4 Classy External Backup Drives To Pair With Time Machine
Apple October 25th, 2007
With the release of Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard just over 24 hours away, if you’re like me you’ll be eagerly preparing for the new operating system. I’ve been asked a few times over the weeks leading up to the launch announcement of Leopard on which external hard drives would be good to hook up for use with Time Machine.
While defining the word ‘good’ is hard as people have different needs, different budgets, and different views on what looks good. I took all three of these points to hand while picking four classy external drives to pair with Time Machine.
Western Digital MyBook Home Edition
A few of my buddies use this hard drive and their main statement about it is how great it looks on their desk.
Western Digital have an extensive range of MyBook HDDs in their lineup. The one highlighted here is the Home Edition.
The Home Edition drive spins at 7200 RPM, offers a triple interface of USB 2.0, Firewire 400 & 800, and has a capacity gauge on the exterior of the unit to see at a glance how much space is free.
Iomega Desktop Hard Drive
Along with the G-Tech G-DRIVE, Apple is heavily promoting the Iomega 500GB Hi-Speed USB 2.0 external drive on the Apple online store.
This drive spins at 7200 RPM, connects via USB 2.0, and includes a classy stand in the box allowing you to stand the drive vertically for extra airflow.
This drive is currently on special while supplies last from Apple. See below for a pull quote from the Apple Store.
Special deal: Only $139.95 for this 500GB Iomega drive while supplies last.
G-Tech G-DRIVE
If you’ve been watching any of Apple’s recent videos on Leopard such as the official Leopard Tour, you’ll have seen Apple using this drive in conjunction with the iMac to demonstrate Leopard.
It’s not the cheapest external hard-drive on the market, but it looks the piece when paired up with an aluminum Mac, in particular, the iMac.
This drive spins at 7200 RPM with a Hitachi drive, has FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 ports, and features a unique silent cooling technology for superior reliability.
Newertech miniStack V3
We have one of these in our household attached to the Airport Extreme as network attached storage for family related files. I can vouch for its quality.
The miniStack is a compact hard-drive available in two versions, FireWire 400/800 and USB. Like the other drives featured, it spins at 7200 RPM. It’s encased in a slim white enclosure which sits nicely underneath a Mac mini or Apple Airport Extreme.
Personally, I’m currently ’stuck’ with a 250GB LaCie Porsche Firewire drive for Time Machine. I plan to swap this out with a 1TB external drive as prices continue to drop. The LaCie drive will be set up to backup my boot drive. My Aperture library will get backed up via the Ministack (as seen above).
Keeping on the topic of Time Machine and external hard-drives, Paul Stamatiou wrote a great post about Leopard & the sales of external drives on his blog yesterday morning.
What drive are you going to employ into full time Time Machine service?
October 25th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Do you know any cheaper external drives as i have a really small budget
thanks
October 25th, 2007 at 6:39 am
You could always buy something with a smaller capacity. The ministack drives are great value for the 250GB/300GB mark.
October 25th, 2007 at 6:54 am
I like the G drive that Apple has been pimping in its videos, though its a tad too expensive. Western Digital drives are cool
October 25th, 2007 at 6:56 am
I picked up one of the MyBook Home Editions from Costco. Glenn, I don’t believe it has FireWire 800. Mine has USB 2.0, Firewire 400, and esata. I was a little disappointed about the lack of firewire 800, but I don’t need it that much.
October 25th, 2007 at 6:56 am
That certainly look the piece, would be great to pair one up with the Mac Pro. The WD drives are nicely priced for what they are.
October 25th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Do you not like the LaCie Porsche one then? I was looking at buying it for myself.
October 25th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Glenn knowing you, you should go for the G-Tech as it wouls suit your Mac Pro better, but i think for best bang for buck i would choose the MyBook, thats the one i will be getting maybe not 500GB but 250GB at least for me.
