Looking for a new 500GB external hard drive - Any advice?

29 replies
PE
Offline
PeterG
BronzeFounder
Posted October 22, 2007 at 12:47 GMT
#1682779

Please can you give me the benefit of your experiences.  I have a mac mini and the hard drive is now becoming full, mainly with photographs.  I am now looking for and external hard drive to work in conjunction with the mac mini.  It will be located out of site so appearance is not of particular importance.  I thought that 500GB would be sufficiently large enough.  So I am looking for a reliable external hard drive,  Has anyone got any suggestions of which make and model would be suitable, or other advice, ideas?

My second question is that as mentioned it will be mainly for storing my photographs on, is it easy or possible to make iphoto look to the external drive for my photos rather than the mac mini's hard drive so that when I open iphoto the pictures on my new external hard drive will be displayed automatically.  I hope that i have explained this clearly enough?

Many thanks in anticipation for any contribution you can make

Peter G.

C(
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Craig (archived)
Bronze
Posted October 22, 2007 at 13:24 GMT
#1682780

Recently I purchased a 250GB External Hard Drive made by Freecom. They do a 500GB Drive designed for use with a MAC. Here is a link for you.

500GB Mac Hard Drive

Sorry as I don't have any experience with Macs I cannot answer you second question.

 

Craig🙂

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Coolskin (archived)
Bronze
Posted October 22, 2007 at 14:48 GMT
#1682781
Hi Peter,

Soundproof showed me DVDPedia on the net.
This simple but easy to use software makes it possible to keep track of your DVD collection.
And if you like start the movie that's in your library.
To do so, you need a (lot of) storage space, because the DVD info won't be compressed.

My mac mini isn't capable. So I bought an iomega minimac 750gb harddisk from the AppleStore.
As we speak it's sitting now next to my Powerbook for uploading an amount of DVD's of my DVD collection.

The iomega rotates at 7200 rpm and makes some noise.
Will get back to the post about the DVDPedia when I have inserted the external drive in my cabinet, and stacked on top of the Mac Mini.
(Hope the noise will be not so obvious, because this will ruin my B&O experience).

Regarding your second question, I like the answer too.
Also regarding my iTunes collection.
M(
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marcus (archived)
Bronze
Posted October 22, 2007 at 16:29 GMT
#1682782

I have just bought a Western Digital MyBook 500Gb with USB2 and Firewire 400 ports. It's connected to an old G3 iBook that I use as a media centre. The MyBook sits vertically on a bookshelf and does not look like a hard drive at all (though it has an annoying blue disco light on the front that I sorely wish was absent). It is not particularly noisy and it inaudible when I have music turned up!

You can move your iTunes library using the instructions on the Apple Web site. Moving your iPhoto library is even easier.

As an alternative to DVDpedia have a look at Delicious Library.

B(
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britops (archived)
Bronze
Posted October 23, 2007 at 02:48 GMT
#1682783

For a Mac Mini, get one of link

 

S(
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soundproof (archived)
Bronze
Posted October 23, 2007 at 03:04 GMT
#1682784

I have a stand-alone server, ReadyNAS+ from Infrant, with 4x500GB harddisks in it. It's a very reliable and yet inexpensive server. You'd be surprised at how cheap storage has become. With the ReadyNAS+ you can add harddisks as you need them, starting with 1.

You can have a long Firewire cable to your server, Coolskin. And put it somewhere you won't hear it. I have my server in another room. The quieter the servers, the more expensive they tend to be, as the cooling needs to be more sophisticated. You can also consider replacing the fan with a more quiet running one yourself. 

P(
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PeterC (archived)
Bronze
Posted October 25, 2007 at 11:49 GMT
#1682785

I'd agree - I've three of these drives now, a 250MB USB2, 250MB Firewire & USB and, recently, a 500MB Firewire 800, Firewire 400 and USB 2. I can connect this direct to my iMac and use up the otherwise unconnected fast Firewire. I've had the smaller pair now for some time and they've worked perfectly; the 250MB is now being prepped to be my Time Machine drive when Leopard arrives. 

 

By the way, I believe Western Digital have produced a version 2 of these discs now, with capacities up to 2TB. They are distinguished by the vertical (rather than circular) indicator lights on the 'spine' of the book.

 

hope that's useful 

B(
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britops (archived)
Bronze
Posted October 26, 2007 at 15:00 GMT
#1682786

Maybe this link

 

B(
Offline
britops (archived)
Bronze
Posted October 26, 2007 at 15:02 GMT
#1682787

or this

PE
Offline
PeterG
BronzeFounder
Posted October 27, 2007 at 08:44 GMT
#1682788
Thank you for all your suggestion / advice.  Soundproof, I like the sugestion you made but am slightly concerned that this may be a little complicated in comparison to just a plug in external drive, or am I misguided?
I noticed that in the September issue of Macwold they reviewed some hard drives and recomended the My Book Pro (500GB) because of price (around £120) and the fact that is also has both Firewire 400 & 800.  Has anyone had any experience of this particular make or model
 I like some of the other suggestions made but as I mentioned prviously it will just be placed out of sight so appearance is of no importance.  Just reliabilty and speed.  I think that 500GB will be enough memory for now as the 80GB present on the Mac Mini has been sufficient for two years not.  It is just my photo library that is expanding.
As alway any advice is geatfully recieved.
PeterG


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