h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...to put all my photos and music on and free up my computer from all this baggage.

Any recommendations / things to watch out for or avoid?

If it is going to be switched on a lot of the time, make sure you get one that's quiet.

Hiya, Clive; long time no see...

If you're just going to use it for "Time Machine" backups, then any cheap USB 2.0 drive should do you. You only need to spend the extra on Firewire if you plan to edit HD video on it or similar.

Here's a decent one for £59: http://www.svp.co.uk/technology/peripherals/external-hard-drive/seagate-1tb-expansion-35in-desktop-external-hard-drive_st310005exd101-rk.html

"If it is going to be switched on a lot of the time..."

If you're serious about using it for backups, you should be unplugging it both from the machine and the mains when you're not actively using it. Otherwise a power spike (e.g. a nearby lightning strike) will kill both your data drive *and* your backups.

Mainly storage but elaborate please on what else I might use one for then.

Hi Clive

I have always found LaCie to be good and when an older 160GB external d2 hard drive power supply failed (out of warranty) they replaced it for free!

I currently have the 160GB drive connected to the FireWire 400 port on the older Intel iMac and a 1TB d2 Quadra drive on the FireWire 800 port of the newer Intel iMac. Both are used for Time Machine although this is turned off and I tend to only do a manual backup monthly.

The 1TB drive was a refurb from their site and therefore not full price.

http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/range.htm?id=10033

t.

I have a Seagate FreeAgent 500Gb USB that performs adequately under both Linux and OS X.

Someone on the Debian forum posted about having problems using a newer WD 'My Passport'.
Apparently the device has an extra partition designated as a pseudo CD, and which is nearly impossible to remove/format, as it's controlled by the firmware

I've heard good things about LaCie.

If portability isn't an issue, you could put an internal hdd into an external case, with USB and/or firewire connection, and probably save a few $$. The larger drives are noisier, though, and the external case fan would add to the racket

"If portability isn't an issue, you could put an internal hdd into an external case, with USB and/or firewire connection, and probably save a few $$."

You'd only save money if you already have the internal HDD lying around spare. Weirdly, it's sometimes a couple of pounds cheaper to buy a large capacity hard drive in a case than to buy it loose.

Thanks for all the advice, I kept coming back to this forum while I weighed up my options.

Decided to go with a refurbished Lacie 1TB model, which I shall keep my photos on and use for time-machine.

All for less than £100.


Thanks again.

Good choice

half a terra

£49

tesco

I'm also thinking of getting an external drive principally to store backups of documents, photos, email etc.

Do I need any dedicated software? I'm running OSX Tiger.

If you plan to use "Time Machine" then you shouldn't need anything else. (I assume it came with "Tiger" too, not just with "Leopard"...)

Sadly not!

Do you think it's wiser to back up the complete system rather than just files etc?

The external hard dive I ordered still hasn't arrived. I'm going to have to ring em up and find out what's become of it.

>>Do I need any dedicated software? I'm running OSX Tiger.<<

Not if you're just backing up datafiles

Lacie - decided to cancel my order for me (apparently I agreed to this in January)

And now the outlet store is out of stock so if I want the hard drive I ordered I'll now have to pay full whack for it, which about quadruples the cost.

No chance.

There technical gubbins might be top-notch but their customer sales treatment is TERRIBLE!