[Warwick Yellow]

Clockwork- can you advise how tcimac can connect esata to his imac - tks. ( I have the same interest)

[~Coxy]

You can't use eSATA on an iMac. You need a drive with both eSATA + USB or Firewire.

[bosc0]

Does anyone know what sort/specs of HDD the LaCie Hard Disk, Design by Neil Poulton uses?

It doesn't really give you that much info... like is it SATA? speed? etc...

[~Coxy]

Yeah; not much info is there.

It's definitely SATA due to being a 1TB disk, and I think that all disks that big are 7200 rpm.
They probably don't give you any stats because they give you whatever drive they can get for the cheapest price at the time, and that model will vary.

[ClockWork]

Originally Posted by Warwick Yellow

Clockwork- can you advise how tcimac can connect esata to his imac - tks. ( I have the same interest)

As Coxy has said, in short, one can't. See here.

cheers,

cw

[Phunky]

Originally Posted by ~Coxy

Yeah; not much info is there.

It's definitely SATA due to being a 1TB disk, and I think that all disks that big are 7200 rpm.
They probably don't give you any stats because they give you whatever drive they can get for the cheapest price at the time, and that model will vary.

There are several 5400rpm or variable rpm 1tb drives, e.g. the WD 'green' series
Either way, it wont really matter because the bottleneck will be the USB interface anyway

[tcimac]

Thanks for everyone's contributions.

I ended up buying an iTANK from Clockwork and getting a WD 1TB Cavier Green 3.5" eSATA drive from Landmark Computers.

Yes it cost me $450 all up, but I feel like I have purchased quality.

[zigzagler]

hi guys,

any recommendation on FW800 external HDD?
Can be 2.5" or 3.5" though I'm leaning towards the 2.5" version.

On a side note, will Time Capsule be able to revive my MBP if something were to go wrong? or is it only ext HDD that can do the job?

Cheers!

[ClockWork]

I'm currently using the Mini G2:



2.5" Enclosures, (x1) USB 2.0 / (x1) FireWire 400 / (x2) FireWire 800, from MacPower. Holds between 160GB and 500GB 2.5" SATA HDD, and will also take the 250GB and 320GB Seagate SATA 7200RPM 2.5" HDDs.

Very portable and very small. Sits in the palm of your hand and comes with a sham leather pouch. Thick aluminium casing and easy to open.

cheers,

cw

[Bethro]

Originally Posted by harrisonx

Do you absolutely have to have a 2TB drive? I bought the Neil Poulson one in the 1TB version from Officeworks on the weekend for $149. If you're happy to have two separate drives at 1TB each, I'd go that way.

I am thinking of getting this one too. So Lacie is reliable? I was told by someone that Lacie use Western Digital drives. I am tossing up between this Lacie one and the WD Elements 1TB.

[ClockWork]

LaCie will use whatever is the cheapest HDD around at the time of assembly.
Best is to make your own External Enclosure - it's easier than opening an Ikea brochure.

[avolve]

Originally Posted by tcimac

Thanks for everyone's contributions.

I ended up buying an iTANK from Clockwork and getting a WD 1TB Cavier Green 3.5" eSATA drive from Landmark Computers.

Yes it cost me $450 all up, but I feel like I have purchased quality.

Can you share your thoughts/experiences with it. I purchased a Taurus RAID II (Also from Clockwork), though am considering a switch to a iTank and SOHORAID set-up...

[bosc0]

Originally Posted by Bethro

I am thinking of getting this one too. So Lacie is reliable? I was told by someone that Lacie use Western Digital drives. I am tossing up between this Lacie one and the WD Elements 1TB.

I just bought a $149 Lacie from OW last week, has a Hitachi HDD in it

Works perfect so far formatted as PHAT32.

[ClockWork]

Hitachi Hard Drives are superb and therefore... "perty" pricey.
I'll get me a Hitachi soon for all my digital artwork.

[Bethro]

Originally Posted by bosc0

I just bought a $149 Lacie from OW last week, has a Hitachi HDD in it

Works perfect so far formatted as PHAT32.

Maybe I will bite the bullet and grab this one and HOPE its a Hitachi. THe only way I will know is opening the case though right?

Clockwork, thanks for your advice, I understand that buying a good case and a good hard drive is certainly the best way to go, but right now both funds and plug and play are certainly major priorities. Although, I know I will be in a world of pain if the thing dies in 12 months. (although it is really only a second backup, the most important stuff is burnt to DVD and stored off site.

[KelseyNita]

I'd go for the WD Studio drives with the 400/800 and i'd also stay aware from Caddies and buying your own drive, i've found that the PSU and internals can be pretty rubbish in some caddies compared to buying it as a whole unit.

