Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

bbales · Apr 16, 2003, 08:14 PM

OK, I've been reading posts about hard drives. I get external ones -- I have one from CMS and it's quite fine. But I'm wondering about drives that are put in an enclosure. Forgive the stupidity, but is that, essentially, an internal drive that you put in an enclosure so that it's external? Is the point that the whole package is cheaper that way? (That seems to be the point, by the way, from what I can tell.) and if that's the case, what would I, running a 400 MZ G4 with the AGP graphics card (not sure that makes any difference), get, anyway?

I'm pretty confused at this point -- and ready to just go buy a Lacie external drive and forget trying to figure out all this other stuff.

Thanks in advance.

bbales · Apr 16, 2003, 08:17 PM

I forgot! And if you're going to get an internal, and put it in an eclosure, what internal would you recommend? My experience is all with externals.

bradoesch · 08:32 PM

The two main reasons I can think of for getting an external drive is lack of internal expansions (every new model except for the towers) and portability. You can get way more drive for less money if you go internal, but then you lose portability.

You're right, an external drive is simply an internal drive in an external case. There's no stupidy in asking questions.

What are you looking for in a drive? If you want speed, the Western Digital Special Edition drives are fast (mine's sure fast) and they've had good reviews. If you want more storage, you can get a larger drive for the same price as the WD Special Edition drives. Since you have a tower, I'd recommend getting an internal drive unless you want to take the drive different places.

bbales · Apr 17, 2003, 08:06 AM

I'm interested in storage primarily. My G4 desktop is only (that's so funny, since my first Mac, an LC, had a 40MB hard drive... and I used it for years!!) 20 GB, partitioned with 5 GB for OS9 and 15 for OSX. I want to be able to partition a new drive, for even more backing up than I do now and for, primarily storage of pictures and video.

And the more I'm thinking, I'm thinking some sort of external, so I can use it with my new PB, too.

I know you said Western digital, but I know my husband has had at least one of those die on him...

Thaqnks for the help.

G4ME · Apr 17, 2003, 09:16 AM

okay if you want an external pick up a nice Seagate drive (do a search in here for drives people recomend) and slap it in anice Oxford 911 bridged firewire case, the case will add about 60-100 bucks more. but now you have compleat portability and you can use it on both computers

bbales · Apr 17, 2003, 10:04 AM

Thanks -- you've clarified what I need and affirmed what I was THINKING I knew from doing a preliminary search. I much appreciate the help.

subrosasupport · Apr 17, 2003, 05:29 PM

Originally posted by bbales:
I'm interested in storage primarily. My G4 desktop is only (that's so funny, since my first Mac, an LC, had a 40MB hard drive... and I used it for years!!) 20 GB, partitioned with 5 GB for OS9 and 15 for OSX. I want to be able to partition a new drive, for even more backing up than I do now and for, primarily storage of pictures and video.

And the more I'm thinking, I'm thinking some sort of external, so I can use it with my new PB, too.

I know you said Western digital, but I know my husband has had at least one of those die on him...

Thaqnks for the help.

IBM's drive is pretty good too--and if they ever failed,IBM will repair it in less than 10 days.

We used to have a lot of WD's for testing purposes, and had really high return rates. However, the latest range of drives from Western Digital have been really reliable. One of our QA's went from "Never buy a WD again" to "Strongly recommended".

bradoesch · Apr 17, 2003, 06:22 PM

Originally posted by subrosasupport:
IBM's drive is pretty good too--and if they ever failed,IBM will repair it in less than 10 days.

Repair or replace?

subrosasupport · Apr 17, 2003, 07:02 PM

Originally posted by bradoesch:
Repair or replace?

The one I got back from them looks like a repaired one.

zigzag · Apr 17, 2003, 08:38 PM

bbales, I just went through this process. While a LaCie external is great (and includes some nice backup software), you can save quite a bit of money by buying an "internal" hard drive of your own choice and putting it into an external Firewire enclosure. It's very easy to do.

My research indicates that the current drive makes are essentially equivalent in performance and reliability and that the average user won't notice any difference, but if you're particular, you can get good info at:

www.storagereview.com
www.barefeats.com
www.tomshardware.com

www.barefeats.com also has good info on enclosures.

I ended up with a Mercury Elite enclosure from www.owc.com . It's very sharp-looking and comes with nice small feet for upright storage or stacking. You can buy the case alone or with a drive. However, you can find somewhat lower prices on drives at www.newegg.com or www.googlegear.com . Also, if you keep your eyes open, you can find many drives on sale for less than $1 per GB - check out www.dealmac.com . I got a Maxtor 120 GB for only $80 after rebate.

www.wiebetech.com also has excellent products - their enclosures are more expensive but they include software for using the FW drive on a PC.

bradoesch · Apr 18, 2003, 12:04 AM

Originally posted by subrosasupport:
The one I got back from them looks like a repaired one.

Interesting. I thought it would cost them way less just to replace the thing.