[dm294]

I'm looking into purchasing a new external Hdd for my new Macbook Pro. I've been reading reviews, but everything is very mixed. I'm not really interested in buying an internal drive with a separate enclosure. I'd rather have one solid piece. I'm looking for between 350 and 500 gigs, and would like firewire 800 at a minimum, or eSata at a max. A 3 or 4 port drive would be best for maximum compatibility (I'll be using on multiple PC's and Macs). I'm considering a G-Tech or LaCie, though I've also been seeing some good things about Seagate. Anybody have any longterm experiences with any of these brands? Is the G-Tech worth the extra $? In researching, I've seen great reviews, as well as horror stories for both. Thanks!!

[CharlesS]

1. Avoid LaCie unless you like dealing with total drive failure.

2. G-Tech seems to use an Oxford 924 chipset, so they're probably all right. They're expensive, though. I'd recommend just getting an external enclosure with an Oxford chipset and putting a Seagate drive inside it. This way, you know exactly what you're getting for both the enclosure and the drive, and you get Seagate's 5-year warranty on the drive.

Here are a few good enclosures. Just make sure you get the right kind of hard drive for the enclosure you get - i.e. some take SATA drives, whereas some take regular parallel ATA.

3.5 Inch Aluminum Firewire 800+ 400 +eSATA +USB 2.0 Slim Enclosure for SATA I and SATA II HDD
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FW800/400 + USB... (MEFW912UAL1 ) at OWC
OWC Mercury Elite-AL Quad Interface eSATA,... (MEFW924AL1K) at OWC

[dm294]

If I do the internal drive, even with a quad interface on the enclosure, will I be limited to one type of connection? Or will I be able to use all four ports?

[Atheist]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

1. Avoid LaCie unless you like dealing with total drive failure.

Hard drives (both internal and external) are great when they work... and they are pieces of s**t when they fail. In other words, everyone has a horror story and usually if they have a single hard drive fail, they will label every drive from that manufacturer as junk. Over the years, I've had hard drives from almost every manufacturer fail me. I work under the assumption that all of my hard drives will fail. I have backups of my backups. I've been burned too many times.

Now, back to your question. I presently have 4 500GB LaCie USB external drives (the ones designed by Porsche) and they have proved totally reliable.

I recommend buying 2 of whatever drive you decide upon.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by dm294 

If I do the internal drive, even with a quad interface on the enclosure, will I be limited to one type of connection? Or will I be able to use all four ports?

You get to choose whether to use FireWire 400, FIreWire 800, USB 2.0, or eSATA to connect the drive to your computer. It's exactly the same as getting a pre-built external drive (since all the pre-built drives are, of course, is an internal drive in an enclosure. The only difference is that with the pre-built you don't know what drive or FireWire chipset they're using, and it probably won't be as easy to swap the drive out later on if it fails or if you want a newer one).

Originally Posted by Atheist 

Hard drives (both internal and external) are great when they work... and they are pieces of s**t when they fail. In other words, everyone has a horror story and usually if they have a single hard drive fail, they will label every drive from that manufacturer as junk. Over the years, I've had hard drives from almost every manufacturer fail me. I work under the assumption that all of my hard drives will fail. I have backups of my backups. I've been burned too many times.

Now, back to your question. I presently have 4 500GB LaCie USB external drives (the ones designed by Porsche) and they have proved totally reliable.

I recommend buying 2 of whatever drive you decide upon.

Yes, all drives can fail, but LaCie has a much higher rate of doing that than other brands.

Do a search, either on Google or this forum - LaCie hasn't been known for reliability for years.

[dm294]

I'm kind of liking the 5 year warranty. Maybe I would be better off with the internal. Between the first and third enclosures that you listed, any preference? Also, the only sata drives that I'm finding at around the 500 level from Seagate are the Barracuda and Staples.com®. that was easy®. I'm not sure if they are the same drive or not. Would either of these work well?

[CharlesS]

The third enclosure (the OWC Quad) is the one I have, and it's been working pretty well. I haven't personally used the first one, but it seems very popular here on the forums, and it's a little cheaper. Both the first and third drive use Serial ATA, so you'd need to make sure the drive you got for it was a SATA drive (that one in your Staples link is a SATA, so it would work).

