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    Which Firewire/usb hard disk for extra external storage?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by snowstorm, Mar 19, 2007.

  1. snowstorm

    snowstorm Notebook Consultant

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    Anyone can recommend a good firewire or usb hard disk (which one is better?) for extra external storage? Design doesn't matter, I couldn't care less whether it's designed by Porsche or somebody else, all I care about is storage, speed and most important reliability.
     
    snowstorm, Mar 19, 2007
    #1
  2. jetstar

    jetstar Notebook Deity

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    Look at models from Seagate and Western Digital. Seagates come with a 5 year warranty.
     
    jetstar, Mar 19, 2007
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  3. vespoli

    vespoli 402 NBR Reviewer

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    I would piece together my own external hard drive by purchasing an enclosure kit and a hard disk. It's probably cheaper and VERY easy to do. That way you have complete control over what kind of disk you want going in. www.newegg.com might be a good place to start.
     
    vespoli, Mar 19, 2007
    #3
  4. snowstorm

    snowstorm Notebook Consultant

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    snowstorm, Mar 19, 2007
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  5. passive101

    passive101 Notebook Deity

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    what would be better and faster for a macbook. USB2 or firewire?
     
    passive101, Mar 19, 2007
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  6. _SLY_

    _SLY_ Notebook Geek

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    usb 2.0 is technically faster
     
    _SLY_, Mar 19, 2007
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  7. pina

    pina Notebook Geek

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    I have an enclosure which supports firewire and usb2 but I the transfer rate were the same... but people say firewire is more stable
     
    pina, Mar 19, 2007
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  8. TedJ

    TedJ Asus fan in a can!

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    Firewire usually gets you faster sustained transfer speeds, with lower CPU utilisation under OS X.
     
    TedJ, Mar 19, 2007
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  9. JacksonPollack

    JacksonPollack Notebook Guru

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    What is the advantage to buying the case and the drive separately? From what I've seen the price savings is very minimal plus you have to put the thing together (which granted doesn't look that difficult but still). Is the advantage that you know what brand of drive you'll be getting and you can choose a more "reliable" drive?
     
    JacksonPollack, Mar 20, 2007
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  10. pina

    pina Notebook Geek

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    it's like choosing between a self-assembled pc and a compaq/dell-pc: you can choose what hard drive you would like to use and you can remove the HD easily. I think that if you buy them together in 1 case, you will void your warranty if your remove the HD or maybe you can't remove the HD.
     
    pina, Mar 21, 2007
    #10