[WhitE_RabbiT-PB]

Hey guys,
I'm in the market for a portable external hard drive, with at least firewire 400 capability. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions? I'm currently looking at LaCie. The drive will be used to store, read, and write RAW files upon. Photoshop will be accessing the images from the drive, and working off of it.

Thanks for the advice.

[mduell]

I think LaCie is poop. Some people swear by their products, I think they're overpriced garbage.

I suggest buying a Firewire enclosure with an Oxford chipset ($39) and then as much drive as you want: $74 for 160GB, $90 for 200GB, $101 for 250GB, $119 for 300GB, or $390 for 500GB.

[WhitE_RabbiT-PB]

i also believe ive read that a powerbook g4 cannot power the lacie pocket drive on bus power alone....

can anyone confirm this?

[mduell]

Originally Posted by WhitE_RabbiT-PB

i also believe ive read that a powerbook g4 cannot power the lacie pocket drive on bus power alone....

can anyone confirm this?

What's a pocket drive? I don't see it on their website.
The PowerBooks can only provide 8W shared among all their FW ports, so that may be true (espically if you have another FW device like an iSight).

[cmeisenzahl]

Check these out. ;-)

LaCie Brick Desktop Hard Drive 500GB
Hi-Speed USB 2.0
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10695

[mduell]

Originally Posted by cmeisenzahl

Check these out. ;-)

LaCie Brick Desktop Hard Drive 500GB
Hi-Speed USB 2.0
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10695

They don't have Firewire, which the original poster wants.

[Angelo78]

My OWC Mercury Elite just arrived yesterday and I'm very happy with it. I bought the 200 GB version and that one uses a Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm drive. Other drives used by OWC are Hitachi and Western Digital. The brand you get depends on the storage size you choose. When you click on "more details" you'll be able to see which HD each enclosure comes with.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...teAL/400+USB2/

Or if you want a little more storage for the money you can check out there value line. They use the same drives but are in a less expensive enclosure and have a 1 year warranty (Elite line comes with a 2 year).

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...eptune-drives/

The most cost effective way is what mduell suggested. And basically the only difference between that route and what I bought is you save a little money and don't get any back-up or maintenence software. But you can always buy that stuff seperately. I went with the pre-assembled route just for the ease of everything ready to go and plus I really like the looks of the enclosure.

These hard drives also come with firewire 800 connections but cost a little more.

Just some other options for you.

[WhitE_RabbiT-PB]

Thanks for the replies...

My apologies on the term "pocket drive." I was referring to this except in a 7200 RPM version:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10653

Of course, I have indeed read a LOT of bad things about LaCie drives and crashing, yet my d2 Extreme has never given me any problems within the past year. In response to the Brick drive, firewire aside, I'd never own one of those. I just find them extremly tacky and childish.

I don't think I am really interested in building my own enclosure, so I will take a close look at the OWC drives. In fact, I believe I have read good things about their On-The-Go drive, which is the physical size of drive I am after. I noticed they have a 5400 and 7200 RPM version, but the 5400 has a 16MB Cache while the 7200 only has a 8MB Cache. Perhaps someone could help me distinguish the differences. I'm pretty sure I understand the RPM difference, but I am unfamiliar with the Cache. I am looking for the fastest drive possible, of course.

Also, I also have my eye on these two drives as well in case anyone cares to comment:
The G-Drive Mini: http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVE-mini.cfm
The Wiebetech Combo GB: http://www.wiebetech.com/products/ComboGB.php

Again, thanks very much for the help so far. Sorry my posts until now haven't been quite clear, as I haven't really had much of a chance to sit down.

Edit: Oh, and I know I've read that a Powerbook cannot power the Wiebetech or LaCie via USB bus power, but I am not sure about Firewire 400.

[Angelo78]

I'm not all that knowledgeable when it comes to the trade off between higher cache vs faster drive rpm.....too bad they don't give you both. However, OWC has some info in thier FAQ section about cache. Here's the link:

http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_cente...cfm?answer=804


Angelo

[metrocon]

Originally Posted by Angelo78

My OWC Mercury Elite just arrived yesterday and I'm very happy with it. I bought the 200 GB version and that one uses a Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm drive. Other drives used by OWC are Hitachi and Western Digital. The brand you get depends on the storage size you choose. When you click on "more details" you'll be able to see which HD each enclosure comes with.

When you have the drive connected and you put the computer to sleep, does the drive spin down? I am looking at the Mercury Elite Pro AL FW800 enclosure and haven't gotten a definitive answer from OWC yet, I have a Macally drive that keeps spinning no matter what, and a Western Digital that spins down/up when I sleep/wake the machine, which is much more convenient.

[shunt]

I also shop from OWC and they are good people, knowledgable, fast shipping...

I have one of the Neptune drives, came with Retrospect and Speedtools....decent for the money.

[mduell]

Why do the OWC drives only have 1 or 2 year warranties? The majority of bare drives come with 3 or 5 years.

[shunt]

As far as I can tell, the one year is from OWC on the assembled units, mechanism and case. However, they also sell the same bare drives with the 3 year Hitachi warranty.

I would imagine it would require you to send Hitachi the bare drive if it failed after one year, but luckily I've never had to go through the process on mine. *knocks on wood*

I'm gonna ask next time I place an order, when I bought this one I needed it pretty quick so I just said send it.

[Angelo78]

Originally Posted by metrocon

When you have the drive connected and you put the computer to sleep, does the drive spin down? I am looking at the Mercury Elite Pro AL FW800 enclosure and haven't gotten a definitive answer from OWC yet, I have a Macally drive that keeps spinning no matter what, and a Western Digital that spins down/up when I sleep/wake the machine, which is much more convenient.

It does spin down, but I'm not sure about when my computer goes to sleep. I say that because when I'm using my computer I have the external plugged in and turned on. But, if I'm going to be away from it for a while I power down the drive and unplug it. I can say for sure that with my computer on, and if I'm not accessing anything from the external drive, it will spin down automatically. I'm in the middle of something right now but I'll see if it'll spin down right when the computer sleeps, and report back later today.

Angelo

[Angelo78]

Metrocon, It does spin down when the computer sleeps and spins back up when the computer wakes.

Angelo

[metrocon]

Originally Posted by Angelo78

Metrocon, It does spin down when the computer sleeps and spins back up when the computer wakes.

Angelo

Great, thanks for the info! Going to order one now...

[Le Flaneur]

Originally Posted by WhitE_RabbiT-PB

Also, I also have my eye on these two drives as well in case anyone cares to comment:
The G-Drive Mini: http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVE-mini.cfm
The Wiebetech Combo GB: http://www.wiebetech.com/products/ComboGB.php

The Wiebetech Combo GB *enclosure* costs $125 ... and one can purchase a MacAlly enclosure for about $39. The Wiebetech includes FW 800 and an Oxford 922 chipset, whereas the MacAlly is FW400 and uses an Initio chipset.

If I'm not too set on FW800, is the Wiebetech worth the money at 3x the price?

[mduell]

Oxford 922 enclosure for $90.