[ruddypilgrim]

Humble request for some feed back re: hard drives
I have a MacBook 2GHz Intel Core duo
Presently has 80GB Hitachi hard drive
I know I want more storage space and I know I should have a back up.
Question is-- Upgrade internal hard drive (use old hard drive for back up) vs external hard drive as back up to existing hard drive? (As i write this am I answering my own question?-Get an external drive for backup and stay with present hard drive.) But, just in case I'm wrong, any thought/experiences regarding the below listed internal hard drives that I am considering for purchase. Thanks for any feed back that you all can give me.

250GB 2.5" Hitachi Travelstar 5K320 5400RPM SATA Notebook Drive with 8MB Cache
250GB 2.5" Seagate Momentus 5400.4 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA
250GB 2.5" Western DIgital Scorpio 5400RPM SATA Notebook Drive with 8MB Cache

[Simon]

Your backup drive should not be smaller than your main drive, so you should definitely get a new backup drive.

I suggest you get a decent 3.5" drive for that. They're cheaper than notebook drives. Here's 500 GB for just $50.

You can replace your internal drive very easily. I suggest you get a Seagate Momentus. They're excellent overall performers and they're inexpensive. You could get a 320GB with 7200 rpm for just $90 here. Or a cheaper one like you mentioned: 250GB, 5400 rpm for $58.

Finally, you want a case that can read from your old 2.5" drive, write to the new 2.5" one, and deal with your new external 3.5" backup drive. That's where the SATA docking station comes in. Takes all these drives, has USB and eSATA. It's just $30.

Have fun.

[ruddypilgrim]

Thank you Simon!

I'll take a look at all of your suggestions. After looking at other threads about 5400 vs 7200 I had assumed I would go with 5400. I don't do a lot of intensive work at this point (like photoshop or video work, though I do use my computer for video streaming). Any thoughts about that other than cost concerns?

Thanks again,
Ruddypilgrim

[seanc]

As Simon said, always make sure the backup drive is of the same size or bigger than the one you're backing up.

I bought a Western Digital 500GB 2.5" drive for my MBP (WD5000BEVT), a SATA docking station and Western Digital 500GB 3.5" drive (WD5000AACS) today.

I've grown to like Western Digital - the Green power drives are quiet and cool - I've used about 8 in various computers and they're all running nicely (for now).

Seagate have had too many problems in the past 2 years for me to trust them at the moment - original MacBook 80GB drive failure & 7200.11 desktop drive bug. I contemplated a Seagate 500GB 2.5" (ST9500420ASG) drive but the price and my head said no.

Increasing capacity is becoming expensive because I have to buy 2 drives each time.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by ruddypilgrim 

I'll take a look at all of your suggestions. After looking at other threads about 5400 vs 7200 I had assumed I would go with 5400. I don't do a lot of intensive work at this point (like photoshop or video work, though I do use my computer for video streaming). Any thoughts about that other than cost concerns?

Actually a half-empty 5400 rpm drive is usually faster than a otherwise equal but filled up 7200 rpm drive. If you need a lot of space and you're on a budget it's probably better to go with a bigger 5400 rpm drive than spend the money on getting 7200 rpm spindle speed.
250GB, 5400 rpm, $65
320GB, 5400 rpm, $80
500GB, 5400 rpm, $100

Otherwise I concur with seanc about the WD Green drives. They have a very good reputation. If quiet and cool are just as important to you as performance they are an excellent choice. I like Seagate for 2.5" notebook drives (Momentus line), but for 3.5" drives I too would choose a WD Green over a Barracuda simply because I stopped trusting Barracudas after the major firmware snafu. I also stopped buying Hitachi after we ordered a whole batch of 1TB drives when they just came out and about half were DOA or died within a few days.
WD Caviar Green Power, 500 GB, 5400 rpm, $60
WD Caviar Green, 640 GB, 7200 rpm, $70