Which Western Digital external harddrive?

[robin_barnes]

I wish to buy an external harddrive (most probably 500GB) for use with my Intel

iMac (20" White model) and have seen a number of posts here recommending

Western Digital My Books.

 

However My Books come in several forms - Studio, Pro Edition, Home Edition,

Premium and Essential. I would appreciate advice on which would be the most

suitable for archiving my photographs.

 

Thanks in advance.

[rnt]

I use a couple of the cheapest ones on my Windows XP machine- the Essential I think. They work fine- not blazing fast, but basically good for the $125 price.

[jonny_mac]

Look at what connections you want. If you have FW 800 don't get the basic edition. I don't think you need the Studio edtion unless you need the eSATA connection. Other than the connections, it is mostly cosmetic differences. If all you need is USB2, then get the basic one.

[Ed_Ingold]

External drives, other than SCSI, are nearly always slower than internal drives. Firewire is faster than USB2, which slows dramatically each time you add another device. You don't need anything faster than 7200 RPM. 10K and 15K drives get hot and last only about half as long.

 

Rather than a packaged drive, why not get a compact enclosure and put your own drive in it. You'll save at least $50 for your efforts, and have something you can upgrade or replace in the future. You can get boxes for IDE and SATA drives - either one will work fine. If the drive doesn't have to be portable, get a box with a fan and an internal power supply (i.e., no wall-wart or line lump to worry about). While you're at it, look at removeable holders for drives. I'm currently working with six 500GB drives (plus many others), which I pop in and out for various projects.

[joshroot]

The only real difference with the MyBook flavors is the connections they use (USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800, network, etc). If you don't need or want Firewire, there is no reason to pay the extra for a drive that has it. Just find whatever is cheapest. Costco had a pretty good deal on them when i was in there the other day, and bestbuy always has them on sale it seems.

[steven_clark]

I'm gonna add: external SATA is the same as an internal drive speedwise. In other words it'll blow anything Firewire or USB out of the water and consume less processing power to do it.

[JAPster]

First you should determine your realistic data storage requirements.

# Pics * Avg Sz per pics (Kb) = total # Kb

Total # Kb / 1024 = Total # Mbytes

Total # Mb / 1024 = Total # Gbytes

 

Take that #, multiply X 2, and that will give you a *minimum*

storage space spec. This spec drive will hold all your files,

and still leave you with 50% freespace, which is needed for

future files & projects.

 

You should also determine the largest Volume Size that your

Mac OS can support. If you buy a big hard drive with more

raw disk space than your Mac OS can support (in one volume),

then you'll have to partition the hard drive into multiple

volumes, assuming the Mac OS supports that.

 

I happen to use one of those Western Digital pocket drives,

and I think its 150GB. It connects to the USB 2 port using

a short 6" cable. The only flaw I noticed is that WD did not

apply all 4 of the bottom "rubber feet" in the same way. So

the unit tends to wobble, just a tiny little bit, when you

put it on a hard surface. When I set up this drive, I blew

away the cheesey software that comes pkgd on these drives,

and just used my Win XP Pro to reformat the whole drive to

a single NTFS volume. This allows me to just connect it to

the laptop before I boot, and its accessible as a Drive Letter.

My experience has been that this drive has been stable and

reliable, fast enough for my needs, and compatible with all

the disk-maintenance functions found in the Windows XP PRO SP2

operating environment.

 

The nice thing about these small portable pocket drives is

that they are very portable and transportable. This makes it

very easy to transfer files from one system to another. You

can take it to the office, to the library, to the church,

wherever... It's about the size of a small calculater, so

it slips right in the shirt pocket. You cant do that with

those 500GB or 1TB toaster size units.

 

I think if you only work with digital still pictures the disk-speed is not that big a deal. The unit I have is not the fastest in the

world. But I'm satisfied with the speed of data transfer thru the

USB 2 interface. Other factors also impact file transfer speed, like

your processor type & speed, how much RAM you have, how much

disk freespace you have on your Boot Drive AND on the second drive,

how often you do Full Defrags on your drives, and the efficiency of

your anti-virus software.

 

The raw disk speed is more of an issue if you plan to use the drive

to capture streaming video from external sources like video cams, or

digital cameras that have been used to take video segements. If you

are using a video software program, like Pinnacle Studio, you might

run into problems if the second drive & its file system cant keep up with the video software. In that scenario, you might run into problems and errors. In my experience, the common USB 2.0 interface has been reliable, and I've used mine to capture a) digital picture file uploads, b) streaming video, and c) streaming digitized audio coming from an audio converter.

 

Another good disk drive mfgr is Seagate. They've been around a long time, and their disk drives are well known & used in many different kinds of computers. If you widen your scope a little, and include disk drive models from Seagate, that will give you more options to choose from, and might lead you to a better bargain.

 

You should be able to buy portable external drives like this, from

any of the major electronics & office supply outlets - Best Buy,

Circuit City, Radio Shack, Office Depot, Staples, just to name a few.

 

Finally, keep in mind that bigger is not always better. Basic disk maintenance functions like Format, Defrag, Backups, File System Checks, and Error Detection - these all take LONGER (sometimes MUCH longer) to run on large-capacity drives, than they do on more modest

size smaller-capacity drives. So, in that sense, the smaller capacity

drives are more practical and user-friendly.

[twmeyer]

I have the Essential and the Premiere (500G). They both have 16mb buffers and are way faster than the 250 WD and a 500G Seagate internal SATA drives in the same computer (4G Ram, 1066 FSB, 8mb L2cache, 2.4 Ghz Quad). The Premiere powers up with the CPU, the Essential needs to be turned on and off. They are both screamin fast. Me so happy... t

[robin_barnes]

Thanks for your replies - you have given me quite a bit to think about.

[Brad_]

>>> External drives, other than SCSI, are nearly always slower than internal drives.

 

Perhaps true in the PC world, but not with Apple desktop computers. Even older G5 Macs

use internal multiport HyperTransport communications I/O processor ASICs (FW800

interface is one of the ports) and fast memory busses to RAM. At 7200 RPM, with a FW800

interface, you are limited by how fast data can be sucked off the rotating media. Sustained

transfer rate is the same whether internal or external.

 

With faster drives, newer platforms, and PCI Express/eSata options, one can still create

external interfaces no slower than internal.

[rich_morgan1]

I have the Western Digital MyBook 1 Terabyte Raid. I HATE it. It's fans are incredibly loud and

annoying, so much so, that the drive sits unused except for data emergencies. I'll never buy

that one again.

[robin_barnes]

I have just been reading a long thread over at discussions.apple.com. It seems that a lot of

people are having problems with linking WD My Books to Intel iMacs via firewire. I think I will

investigate Seagate as suggested by Alan above.

[john_graham5]

The Freecom ToughDrive Pro is also a very good external drive for travel purposes:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Freecom-ToughDrive-Pro-external-Hi-Speed/dp/B000RAEFYU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1201028574&sr=8-1