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?
Check out Data backup for more information.