one. Thanks!

NinjaPoodle · #6 12-03-2007, 02:24 AM

cool. I use mine for photo storage and editing (photoshop CS2 and 3). I'll look around and see what I can find. Thank you guys

Coramoor · #7 12-03-2007, 04:27 PM

For a laptop, I would go with the Western Digital Passport HD. You can get it up to 250 GB and it's perfect for travel. Additionally, it draws power from your usb port, so no external power source required.

You can get a much larger one for about the same price, I believe I've seen like 1 TB for about $300-but that would defeat the purpose of even having a laptop...not portable at all.

NinjaPoodle · #8 12-03-2007, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coramoor

For a laptop, I would go with the Western Digital Passport HD. You can get it up to 250 GB and it's perfect for travel. Additionally, it draws power from your usb port, so no external power source required.

You can get a much larger one for about the same price, I believe I've seen like 1 TB for about $300-but that would defeat the purpose of even having a laptop...not portable at all.

I'll check that out too

NinjaPoodle · #9 12-04-2007, 03:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen

I have a Seagate Free Agent 500GB drive as an archive and I LOVE it. It does require an outlet and it plugs in via USB. It's a true archive, so easy to use, I just plugged it in and off I went.

So this one does not copy delete or are they all designed that way?

Coramoor · #10 12-04-2007, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen

Keep in mind the Passports just mirror your hard drive. I found this out the hard way - when you delete a file off your hard drive, the next time you sync the Passport, it will delete the file on it that you deleted off your computer. It's great for backing up the current state of your computer (and using on another computer, because when you plug it back in at home, it'll transfer any new stuff back to your computer), but it's not made to be an archive.

I have a Seagate Free Agent 500GB drive as an archive and I LOVE it. It does require an outlet and it plugs in via USB. It's a true archive, so easy to use, I just plugged it in and off I went.

I really have no computer knowledge at all...but maybe you have it set up to automatically sync or something? So far I have not had the problem you were experiencing with the WD HD.

I'd be very upset if I lost all my music though...

NinjaPoodle · #11 12-04-2007, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen

There are TWO kinds of external drives - external and portable. Most companies like Western Digital and Seagate make both kinds.

The external kind are true back up hard drives - archives. You transfer files to it like you would those little pen drives and it stays there forever unless you delete it. FreeAgent Go is the portable drive, while the archive ones are called FreeAgent Desktop or FreeAgent Pro.

Western Digital makes archive ones called MyBook and portable ones called Passports.

The portable ones sync with your hard drive upon first use and then whenever you plug it in and want to save more things to it, it syncs your hard drive again, basically capturing the current state of the hard drive, so you can take it with you and use it on other computers, then bring it back and whatever you worked on while at the other computer will be synced back to your hard drive. This means that say you sync it the first time, then delete all your music off your laptop/desktop, thinking that it's all saved on the Passport - it IS, only when you go to sync it again, if you don't transfer those files back to your hard drive, it'll sync what's on your computer to the portable drive - meaning it will delete any files on the portable drive that you deleted on your hard drive. I could have sent the files back to my PC, then synced it all again, but I didn't realized.

Hopefully I made sense there, it sounded complicated lol.

That made a lot of sense. Thanks Jen

btw, whats the largest size a laptop could handle?