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moggy · Apr 18, 2003, 07:04 AM

Hi everyone,
I am interested to purchase an external firewire hard drive at around 60GB, but I am unsure as to which I should buy? I figured many of you must have some suggestions. I'm looking for one that is not too bulky, but it doesn't necessarily need to fit in my pocket.

As far as price is concerned, maybe between $250 and $350 would do.

I was looking at the EZQuest Cobra, Smartdisk, and the Lacie drives, but I'm just not sure.

Any recommendations would be wonderful! Thanks!

bbales · Apr 18, 2003, 09:18 AM

Funny -- I'm about to do the same thing, only I think I'm going bigger than 60. I thought about buying an internal and putting it in an enclosure, but have since pretty much settled on a D2 drive by Lacie. I've had good luck witgh Lacie products, overall. By the way, I also have a CMS backup plus drive which I like a whole lot. It's great for backing up. I'm not buying another one, b/c they're so pricey. But they work great.

djjava · Apr 18, 2003, 12:54 PM

Originally posted by bbales:
Funny -- I'm about to do the same thing, only I think I'm going bigger than 60. I thought about buying an internal and putting it in an enclosure, but have since pretty much settled on a D2 drive by Lacie. I've had good luck witgh Lacie products, overall. By the way, I also have a CMS backup plus drive which I like a whole lot. It's great for backing up. I'm not buying another one, b/c they're so pricey. But they work great.

Just as a heads up, LaCie is French. Anyone participating in the French boycott, like me, need alternatives to LaCie.

Sven G · Apr 18, 2003, 01:02 PM

... LaCie's history...

It's (partly, historically) French, and it's probably the most "Mac-friendly" third party hardware producer - I'd go for LaCie any time (some products are even better than the Apple ones, IMHO)...

dampeoples · Apr 18, 2003, 01:39 PM

if you want small, the Smartdisk firefly is nice. I have the 5GB and it's tiny, and doesn't require anythign but a 6 pin FW cable. I got a fantom drive 60GB for a backup, because of the price.

moggy · Apr 21, 2003, 04:26 AM

Anybody have an experience with EZQuest's Cobra line? I can't help but be attracted by their design.

CatOne · Apr 21, 2003, 11:20 AM

Originally posted by moggy:
Anybody have an experience with EZQuest's Cobra line? I can't help but be attracted by their design.

No experience... looks like a drive in a Clear911 case.

I think they're all gonna be the same... they use the same chipset (Oxford 911), the same mechanism (IBM or Hitachi or ... 2.5" drive)... so just pick the case you like the most ;-)

I built one myself using a Cutie enclosure and an IBM 42GN 9.5mm height drive. Works great. That route can be a bit cheaper.

TMLai · Apr 21, 2003, 09:40 PM

I had tried the cheap DIY way, the not too cheap web base vendor way, but end up spending a lot of money on somethings that not function correctly on the Mac platform. In the process, I learn a lot on devices and interfaces timing problems and also how some of those web base vendors that advertized on the Mac market but in fact are nothing more than a one man business that know nothing above computer. I am finally using the Lacie now and they work without any problem right out of the box.

My conclusion is if you have a lot of money and time to waste then go ahead to take your part and boycott the French, you may be able to get your 2nd electronic engineering degree in the process. If you want something that work out of the box then your only choice is Lacie!.

CatOne · Apr 21, 2003, 09:52 PM

Originally posted by TMLai:
I had tried the cheap DIY way, the not too cheap web base vendor way, but end up spending a lot of money on somethings that not function correctly on the Mac platform. In the process, I learn a lot on devices and interfaces timing problems and also how some of those web base vendors that advertized on the Mac market but in fact are nothing more than a one man business that know nothing above computer. I am finally using the Lacie now and they work without any problem right out of the box.

My conclusion is if you have a lot of money and time to waste then go ahead to take your part and boycott the French, you may be able to get your 2nd electronic engineering degree in the process. If you want something that work out of the box then your only choice is Lacie!.

Errr... I hate to call you "stupid" but... well...

Look I bought a Cutie firewire enclosure, and an IBM 40GN mechanism. I found links to the vendors through a site that benchmarks them.

The parts showed up, with (admittedly poor) instructions, to the effect of:

1) Insert 9.5mm drive in enclosure, pin side in

2) Attach 2 screws to back of case, closing it

3) Plug drive into Mac, format it.

And it worked. Really, it took me 2 minutes, and one of those minutes was getting my screwdriver. A degree in electronic engineering? hardly.

Okay I'll add this caveat: If you are COMPLETELY uncomfortable with ANYTHING "handy" then just buy an assembled unit. If you can put RAM in your powerbook, you can put together and format one of these drives.

