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Podolsky · Nov 8, 2002, 08:28 AM

I just bought a EZQuest 60 gig external firewire drive. I will use it to back up and transfer files from my Powerbook to my desktop Mac. I would like to also have it be a boot drive for X and 9.2.

My questions are:

1. How should I install X and 9.2? I would most like to simply drag and drop them from my PowerBook and avoid a clean install and the effort to bring reconsititute all my settings and updates.

2. What do you think about partitioning? I have never done that as I like to keep things simple. But, maybe there is a compelling reason....

3. Any other tips or advice to how to maximize the utility and fum of this device.........

Thanks

Macola · Nov 9, 2002, 03:41 PM

I can't say for sure if you can boot into OS X, but you should definitely partition the drive--probably 3 partitions: Backup, OS 9, and OS X. This will make your life much easier.

To move your OS 9 install, simple select the entire volume and copy over, or use Disk Copy. For OS X, Carbon Copy Cloner is very handy.

Podolsky · Nov 10, 2002, 05:13 AM

thank you macola.

I didn't partition but still could. I use retrospect to clone the drive to the external. Everything went fine and both systems boot fine from the external. I am happy.

Fredo · Nov 10, 2002, 03:55 PM

You can clone the drive even without Retrospect. However, dragging and dropping alias' between hard drives won't work, alias' must be created from applications within each drive. Also, though most upgrades can be downloaded to separate drives through a simple selection option, some, such as Norton AntiVirus' monthly upgrade, must be done by booting into the external, (hold down option key on restart and choose external hard drive), and downloading update directly.

travis_belton · Feb 18, 2003, 07:40 PM

I'm looking for 120GB external firewire drives for video, photo and backups. I'd like a fairly fast drive (does this mean 7200rpm?) but more important than that is I need it to be QUIET. I heard an external drive at the Apple store and it sounded like a plane taking off.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how quiet the Maxtor 5000, OWC Mercury Elite, LaCie d2 or any other vendor's drives are?

Is every drive that has a power brick and no fan about as quiet as the rest?

I guess I also need to ask why I might want to make my external drive a boot drive? What are the advantages to doing this?

Thanks,
Travis

Stogieman · Feb 18, 2003, 09:02 PM

I have a few questions about external firewire drives myself. I've been wanting to buy an internal 7200rpm drive and place it in a firewire enclosure. The Coolmax case looks really cool. I noticed that it comes with a A/C adapter (100-240VAC, 50-60Hz). Does this mean I can't power the hard drive through the Firewire bus?

Second, I've had my eye set on a 100 or 120 gb 7200 rpm hard drive. Are Western Digital drives fairly quite? I have an 80gb Maxtor in my iMac and that thing is unbearbly loud.

Macola · Feb 18, 2003, 09:43 PM

Originally posted by Stogieman:
I have a few questions about external firewire drives myself. I've been wanting to buy an internal 7200rpm drive and place it in a firewire enclosure. The Coolmax case looks really cool. I noticed that it comes with a A/C adapter (100-240VAC, 50-60Hz). Does this mean I can't power the hard drive through the Firewire bus?

Second, I've had my eye set on a 100 or 120 gb 7200 rpm hard drive. Are Western Digital drives fairly quite? I have an 80gb Maxtor in my iMac and that thing is unbearbly loud.

Having a 7200 rpm drive and a bus-powered drive are pretty much mutually exclusive options. The bus-powered cases are designed typically for laptop drives.

As for noise, I've used both Maxtor and WD drives (7200 and 5400) and not noticed much difference.

Edit--To travis, I have an OWC Mercury Elite and you can barely notice that it's running. I've been pretty happy with OWC's drives, though others in this forum may have diffferent experiences.

travis_belton · Feb 19, 2003, 08:46 AM

Thanks Macola for the recommendation on the OWC drive.

I'm thinking of the brute-force method of doing a backup - dump entire harddrive of iMac and iBook onto the external drive. Any thoughts on this? With a 60GB iMac and a 30GB iBook that would leave a little less than 30GB for videos if I got a 120GB drive.

Maybe a more effecient method of backup would be more appropriate?
Travis

Macola · Feb 19, 2003, 09:23 AM

Originally posted by travis_belton:
Maybe a more effecient method of backup would be more appropriate?
Travis

I used Retrospect Express for a while until it crapped out after I upgraded to Jaguar. I purchased Deja Vu instead, and it works well for basic backups. You can selectively backup the folders you need, instead of the entire drive.

zigzag · Feb 19, 2003, 02:29 PM

Originally posted by Macola:
Having a 7200 rpm drive and a bus-powered drive are pretty much mutually exclusive options. The bus-powered cases are designed typically for laptop drives.

www.weibetech.com sells bus-powered FW drives

you can read more about them at www.barefeats.com

You can find noise figures at www.storagereview.com

Note that some enclosures are configured to work with large drives (120 GB+), and some aren't.

bradoesch · Feb 21, 2003, 02:20 PM

Originally posted by travis_belton:

Does anyone have any thoughts on how quiet the Maxtor 5000, OWC Mercury Elite, LaCie d2 or any other vendor's drives are?

I have a 40 GB Maxtor FireWire drive, and it's very quiet. There's no fan because the power suppy is external. It's nice and quiet, but the drive itself gets pretty warm (I've taken the unit apart a few times and noticed the heat.) Yah, much quieter than the Maxtor that shipped with my iMac. That thing was really loud.

art_director · Feb 23, 2003, 11:03 AM

Originally posted by Stogieman:
I have a few questions about external firewire drives myself. I've been wanting to buy an internal 7200rpm drive and place it in a firewire enclosure. The Coolmax case looks really cool. I noticed that it comes with a A/C adapter (100-240VAC, 50-60Hz). Does this mean I can't power the hard drive through the Firewire bus?

Second, I've had my eye set on a 100 or 120 gb 7200 rpm hard drive. Are Western Digital drives fairly quite? I have an 80gb Maxtor in my iMac and that thing is unbearbly loud.

last week i bought a 120gb maxtor internal from best buy for $90 after rebates. it's a 7200rpm drive. you might be able to buy that and get the case separately then assemble on your own.

i also have a 120gb external i bought from owc. it's mighty quiet and fast at 7200rpm. got that one for $209 last summer. last time i checked they were out of stock.