I just ordered my leopard now for £5.95 :)
October 25th, 2007 at 7:07 am
I’m going to use my 500GB Seagate FreeAgent Pro with Time Machine and buy a FireWire 800-based disk (perhaps a LaCie) to store media files on, and I might consider upgrading my boot drive (MBP) to a 250GB/7200rpm version later on. So that’s my plan for Leopard :)
October 25th, 2007 at 7:11 am
I do like it, but the capacity is far to small. I need a minimum of 1TB.
I don’t actually mind what it looks like as my Mac Pro sits under the desk. A MyBook looks great regardless.
October 25th, 2007 at 7:12 am
I was just looking for hard drives when this post popped up in my RSS reader :) I am looking at some of the LaCie QUADRA drives. The look pretty good and have the firewire interface I’m looking for.
October 25th, 2007 at 7:17 am
I am a fan of Ethernet Disk Drives.. Very fast and easier for me to work with since I am always in between many computers..
LaCie is the “type” of brand I use and I highly recommend the product… LaCie also distribute portables drives as well as cool looking desktop Drives..
October 25th, 2007 at 7:30 am
I have a 250GB Seagate drive that has never been used. I’ll be sure to use it when I get leopard and time machine.
October 25th, 2007 at 7:33 am
I’m usig a 1TB MyBook hard disk for backup and storage. Provides only 500GB though, because I’m using its RAID capabilities for better safety.
October 25th, 2007 at 7:42 am
I can second the recommendation on the MyBook.
October 25th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I’ll be purchasing a MyBook for my upgrade to Leopard! I’m looking at a 1 TG HD because you can’t beat the deal I’ve seen these priced at (check out Circuit City / Best Buy or online).
October 25th, 2007 at 8:46 am
The My Book drives in particular look nice, but I see no need to pay a fortune for a simple backup drive. I’ve got two 250GB external Comstar drives (USB), and one of them will do the job fine. It’s a no name case with a cheap WD drive inside for about $80 CAD/USD.
Canadians can find the drive in Future Shop stores, I’m not sure about other countries.
October 25th, 2007 at 8:52 am
I really wanted to buy either a G-Drive or a MyBook (Or MyBook Pro), but I ended up getting a 500GB LaCie hard drive (budget reasons - too many new apple products are being released!) Even though it is USB 2.0 Hard Drive, I can accept the fact that it’s slow. Can’t wait for Leopard!! :D
October 25th, 2007 at 9:09 am
One thing that always irritates me about external HDs is the noise level. They tend to hum noticeably, which is an issue when I’m trying to get to sleep, with my computer on next to me (most Macs are absolutely silent).
October 25th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Hi Glenn,
I am going to get a G Drive one on Friday, probably a 500GB or maybe a 1TB one. Love the design.
Cheers!
Jon
October 25th, 2007 at 11:56 am
I just picked up the 500gb Iomega Harddrive this summer, even though I don’t have a mac, once the new MBP come out I’ll get one and be using that as my full time Time Machine device. Or I might pick up a new one, you can never have too much space.
October 25th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
The Lacie d2 Quadra, is where it at! I’ve currently got a 320gb one and I plan on getin a 1tb. I love mine. I must say its very handy to have eSATA, fw400, fw800 and usb. In my opinion Lacie has the most reliable and elegant drives on the market.
October 25th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Can’t believe you didn’t include the Lacie Little Big Disk Glenn? Otherwise great article Glenn.
October 25th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
I’ve been using a LaCie brick drive (looks like Lego), for a while now - and although it’s only USB 2.0, no firewire, it definately looks the part ;)
October 25th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Nothing can compare to Seagate’s 5-year warranty, seeing as hard drives die so often…
October 25th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I’m a tad confused about how Time Machine will work. Say you have a 100GB hard drive, and you hook up a 200GB hard drive for time machine, will you only be able to back up a history of your documents two versions back?
One version of hard drive = 100GB
Two versions of hard drive = 200GB
MAXED OUT TIME MACHINE.
They make it seem like you can pretty much go back forever! Or say I have a video that is 1GB and I edit it very slightly, does it make a whole new copy taking up 2GB of space!??
