[Thorzdad]

This morning, my 7+ year-old external Firewire backup drive decided to die. So, I'm now in the market for a reliable and reasonably-priced replacement. My needs are pretty simple - I had the old drive partitioned into a backup volume and a scratch volume for Photoshop work, and will do the same with the new drive. The backup volume kept SuperDuper backups for our family Mac. I also did TimeMachine backups for our daughter's MacBook whenever she was home from college.

I used a Firewire 800 connection, and I'd like to keep it that way.

Thanks!

(FWIW, the old drive was a LaCie d2)

[Waragainstsleep]

My usual advice on external disks is that there is very little between the name brands in terms of reliability. I like to build my own because the bit that fails the most is the enclosure. Even the name brand ones are prone to being cheap and fault prone. If you make your own, then you get to choose the internal disk which will usually have a longer warranty than a pre-built unit and as a bonus if it does go down during warranty you won't be penalised for taking the disk out to recover the data. Do this on a pre built unit and you void the warranty, even if its the case which has blown.
This tactic works well with the incredibly cheap and disposable USB enclosures that are out there but FW800 will bump the price up drastically since there are less about, they tend to be used with Macs and Mac users don't tend to build their own when they have a choice. You might check OWC for an empty FW800 enclosure anyway.
Sadly your current case will probably house a PATA drive given its age so reusing it will not be worthwhile. Might be worth checking though, you never know.
If you want pre-built, pick the one with the longest warranty and make sure you have another backup available. Maybe get two of them. If your budget allows, consider a NAS RAID unit. Something like a Netgear ReadyNAS 4000. Bit more money but you can pick drives (within limits) and you have redundancy built in. Stay away from Drobo. I do like them but I have seen too many of them suffer multiple simultaneous disk failure to trust them anymore.

[Thorzdad]

Thanks for the info.
Going RAID is not in my budget, unfortunately. I've been looking at the various options over at OWC, as far as pre-built units are concerned. Any opinions either way?

[reader50]

Thorz, how much backup space do you need?

Allowing space to grow, I'd figure 2x your current usage + 2x the used space on her MacBook (or 1.5x the drive sizes) + your desired scratch space. Then round up to the nearest common drive size.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

I've been looking at the various options over at OWC, as far as pre-built units are concerned.

Why the pre-built units?

Pre-built OWC 2 TB: $200

Bare OWC enclosure: $75 + Western Digital 2 TB internal drive: $80 (or, if you prefer, the same Seagate Barracuda Green that the pre-built enclosure uses, also $80) == $155.

You save almost $50 bucks this way. Plus, that Western Digital drive is great. I've got this very setup right now — WD20EARS drive inside an OWC case, and it's dead silent, quick to spin up, hasn't gotten hot even when I transferred 400+ GB to it from my old backup drive, and has pretty good transfer rates for a "green" drive. Installing a drive in the enclosure is a snap, too — you don't need any special skills beyond how to operate a screwdriver.

[olePigeon]

Amazon.com: Western Digital WD Elements 3 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive: Electronics

3TB WD Elements. $160. No tax, free shipping.

[mduell]

The upside of FW800 vs USB2 isn't that significant for backups, especially when using Time Machine (not just because it does diffs, it's pretty slow when transferring even between fast disks).

[olePigeon]

Macally G-S350SUA Hi-Speed eSATA/FireWire/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5-Inch SATA HDD
Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA 3 Gb/s

OK, here, then. Best of all three tech. 2TB WD Caviar and a spiffy cool looking Macally eSata/FireWire/USB enclosure. $80 for the drive (no tax, free shipping) and $40 for the case (no tax, free shipping) for a total of $120. Looks nifty if you ask me. The eSATA will come in handy if you get a computer with Thunderbolt or eSATA.

If you have a Microcenter near you, their newspaper has a 3TB drive on sale for $80. That would make it the same price as the one I listed previously, but the enclosure would additionally include eSATA and FireWire.

[jhoetzl]

I'd say FW800 in the FW800 vs USB2 for backups is a VERY nice to have...especially if you use clones and want to boot from it to test things or otherwise. And, if/when your time machine sparsebundle breaks (and it eventually will), that initial Time Machine dump is much slower on USB2 than FW800.

OWC - get that Thunderbolt case out please!!!

[DCJ001]

I'm looking for an external FW800 drive. This one is $80:

Amazon.com: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 1 TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive STAC1000101: Electronics

The FW800 adapter is $20.

Seagate also says that they'll have a Thunderbolt adapter by year end.

This seems to be a cost-efficient way of getting the job done well, while considering future advancements in technology.

What do you think?

[Cold Warrior]

Don't get an enclosure unless you really need it. HDD docks are better: easy access, supports 2 drives either 2.5 or 3.5", makes migrations between machines trivial, and best of all storage upgrades are easy. I have a USB 2.0 dock and just went from a couple 2.5" 300 GB bare drives to 2x 2 TB drives.

Newegg.com - External Enclosures,sata dock

[Stogieman]

I agree with Cold Warrior, HDD docks are the way to go. They are way cheaper in the long run.