Shop around a bit for the internal. At the time I got mine, frys.com was having a sale on Seagate 500 GB drives, and I got it for something like $100 or $110, which is a really good price for that drive. Unfortunately, that deal isn't going on anymore, but you might find something else. There's also the chance you might see a good deal on a parallel ATA drive, in which case you can use it with an enclosure like the second one I linked to. I did manage to find some slightly better prices than the Staples link you provided at Amazon and Newegg (although do you get the manufacturer's warranty on Newegg? If not, I'd avoid it as the 5-year warranty is the main reason to get Seagate).

OWC has a decent price on Seagate 500 GB drives, and that might be worth looking into if you go for the OWC drive, since you'd probably save a bit in shipping by ordering both the drive and the enclosure from the same place.

[dm294]

Is this the same drive as the one on OWC? Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, Serial ATA-300, OEM ST3500630AS at TigerDirect.com The only difference I see is that this one says Serial ATA-300 and the other one says SATA II. Also, is this very difficult to set up? I know the one from TigerDirect says: Important Note: OEM hard drives do not include cables, software, or hardware (screws, brackets, etc.). Full manufacturer's warranty applies. Will I need to purchase anything else with this? Does this look like a good drive--fast and reliable? Sorry I have so many questions, but I've never bought one before... I really appreciate all of your help.

[dm294]

Also, will I be able to switch this hdd between macs and pc's? I see it needs to be formatted...

[Kenneth]

The G-Drive is nice, but I can't justify the price.

I do have a 2-yr old LaCie d2 triple-interface external HD and it's still running. Right now, it's connected to the AirPort 802.11n base station. Sure, I heard many negative comments regarding to Lacie hardware/support.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by dm294 

Is this the same drive as the one on OWC? Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, Serial ATA-300, OEM ST3500630AS at TigerDirect.com The only difference I see is that this one says Serial ATA-300 and the other one says SATA II. Also, is this very difficult to set up? I know the one from TigerDirect says: Important Note: OEM hard drives do not include cables, software, or hardware (screws, brackets, etc.). Full manufacturer's warranty applies. Will I need to purchase anything else with this? Does this look like a good drive--fast and reliable? Sorry I have so many questions, but I've never bought one before... I really appreciate all of your help.

I'm not sure if it's the same one from OWC, but your speed is probably going to be limited by the FireWire interface anyway. If the price is right, Seagate is always a good bet, as long as you get the 5-year warranty which is Seagate's greatest strength.

The only parts you need are:

1. The hard drive.

2. The enclosure.

3. The cables to connect the enclosure to your Mac.

My OWC enclosure came with cables for FireWire 400, FireWire 800, USB 2.0, and eSATA, and it even included a screwdriver to open the case with. It was quite nice. I'm trying to remember whether it included the screws to mount the drive inside the enclosure with, or whether those came with the hard drive. I think the enclosure came with some, but if not, I'd think you could just get some screws at a hardware store.

Originally Posted by dm294 

Also, will I be able to switch this hdd between macs and pc's? I see it needs to be formatted...

Just like any other hard drive, you'll need to format it as appropriate. If you format it HFS+, it'll be Mac-only unless you add some special software on the PC to read HFS+ disks. If you format it NTFS, it'll work great on Windows, but will be read-only on the Mac (again, unless you install special third-party software to add NTFS write support on OS X). If you format it as FAT32, it'll be read-write on both platforms, but unfortunately FAT32 is a less efficient file system than either NTFS or HFS+.

[dm294]

Thanks for all of the help on this. I think I'm going to let it marinate for a while. I'll update when I make the purchase.
-Dan

[goMac]

I have a LaCie Quadra at work. They're complete crap. The first one failed in a week, and the second is loud and noisy, and every once in a while makes ominous loud clicky-clunking noises.

Avoid LaCie unless you really want to use your warranty.

[Longshanks]

How quiet are these enclosures and are they cool enough?

[dm294]

I ended up going with the seagate free agent pro external hdd. It holds 500gb, and has usb, firewire, and eSata. The price was pretty reasonable. It actually turned out that all of the Seagate and Maxtor drives, including the external ones, now have the 5 year warranty. At least this is true of all of the ones offered by Staples.

[fisherKing]

i've got g-tech (quad interface) and firewire/usb lacie drives;
if i had to go with one, i'd go with the G.
just seems better built, i like the interface choices, and video people i work with swear by them.

still...seems EVERYONE has a story about drives they love and hate...