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cleary_jp · Oct 23, 2007, 09:56 PM

Thought it would be interesting to see what kind of hard drives people will be connecting to Time Machine. What brand? 2.5 or 3.5? Do you plan to allow Time Machine to back up every hour?

I'll be backing up with a Western Digital My Book (320GB) and of course is a 3.5" hd. Im not too keen on hourly backups tho. I don't really do enough work in an hour to warrant that

mduell · Oct 23, 2007, 10:03 PM

Networked Drobo.

slpdLoad · Oct 23, 2007, 10:14 PM

I'll be using a LaCie 3.5" FW 800 drive. Should make performance smooth. I'm on a PowerBook though, so it won't be plugged in all the time. I tend to work on projects for a couple days and then not need to backup much for a few weeks, so I'll probably just connect the drive once a day whenever I'm home and let it update then. Hourly isn't necessary, but just the fact that plugging in is enough to backup my system will be awesome.

Mac4Decade · Oct 23, 2007, 10:16 PM

I'll mate Time Machine to a 500gig Porsche drive FireWire drive...will probably have it update every 2 or 3 hours. Once an hour is overkill for what I do.

0157988944 · Oct 23, 2007, 10:22 PM

USB 2.0 320 GB WD Elements. backup every day or so. I can't have it on 24/7.

swiz · Oct 23, 2007, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by Mac4Decade

I'll mate Time Machine to a 500gig Porsche drive FireWire drive...will probably have it update every 2 or 3 hours. Once an hour is overkill for what I do.

Ditto for me on the drive, though I'll only backup every night. Im gonna get two of them because I plan on ramping up my video work.

mdc · Oct 23, 2007, 11:24 PM

Western Digital 250gb USB MyBook.
If Time Machine can backup to the drive when it's connected to my Airport Base Station then I'll let it backup every hour. If Time Machine requires the drive to be plugged in, then I'll plug in the drive every night and let it copy the day's changes over.

- - e r i k - - · Oct 23, 2007, 11:48 PM

I use a 2TB LaCie triple interface one.

- - e r i k - - · Oct 23, 2007, 11:48 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

Networked Drobo.

Simon · Oct 24, 2007, 04:43 AM

1TB disk (Hitachi Ultrastar A7K1000: 3.5", 7200 rpm, 32MB cache, SATA) attached via FW800 (directly) or Gigabit (using AFP).

JonoMarshall · Oct 24, 2007, 05:41 AM

I'll be buying two WD Passport 2.5" 250gb for my MacBook (swap the current 120gb MB internal for one of them and end up with a 120gb portable storage device spare) and will stick with some 500gb FreeAgent Pros on other machines.

macintologist · Oct 24, 2007, 05:53 AM

I don't think you guys understand how Time Machine works under the hood. It is grabbing the changes on your computer STRAIGHT FROM THE FILE SYSTEM, the very same database that Spotlight uses. So every hour is perfectly reasonable. In fact I bet it could be at every minute and it would use less system resources than a typical Spotlight Search anyway.

.Neo · Oct 24, 2007, 06:34 AM

Western Digital My Book Pro Edition 500 GB
Using FireWire 800, it also supports FireWire 400 and USB 2.0

slpdLoad · Oct 24, 2007, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by macintologist

I don't think you guys understand how Time Machine works under the hood. It is grabbing the changes on your computer STRAIGHT FROM THE FILE SYSTEM, the very same database that Spotlight uses. So every hour is perfectly reasonable. In fact I bet it could be at every minute and it would use less system resources than a typical Spotlight Search anyway.

This is true. It will look like it's making a complete backup every hour, but because of the magic of hard links there won't be more than one copy of any file on the drive. Because of this I read that you really only need a drive that is about 1.5x as big as your internal, as a minimum.

Kevin · Oct 24, 2007, 08:49 AM

Lacie firewire drives. Both 240g drives.

abeato6 · Oct 24, 2007, 04:01 PM

Lacie 500GB Porsche design... backup every night... cant afford to lose my valuable info

0157988944 · Oct 24, 2007, 04:04 PM

Aren't those drives plagued by overheating issues?

Kenstee · Oct 24, 2007, 04:45 PM

Now, does Time Machine make a bootable backup OR is it just file backups. I currently use SuperDuper for my backups. Will I still need SuperDuper functionality?

0157988944 · Oct 24, 2007, 04:45 PM

file backups.

abeato6 · Oct 24, 2007, 04:45 PM

Originally Posted by adamfishercox

Aren't those drives plagued by overheating issues?

I hope not

0157988944 · Oct 24, 2007, 04:57 PM

Did you read reviews about them? because at both CompUSA .com and newegg, there are more bad than good...

abeato6 · Oct 24, 2007, 05:00 PM

amazon says otherwise... in amazon i saw excellent reviews... plus it's cheaper, lighter, and looks better than the WD Mybook 500GB

iREZ · 05:58 PM

ive had my porsche drive for 2 years now and have never had a hiccup. best looking external i own.

but im sure im the exception to the rule, after all the negative reviews ive read on the net.

turnedge762 · Oct 24, 2007, 06:10 PM

500GB, Maxtor, Firewire 800

Mac4Decade · 11:04 PM

*OT about the Porsche drives. I've had three in my house (USB 2.0, two FW) for several months+, with no issues. Which I have to say, having three stacked near/on top of each-other, the cases for all three are slightly different, but all Porsche Design. Lame! I leave them on nearly 24/7 with no issues although I just use them as my iTunes library.