October 25th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
There is a wonderful thing called compression. That’s what will save you space with Time Machine and allow it to backup a lot of data without using ridiculous amounts of space.
October 25th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
It doesn’t create a new copy of the entire 100GB, it only re-writes changed files and as far as I know, doesn’t even use the wonderful thing called compression. Unchanged files are written as a “hard link” to the original file data. There’s a good explanation on Appleinsider.com
October 25th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Is 500GB enough to back up my 750GB drive in my iMac?
Or should I go for a 1TB USB HD?
Cost is not an issue.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Why not go with a LaCie Brick “Lego” drive? I have one and it looks great and is very quiet.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
The G-Drive does look good and well built.
Currently, I have 3 external HDDs (LaCie, OWC, and Trans Intl) with 3 Macs (2 PowerMac and an iBook G4).
1. LaCie d2 Triple-interface (250GB)
It’s PATA at that time, but offers FW400/800 and USB 2.0 ports. Since the warranty was out, I just swapped a bigger PATA HDD in it and didn’t notice any issue.
2. OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro
I only bought the enclosure and put a my HDD into it. Again, it’s also PATA and offers FW400 and USB 2.0.
3. transintl miniXpress825 portable HDD
I bought it about a month ago along with a 160GB Seagate notebook SATA-based HDD. The build quality is pretty solid as well. I extremely like the portable size, so that I can bring it to work. It offers FW800/400 and USB 2.0 ports.
I have no problem with any of the external HDDs I own and they are all fan-less.
Is Iomega any good? They don’t have a good record in my book.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Go for 1TB. This will allow Time Machine to back up data further back in the past and keep it for longer.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
http://www.iomega.com/direct/products/family.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=53223319&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=49183481&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=26890319&bmUID=1193308049528
Fairly cheap, scroll down.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Ministack - convenient size and features but way too noisy.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
I do not recommand buyin the WD MyBook hard drives as I have had 3 of them. 1st one, broke the first day. Got it exchanged for free at the store, and got an extra one. Once installed, they ran normally, but they would go back to sleep and never wake up unless I mess with Plugging in and out the firewire/usb cable or the power cable. It was driving me crazy, because it just didn’t run smoothly. Also, it would go to sleep while listenning to music on iTunes so the song would buffer, stop, and buffer again. I have read on other forums that I was not the only one. Anyways, I hope they changed the firmware or the electronics inside. Now, I have bought two 160GB 2″5 LaCie Porsche Design Hard drives and it is really, really working smoothly with the Mac. I give LaCie the grade A+ and WD C-.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:36 am
Just to clarify on the WD MyBooks:
There are MANY versions out there, but there are three or so basic editions you will see for the most part. First is the MyBook Essential which is the cheapest and has only USB 2.0 connection. Next is the MyBook Premium which has USB 2.0 and Firewire 400. The last and most expensive is the MyBook Pro which has USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800.
I picked up the Premium last week on Amazon for $165 including shipping for the 500GB version. No complaints so far.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:38 am
I’ve had a LaCie Porsche 250 GB with Firewire 400 since it came out (I think about 4 years ago). I almost never turn it off, and I’ve had absolutely no problems. I recently got 2 500 GB OWC Mercury Elite Pro with USB2/FW400/FW800/SATA that I have set up as a mirrored RAID using the disk utility (really easy- I’m not a Terminal geek at all). I’m planning to use the RAID for Time Machine.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:50 am
I would choose a drobo, I would assume it will work with time machine.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:09 am
The Western Digital MyBook drives are incredible loud. I had to take the back off just to quiet it. Got the guts exposed now but at least its silent. Lacie drives are pretty quiet. I’m using a 500GB Lacie with Leopard now. Time Machine took forever to do the first back up. I guess its not a matter of simple just imaging the drive. Some type of indexing is going on.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:31 am
I would love to have an external disk drive they gets power from Firewire.
October 26th, 2007 at 3:03 am
A Drobo would work quite well I think. You can increase the size of one of those until they quit making SATA II drives.