[Mac Ram]

Originally Posted by KelseyNita

I'd go for the WD Studio drives with the 400/800 and i'd also stay aware from Caddies and buying your own drive, i've found that the PSU and internals can be pretty rubbish in some caddies compared to buying it as a whole unit.

You're obviously not buying the right cases.

[~Coxy]

My WD Studio 640GB PSU dies after less than a year of owning it, meanwhile my cheap $30 HK case is going strong after years and years of heavy use. It's just anecdotes and personal experience.

[ClockWork]

I'm plagiarizing myself here...

This is an exaggerated example... of the truth.
Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent...

This is a Bang & Olufsen BeoCom 6000 Single Cordless Telephone.
It costs around $650.00 new.

This is a Uniden WDECT 3315 Single Cordless Telephone.
It costs around $70.00

Both phones have remarkably similar features. Neither have answering machines.

Why is the Bang & Olufsen almost 10 times the price of the Uniden, if they are both the same?

The Bang & Olufsen has an extremely low failure rate, whilst as the Uniden has multiple issues over very short periods and an approximate life span of one year.

Why?

In this material driven world, where consumerism is almost associated with a person's identity, one would have to be completely blind to believe that the Bung & Olufsen BeoCom 6000 Single Cordless Telephone contains superior electronic components over the Uniden.

The truth is that they contain exactly the same electronic components.

Yet if this is so, why does the vastly expensive model not break down, if the inside components are the same?

The answer is simple yet most people would never dare believe it:

Speed of assembly.

How quickly is an electronic item assembled, on an assembly line, by people - by human beings?

In the case of the Uniden WDECT 3315 Single Cordless Telephone, very fast indeed, and in vast numbers, and therefore human error on the assembly line is far greater, and far more likely to occur, as they are churned out like so much rice.

This is the quintessential difference between WD MyBooks, LaCies, Maxtors... and other higher quality External Enclosures, like those designed by MacPower, Stardom and Synology.

So... in the case of MyBooks, here we have a vast global corporation who make rather good Hard Drives, which can be placed inside almost any kind of 3.5" / 2.5" SATA / PATA Enclosure, yet Western Digital isn't content with the profit they make on designing and selling Hard Drives, so... they have a meeting and decide: "We are going to make our own brand of Enclosures to house our Hard Drives."

They turn to China, and they say, "Design an Enclosure for our Hard Drives for XX million dollars!" and China does so...

Then they say, "We like this design. Churn out 20 million of these Enclosures and install our Hard Drives inside them, in 3 months, for XX million dollars!"

And China does so...

MacPower and Stardom External Enclosures by example, are not assembled to anywhere near the volume of MyBooks or LaCies or Maxtors.

The production line does not even come remotely close to the number of the most commonly advertised External Drives, thus they are assembled far more slowly, and often, there is actually a shortage of stock!

Thus due to slower assembly, far less items are prone to fatal errors.

The other difference, is that MacPower and Stardom do not directly sell their External Enclosures. Why not? Because they are the designers. They hired geniuses to specifically design and then rigorously test these Enclosures, with various Hard Drives. That's all they do.

They then leave the offer open for other companies that they "approve of" to do the selling.

In truth, it's anyone's guess as to who actually designed the WD MyBooks. All we know is that there are Western Digital Hard Drives inside them.

The Hard Drives are pretty damn good... but the MyBook Enclosures that hold them are rubbish - because of two basic reasons:

1. They were designed by an unknown "someone" in China, as cheap as possible.
2. They were mass assembled, like so many Mickey Mouse hats, and therefore, prone to vast errors.

These two points were the sole reason behind the creation of the External Drives for Dummies article after bearing witness to so many people losing all their data to MyBooks, Lacies and Maxtor External Drives.

The end result is that those shown in the article are just a little more expensive, yet they are currently the best of their kind, chiefly because of their lower volume of assembly.

The same problem applies to Apple Mac products (or anything at all) when assembled in vast and almost insane quantities to utterly overfill a world wide demand.

cw

[rpjallan]

Originally Posted by ClockWork

I'm currently using the Mini G2:



2.5" Enclosures, (x1) USB 2.0 / (x1) FireWire 400 / (x2) FireWire 800, from MacPower. Holds between 160GB and 500GB 2.5" SATA HDD, and will also take the 250GB and 320GB Seagate SATA 7200RPM 2.5" HDDs.

Very portable and very small. Sits in the palm of your hand and comes with a sham leather pouch. Thick aluminium casing and easy to open.

cheers,

cw

How much is one of these going to cost me ClockWork?