Also, about Time Machine/External Drives...will we (are you?) going to partition your drive for Time Machine or is that not necessary...

macintologist · Oct 25, 2007, 12:28 AM

I've owned LaCie firewire drives since 2004, I bought this 250gig Porsche drive in 2005. Haven't had any issues with it.

analogue SPRINKLES · Oct 25, 2007, 12:39 AM

I've had 3 LaCie's at work. 2 failed in under a year. The third had a loud whine.

I'mDaMac · Oct 25, 2007, 02:57 AM

OWC Mercury Elite Pro 500GB Quad interface via FW800.

I've had no luck with LaCie's and the WD MyBook Premium I tried had bad FireWire400 ports. I went through two of them in a row before I gave up and got a refund.

Kevin · Oct 25, 2007, 04:42 AM

Originally Posted by macintologist

I've owned LaCie firewire drives since 2004, I bought this 250gig Porsche drive in 2005. Haven't had any issues with it.

Same here, but since 2006.

C.A.T.S. CEO · Oct 25, 2007, 04:47 AM

I'm going to get a G-Drive Q, 500 GB.

Naplander · Oct 25, 2007, 05:52 AM

Originally Posted by macintologist

I've owned LaCie firewire drives since 2004, I bought this 250gig Porsche drive in 2005. Haven't had any issues with it.

Same here - never a problem.

I have a Firewire 200 gig and a USB 2 500 gig( Porsche Lacie) and they are both going strong!

swiz · Oct 25, 2007, 08:40 AM

Originally Posted by macintologist

I've owned LaCie firewire drives since 2004, I bought this 250gig Porsche drive in 2005. Haven't had any issues with it.

+1 For me.

CharlesS · Oct 25, 2007, 12:33 PM

As always, I recommend getting a good enclosure with an Oxford chipset (here's the one I have, although there are also cheaper versions of it both with and without FireWire 800, and there's also this one, which appears to be quite popular on these forums), and buying a Seagate internal hard drive and putting it inside the enclosure. With a good enclosure, putting an internal hard drive inside it is simple and requires no knowledge beyond how to use a screwdriver.

The advantages of getting your own enclosure are several:

1. You can make sure you get a high-quality enclosure with the Oxford chipset. With pre-built drives, it's often not clear at all what chipset they're using.

2. You can get a really good internal drive from a good vendor to put inside the enclosure. With pre-builts, once again you often don't know what you're actually getting.

3. If you get a Seagate for the internal drive, you can get the full 5-year warranty on that hard drive. With pre-builts, it's usually only a 1-year warranty (even if they do use a Seagate).

4. If you get a good enclosure, it'll be designed to be easy to open and put a new hard drive in. So if you decide later on that your backup drive isn't large enough, you can take the internal hard drive out of the enclosure and swap a bigger one in with no fuss.

In particular, I'd avoid the LaCie drives. I've just heard too many horror stories about those.

BWhaler · Oct 25, 2007, 01:42 PM

I bought the MyBook Studio edition (1TB drive) It cost $269.

I was hoping to hook this up to a Airport Extreme and back all of my Mac's up to it, but Apple isn't supporting that feature. Total bummer.

-Q- · Oct 25, 2007, 02:04 PM

Using a FW400 external drive. Although it's only a 1:1 with the drive I'll be backing up so I'll probably have to get a new internal drive for it soon.

helvetian200 · Oct 25, 2007, 04:20 PM

i was gonna try to use my new ipod 160gb, cause i only use 50gb for music and another 10gb for pics and movies. do you think thisll work, or will apple have some way to prevent such use of ipod as external hd for time machine and hd for ipod?????

nycdunz · Oct 25, 2007, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by BWhaler

I bought the MyBook Studio edition (1TB drive) It cost $269.

I was hoping to hook this up to a Airport Extreme and back all of my Mac's up to it, but Apple isn't supporting that feature. Total bummer.

$269 for a 1TB Studio Edition MyBook? where???!? Those things go for like $400, are we talking about the one that comes in a red box, and is aluminum to match the mac pro's and macbook pro?

If so please tell me where I can get it for that price.

Thanks!

megasad · Oct 25, 2007, 09:25 PM

A 250GB red Lacie Brick to backup my 250GB MacBook to, once a week or so as the drive is packed away for safety, not left plugged in and on the desk.

JustinHorne · Oct 25, 2007, 09:36 PM

I just picked up a 500 GB Iomega for my backup. It'll be backing up my photos and music, which currently reside on another 500 GB external. I have too much stuff...

BWhaler · Oct 25, 2007, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by nycdunz

$269 for a 1TB Studio Edition MyBook? where???!? Those things go for like $400, are we talking about the one that comes in a red box, and is aluminum to match the mac pro's and macbook pro?

If so please tell me where I can get it for that price.

Thanks!

University pricing my friend.

Reggie Fowler · 10:45 PM

good price.

nycdunz · Oct 26, 2007, 12:55 AM

Originally Posted by BWhaler

University pricing my friend.

so any university will get you that price? is it available on apple store? please link me.

AC Rempt · Oct 26, 2007, 01:19 AM

MyBook Pro 500 Gb, baby. It's a pretty solid drive, and while it could be a little quieter, I'm happy with it. Of course, if a cute drive catches my eye when I'm at the Apple Store getting Leopard tomorrow . . .