Looking for recommendations for external hard drives.

Fedfan691 · #1 07-01-2007, 05:54 PM

So the title pretty much sums it up. I'm looking for a 500 GB external hard drive for my imac. Primary concerns are reliability first and speed second. I've never bought one before so I have no idea which brands are known to be the best or whether certain drives work better with macs, etc. Thanks for the help!!

Savant · #2 07-01-2007, 07:08 PM

freecom ftw

LuckyTxGuy · #3 07-01-2007, 09:20 PM

IMO, brand doesn't matter. Buy the most affordable one you find that looks decent. Hard drives are cheap, external enclosures are cheap and if you can't find a deal you like, build you own. Anyone can do it....I could walk my grandfather through it on the phone if I had to. It takes less than a minute.

The one thing I'd suggest is that if your Mac has a firewire port you should look for an ext. HD with a firewire connection. If not, USB 2.0 will be just fine.

LuckyTxGuy · #4 07-03-2007, 11:47 AM

I just sent you a PM Fedfan. This looks like a deal to me. Not sure how you can beat this price... Ext. HD Link

Just thought you might be interested.

- Jason

Gonso · #5 07-03-2007, 12:38 PM

Well, if you put reliability first I definitely wouldn't go with a Cavalry brand drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136025

SamIAm · #6 07-03-2007, 01:05 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure how you can beat this price... Ext. HD Link

[/ QUOTE ]
There's also a 7% off coupon (pre rebate, even).

I guess I beat that price. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

The.Accountant · #7 07-03-2007, 06:05 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Well, if you put reliability first I definitely wouldn't go with a Cavalry brand drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136025

[/ QUOTE ]
I've been looking for one of these for a while. Is the only difference between the HDD quoted above and this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136082

the fact that the more expensive one has esata and a 16MB cache (what are these)? Also the more expensive one is blue, which IMO is better.

But anyway, is the more expensive one worth buying at all? What are the benefits over the other?

buckslayer80 · #8 07-04-2007, 01:59 AM

Western Digital,,,whatever theyre all the sanme., Platters are pkateers. Magents are magnets......etc

SamIAm · #9 07-04-2007, 07:43 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Platters are pkateers

[/ QUOTE ]
That's pretty deep.

MacGuyV · #10 07-05-2007, 09:46 PM

Hi -
I just bought a WD 120 GB passport last weekend & now my laptop doesn't recognize it when I plug it in [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
I dropped it once like 2 feet off the ground from the couch...are they that fragile? Should I have any problems returning it to Best Buy? Thanks