External HD Recommendations

[tcimac]

So I am working through my needs and ClockWork has satisfied my RAM requirements, now I need your opinions on External HD's.

I was looking at this Western Digital via Streetwise. Seems like a good price for 1TB?

Any other suggestions (i.e. brands to avoid etc.. etc.. )

[Huy]

Seems like a good price. I'd buy that if I wanted 1TB. WD are a good brand.

[Carve]

Western Digital is a great brand!! i have a 320gb and it works perfectly with any computer, recomended

[gareth]

Only bad thing about WD HDD is they are noisy

[Carve]

i haven't heard any noise out of mine yet. Usage around 3 hours per day

[shiny]

I just got a WD Elements HDD, very quiet compared to the Lacie I have which sounds like a Hovercraft on start up.

[Gerbils]

Originally Posted by gareth

Only bad thing about WD HDD is they are noisy

I have a Western Digital and it is not noisy at all.

The LaCie one I have, on the other hand, will not shut up.

[benmcgruer]

I'm not sure if it's constrained to the aluminium iMacs - but there's a lot of people with problems with WD ext. HDs not mounting via firewire. Me included - I have a 500GB and it regularly will not mount via firewire - however it does work if it's daisy-chained through another FW HD. If you search both here on MacTalk and on the Apple Support Forums you will find lots of references.

Personally I would stay away from their externals.

If you look 4 posts above yours (currently) you will find a 12 page thread on External HD Recommendations. There's some good information in there.

[coolkid092]

I think thats a bit much, i can get a 1Tb (7200RPM SATA2) for $173 from western digital...

[Reubania]

Originally Posted by gareth

Only bad thing about WD HDD is they are noisy

What a load of BS! I've had the WD Passport 250GB USB2.0 external HDD and it's whisper quiet.

I was so impressed with the WD that I purchased the WD 1TB Elements USB2.0 external HDD and that's even more quieter!

Originally Posted by d4mk

i have the exact model but in a 500gb and i swear by it
mines plugged in almost 24/7 which i think isnt a good idea for it.. it goes to sleep when its not being used though

My WD Elements is plugged in 24/7 and have no problems with it. It runs on it's own power source and makes NO noise. If you have an external HDD connected to the AEBS, you should have one that does not go to sleep when it's not being used. This will save the operator a lot of heartache whenever waking their Mac and realising nothing is/stays connected (via AEBS). With an external HDD that never sleeps, it means whenever you wake your Mac up, all your contents on your external HDD can be instantly accessed and used to be written (ie. Time Machine starts us straight away - writing to the external HDD).

[ghettro]

I have heard some not so great things about those WD Studio externals (check out the apple support forums), not because of the actual disks themselves, but the enclosures. I looked at buying one too but the feedback from people worried me. Personally I think their actual disks are great, I have about 4 of them in various computers. LaCie is relatively good, but people often give them mixed reviews these days.

What I do myself is just buy the disk and enclosure separately. I just recently bought a MacPower Pleaides Super S Combo and stuck a WD 500GB SATA drive in there for time machine. The Macpower enclosure uses an Oxford chipset which is the best for firewire on a mac. Not cheap but my data security is worth it. Epowermac has this enclosure on special for $129, normally about $180. Also buying a separate enclosure means that you can be sure what disk you are getting inside and what chipset the enclosure uses. The other advantage is that you can open it up without voiding the warranty. This is super useful if you are troubleshooting whether the enclosure or the disk itself has failed. Also it also allows you to remove and use the disk internally if you ever need to.

And with noise, basically any modern SATA drive is pretty quiet these days, especially as they all use fluid bearings now, and there is a much higher demand on the market for quiet drives. Obviously laptop drives are much quieter again.

[tim]

I second the MacPower Pleaides Super S Combo. I bought one off fleaBay with a 750gb drive installed.

It cost about $290 delivered a bit over 2 months ago. Very happy with it.

I have previously had WD external drives and wasn't happy with the reliability.