TMLai · Apr 22, 2003, 11:31 AM

Didn't you test your configuration completely. Please do the following to see if you have any problem.

1) Put your computer to sleep for five minutes or more. Bring it back up and check where you can still access the firewire drive.

2) Keep the firewire drive attached and work on your computer for for a few hours without accessing the firewire drive. Then try to access the firewire drive to see if it still work. (I have a setup that passed the first test but when try to use it on a FCP project, the first half of the project store in the internal harddisk and the second half store in the external. The external drive fail every single time when it was accessed!!!)

3) Repeat 1) a few more times.

If your home made drive pass all the tests. (You are one lucky guy that deserve to win the next lottory) You should post what firmware versions of the case and the harddisk you are using so we can go out and try to get that configuration!

zigzag · Apr 22, 2003, 12:19 PM

I put a 120 GB Maxtor drive into a Mercury Elite enclosure from OtherWorldComputing. It was extremely simple. I've abused it (powered off before unmounting, etc.) and it has never failed me. And it's a handsome piece of hardware (clear plastic over a metal housing) in a utilitarian sort of way.

The enclosures from www.wiebetech.com are also said to be very good.

CatOne · Apr 22, 2003, 01:01 PM

Originally posted by TMLai:
Didn't you test your configuration completely. Please do the following to see if you have any problem.

1) Put your computer to sleep for five minutes or more. Bring it back up and check where you can still access the firewire drive.

2) Keep the firewire drive attached and work on your computer for for a few hours without accessing the firewire drive. Then try to access the firewire drive to see if it still work. (I have a setup that passed the first test but when try to use it on a FCP project, the first half of the project store in the internal harddisk and the second half store in the external. The external drive fail every single time when it was accessed!!!)

3) Repeat 1) a few more times.

If your home made drive pass all the tests. (You are one lucky guy that deserve to win the next lottory) You should post what firmware versions of the case and the harddisk you are using so we can go out and try to get that configuration!

I've been using the drive for 1.5 years. I've never noticed a problem. I don't need to run your specific work cases -- it works just fine for me.

I don't have any drivers on the drive... I just formatted it on my Mac with HFS+

TMLai · Apr 22, 2003, 04:00 PM

Thank for sharing your experience, Zigzag. Unfortunately, I had been burned hard by one of your recomended vendor (The one that only sell storage). The product they ship don't work at all and they don,t answer my email.

By the way, firmware is not a driver. Its the operating code that build inside the hardware. The reason I ask is because I have a enclosure that look exactly like the Cutie but from a different vendor that not working!

May be I am out of luck big time that so many different setup fail on me!!!

Hope luck be with you all forever.

zigzag · Apr 22, 2003, 05:30 PM

Originally posted by TMLai:
Thank for sharing your experience, Zigzag. Unfortunately, I had been burned hard by one of your recomended vendor (The one that only sell storage). The product they ship don't work at all and they don,t answer my email.

Yeah, they all make lemons from time to time. But most purchasers seem to be satsfied. It can be dangerous to extend one's own experiences - good or bad - to everyone. For example, I heard complaints about LaCie products in years past, but no complaints recently - they seem to be very solid. Anyway, hope your luck has improved.

TMLai · Apr 22, 2003, 10:29 PM

I am so sorry if any of my past posts sound offensive to any one. I just try to be helpful. I had tried 4 different setups in the last 3 months. The only one work 100% is the Lacie D2. There is one setup that work 100% on my PC but having problem on the Mac (OS X, didn't test anything on OS 9), that is the DVICO Momoboy CX-1. The other 2 setup doesn't work on any of my systems. I was able to return the one I bought locally, but the one I bought from the web is still with me because I was unable to contact the vendor!

I hope someone would find my experience helpful.

hart · Apr 23, 2003, 06:24 AM

Originally posted by moggy:
Anybody have an experience with EZQuest's Cobra line? I can't help but be attracted by their design.

I have a 100 and a 120 on my desk. I've used them with my keylime ibook, my B&W G3 (recently upgraded to G4) and my MDD G4 with no problems in various OS9 and OSX configurations. I'm running Jedi Knight II on one of them as I ran out of room on the B&W so it can't be too bad.

When specs didn't seem to produce a clear decision I went for looks too.

(ps, non-expert alert here so please don't jump all over me!)

J

Luca Rescigno · Apr 25, 2003, 01:53 AM

I just bought a $45 compact FireWire case and a $114 Travelstar 40GN. Including shipping, it was only $164. Pretty good deal for a portable, bus powered, 40 GB hard drive! The Lacie and SmartDisk were $250 each for the same thing - fully assembled of course, but I'll save $90 if all I have to do is put the drive in the case.

However I haven't actually RECEIVED it yet...