October 26th, 2007 at 3:30 am
I second the feeling that LaCie Porsche design drives are quieter than WD’s MyBooks’ drives.
October 26th, 2007 at 3:52 am
Do you know which of these four is the quietest?
October 26th, 2007 at 3:58 am
I have had enough bad experiences with LaCie drives to swear off them forever, and now attempt to dissuade friends and clients from purchasing them.
Their drives may look nice, but IME they end up being a pretty coffin for your data, especially those monsters that transparently stripe data across 2 or 4 drives– if one drive fails, you’re boned, and data recovery from striped volumes is pricey. (Guess how I know?) If you have important files on a LaCie drive, make sure you have them backed up somewhere else.
These days I recommend Fantom drives when a single-box solution is desired, but for myself I usually prefer buying empty FireWire enclosures from Other World Computing and finding good OEM hard drives at NewEgg to fill them.
I did buy a MyBook drive once in a pinch and have been happy with it, but I hear their included Mac software causes problems, so I just used the drive and pitched the software.
October 26th, 2007 at 5:12 am
Unrelated, but a question to you, Glenn -
How is Ecto? Do you have a review of it anywhere?(or could you make one).
Have you used MarsEdit or BlogJet, and if yes, how do they compare?
October 26th, 2007 at 6:19 am
I just received the Iomega 500GB one; but was a little disappointed. I’m sure it’ll be fine but it’s got this hideously bright blue light on the front. Oh well, I’, sure Leopard (shipped) will make up for it!
October 26th, 2007 at 6:35 am
I’m actually using MarsEdit - I really love the interface and usability.
October 26th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Glenn, How come you didn’t mention any drives using RAID?
October 26th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I wanted to keep this article simple and in perspective for ‘home’ users. Might do a RAID article in the future.
October 26th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
How does time machine work on a powerbook or macbook?
Does it work at all?
October 26th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I’ve been looking into getting a MyBook Pro for some time now. Planning on getting one soon.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I think this is just one of the many problems with great technology; it is often assumed that the home user could not benefit from it. In reality, RAID is a relatively simple concept, that if more home users were aware of it, could be very beneficial to them.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
It works the same as it works on any other mac with only a single internal drive. It will work but you will need an external backup drive.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Best drives, cases, service, options
OWC Mercury™ Elite-AL Pro
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/external/elite-al-pro-quad
October 26th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
i’m a big fan of the “mybook” drives. i bought two 500 gig drives for $129 each here! that’s an incredible price for that amount of storage. one will server as my main media drive and the second will serve as my backup drive. i’m going to use ‘time machine’ to back up my internal drive and the first mybook drive to the 2nd mybook drive. they are surprising quiet for having two drives running in addition to my mac in my bedroom.
October 27th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Recommendations for internal drives? I’ve got 2 empty bays in my Mac Pro, and figured that creating a mirror’d RAID for backup was the best solution. Any manufacturer or model recommendations? My two current drives are both 500gb and while not full, are each more than half full, so I’m guessing that I’m looking at a mirrored raid of 1TB drives . . .
October 27th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Well, I won’t be needing such a huge external HD since I’m still surviving on 40GG.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:58 am
The best advice on drives that I can give you is to not take advice on drives. People’s satisfaction with a drive seems to be largely based on preferences. If you are not an experiences drive buyer, I would go for a good compromise between speed and capacity, and then choose a mid-price range drive.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:20 am
What do you think of the rugged drive, they are cheap look good and also quite restiable to most drops!
November 5th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Will time machine on dedicated drive #2 back up both the internal hard drive and the data on external drive #1? I have an 80GB hard drive that is running out of room. I just ordered the Iomega 500GB USB drive for my data. If I get a second hard drive, will that back up all of my data (internal and drive #1) on to it using Time Machine? I also ordered Leopard and a USB hub.
Thanks! (a non-techie)
December 10th, 2007 at 9:07 am
I have two fantom 250 gb that I back up to and then sync for redundancy.
http://www.golfnorwich.com/