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Forums › Mac OS › External hard drive for Mac - recommendations please.


28 posts

Geek
Topic # 113903 31-Jan-2013 15:21 Send private message

I'm buying an external hard drive for my Mac and want to hear any geekzone recommendations. The hard drive will be used to store photo's, movies, movies and the odd document. I won't need a massive amount of storage capacity but want to future proof myself so don't mind spending a bit extra. In addition, I want the external drive so I can activate apple's time machine so I can back-up my system. I already own an airport extreme so don't want to buy a time capsule. Thanks.

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1246 posts

Uber Geek
  Reply # 753961 31-Jan-2013 15:29 Send private message

how long is a piece of string?

What interface options does your mac have? Thunderbolt, Firewire 800, USB2,  USB3?, 

How much data are to intending to back up in your Time machine ( ie how much is on the internal HDD)

how much more space do you want?

Are you thinking about getting a newer mac in the future? which will it have a larger internal drive ( and hence need a bigger external backup drive)

The more info you give us the more help people can be...



28 posts

Geek
  Reply # 753973 31-Jan-2013 16:04 Send private message

Interface? Not sure standard USB I guess.. i've got a late 2009 mac with 500 Gb of storage. I've currently using 420GB. I think I probably need 3/4 times that.  Thinking of keeping this mac for a for the foreseeable future. Cheers

632 posts

Ultimate Geek
  Reply # 753976 31-Jan-2013 16:10 Send private message

For time machine use, I'd recommend USB3 2.5" drive to reduce the backup time - if you want to future proof get a 2.0TB WD mypassport drive. Otherwise settle for 1TB

Nothing is more annoying than to pull out a 3.5" Desktop drive and plugging it in to power - unless you plan to leave it running 24/7 - otherwise you can plug via USB to your airport extreme but backup's will be slow over USB2.0 connectivity 

576 posts

Ultimate Geek
  Reply # 753990 31-Jan-2013 16:34 Send private message

if it were me I'd get a NAS drive.
I have a Buffalo Linkstation (farily cheap) that has built in time machine support in addition to a couple of other apple extensions (itunes server).
My drive is 1TB and cost about $150.
Not sure if they are available in NZ though - but I'm sure if you searched about you'd find something similar.

2970 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber
  Reply # 754000 31-Jan-2013 16:52 Send private message

If you have a laptop then get a USB drive and plug it into the USB port on your AirPort Extreme. You can then do your Time Machine backups automatically over Wi-Fi. If you have a desktop then I'd probably still go USB for the convenience; for a backup drive the time taken doesn't really matter too much since it all happens in the background.

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