Here's the one I have:
NewerTech Voyager Q Quad Interface SATA 2.5" & 3.5" Hard Drive Dock

Here's another quad interface model that's on sale for $75.

NewerTech Voyager Q Quad Interface Hard Drive Dock (FireWire, eSATA, SATA I/II, USB 3.0) #NWTFWU3ES2HDK - Expansys USA

[loflandl]

I would suggest some type of NAS device with lots of space. I currently use a NetGear ReadyNAS Pro 6 with time machine. Durring the first backup, I did attach my macbook pro via a hard connection but after that initial 'full' backup, over the air has been great. A NAS configuration will allow you to use any number of backup themes from your own 'rsync/cpio' invention to commercial products that are readily available. It also allows for multiple clients to use the same device.

larry

[turtle777]

Uhm, yeah, the OP already stated:

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Going RAID is not in my budget, unfortunately.

I'm sure the general "theme" is that it has to be affordable.

-t

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

Macally G-S350SUA Hi-Speed eSATA/FireWire/USB2.0 Storage Enclosure for 3.5-Inch SATA HDD
Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA 3 Gb/s

OK, here, then. Best of all three tech. 2TB WD Caviar and a spiffy cool looking Macally eSata/FireWire/USB enclosure. $80 for the drive (no tax, free shipping) and $40 for the case (no tax, free shipping) for a total of $120. Looks nifty if you ask me. The eSATA will come in handy if you get a computer with Thunderbolt or eSATA.

If you have a Microcenter near you, their newspaper has a 3TB drive on sale for $80. That would make it the same price as the one I listed previously, but the enclosure would additionally include eSATA and FireWire.

FireWire 400, though, not FW800. I don't really see the point of getting FW400 gear in this day and age. Not only is it not that much faster than USB 2.0, but you have to get a special cable since modern Macs don't even have the port anymore. I'd either spend a little more and go FW800, or save a few bucks and just get a cheapo USB 3.0 enclosure that will actually be faster in the long term, since your next computer will likely have USB 3.0 once Intel starts integrating it into the motherboards.

[Thorzdad]

Thanks, all. Quite an outpouring of options for me to consider.

Those HDD docks are really sweet, and score high on the geek-o-meter, but the prices for a FW-800-capable dock are, surprisingly, as high or higher than an enclosure. I guess you pay a premium for the flexibility. Myself, I can't see ever being in the position of swapping multiple drives back-and-forth, so it's a toss-up for me between a dock or an enclosure.

Thanks, again!

[jmiddel]

I have 2 of those Macally enclosures, the work great. On the other hand I am moving towards having 2.5 drives so here is a "USB 3/2 enclosure for $28: OWC ES2.5BPU3S Express 2.5" Portable USB 3.0... in stock at OWC and here a 1T Samsung for $105: Samsung HM100UI 1.0TB 2.5" Spinpoint MT2 5400RPM... in stock at OWC The advantage with the smaller drive is you can easily put in pocket and take with you. I've given up on FW, it is too expensive, and will be superseded by USB3 and Thunderbolt. I fear that the FW port is not longer for this world, so don't want to invest in obsolete, albeit great, tech.

[Thorzdad]

Well, after mulling it over for awhile, I reversed myself and went for the NewerTech Quad-Interface dock. I coupled that with the WD Caviar Green drive. Altogether, the order came-in under $150 with free shipping. My lovely finance manager will be pleased.

Thanks, again!

[Cold Warrior]

My dock is only usb 2. Let us know how you like the quad interface. I may be needing an upgraded model myself soon.

[Thorzdad]

Will do. I'm sure I'll like it a lot. This will work well for backing-up my iMac (FW800) and my daughter's MacBook (FW400). I don't have anything with eSATA or USB3.

[Thorzdad]

The dock and hd arrived this afternoon. Was up and running and doing a SuperDuper backup within 10 minutes of unboxing. That WD Caviar Green drive is scary quiet.

Interesting note about the quad-interface dock...If you opt to connect to your Mac via an eSATA connection, you have to re-boot your entire system each time you swap a hard drive. Sounds like a definite mark against using eSATA, at least with a dock like this.

I also noticed that Disk Utility cannot check the s.m.a.r.t. status of the new WD drive. DU claims it's "Not Supported". Not sure if that means s.m.a.r.t. isn't supported by the drive or if Disk Utility itself doesn't support s.m.a.r.t. on external drives.

edit: After a little more digging, it appears that OS X cannot read the SMART status of external drives. Good grief.

[reader50]

I use a Firmtek eSATA card with my G5. All attached drives have SMART data available, including when they're in a port multiplier case.

eSATA connections should pass the SMART status. Other interfaces generally don't. USB won't pass SMART data for example.

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Interesting note about the quad-interface dock...If you opt to connect to your Mac via an eSATA connection, you have to re-boot your entire system each time you swap a hard drive. Sounds like a definite mark against using eSATA, at least with a dock like this.

This is a Windows-specific note. OSX can dismount internal drives. Excepting the boot drive of course.

[Thorzdad]

Cool.
Apparently it's external drives connected via either USB or Firewire that can't have their SMART status read. Bummer.