[anselm]

My take on the topic choosing the right external harddrive for backup purposes:

1.
I would recommend a drive attached by Firewire and not USB.
The reason is that Apple`s USB drivers are neither as fast nor as reliable the FW drivers.
Data transfer rates over USB 2.0 are usually 50% of USB 2.0 performance using Windows.
Some time ago a few Mac users suffered complete data loss on external USB drives after an OS X upgrade.

2.
The best external cases (without drive) according to many reviews are made by Onnto. ONNTO Corporation
In general aluminium cases are better to transport the heat from the HDD to the outside than plastic cases.

3.
There is a drive series from WD that reduces the rotation speed when there is not much data written or read.
I suppose that increases the drive`s lifespan.
That is the WD Caviar GP series.

Model numbers for example:
WD GP 500GB WD5000AACS 5400-7200U/m 16MB
WD GP 750GB WD7500AACS 5400-7200U/m 16MB

Then there are WD series that have a longer expected lifespan specified by the manufacturer:
That`s the WD RE and WD RE2 series.

Last but not least it`s the RE2-GP series:
WD RE2-GP 1 TB SATA Hard Drives ( WD1000FYPS )
That one seems to combine long lifespan specification and reducing spin speed whenever possible.

In general you should be looking for drives that produce as little heat as possible.


4.
I would generally have a backup drive only connected to the computer while you are actually running a backup process.
The rest of the time I`d keep it on a shelf or in a locker.
That reduces unnecessary wastage while the drive is not used.


5.
Harddrives can in many cases be switched to a "silent mode" depending on manufacturer.
I think Seagate doesn`t allow that (Maxtor neither since their takeover).
The result is noise reduction, a little bit slower performance but an increase in expected lifespan.

The problem is: You can only activate this silent mode if you connect the drive internally.
It doesn`t work for a drive in an external case connected via FW/USB.
I`m not sure if it works over eSATA. Of course there are no Macs with eSATA support.

You can however connect your drive internally to your Mac or PC and activate the silent mode and then (after switching off the computer of course) put your drive in an external case.


6.
Among friends I heard about drives that failed "because the drives wasn`t able to cope with being plugged in and out while the computer was running".
I don`t know about the value of this "information" I can just quote.
My personal consequences would be to consider connecting drives only while the computer is switched off and shutting the computer down before unplugging the drive.
Since this is inconvenient I will certainly ask experts that I trust and the drive manufacturer.


7.
In the past I had an IBM drive crashing.
My brother had 2 IBM drives crashing.
Another friend had another 2 IBM drives crashing.
IBM sold their drive division to Hitachi.
I personally won`t buy any Hitachi drives.


8.
There was news recently that Seagate had sold 2.5" drives with massive quality problems.
I will soon buy a backup drive myself and it won`t be from Seagate.


9.
I have an old 4GB Samsung drive that still works.
I got another 60GB Samsung and a 120GB Samsung. Never had problems.


10.
If you buy a an external drive instead of an empty case + a standard drive, then you won`t be able to choose which kind of drive series you want (the long lasting enterprise versions for example), you can`t reuse the case for a bigger drive in 2-3 years and you can`t activate the silent mode.
However the external drives can have a price advantage over empty case + HDD.


The drive I`ll buy will be WD or Samsung.

[Jacke]

Originally Posted by anselm 

If you buy a an external drive instead of an empty case + a standard drive, then you won`t be able to choose which kind of drive series you want (the long lasting enterprise versions for example), you can`t reuse the case for a bigger drive in 2-3 years and you can`t activate the silent mode.

Depends on the enclosure and how well you handle a screwdriver. I've had my Lacie Porsche drive opened just to see if I could when/if I want to swap out the 160GB that's currently in it; a bit tricky, but by no means impossible.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by anselm 

The best external cases (without drive) according to many reviews are made by Onnto. ONNTO Corporation

You wouldn't happen to be working for this company, by any chance.........

[Veltliner]

Originally Posted by anselm 

5.
Harddrives can in many cases be switched to a "silent mode" depending on manufacturer.
I think Seagate doesn`t allow that (Maxtor neither since their takeover).
The result is noise reduction, a little bit slower performance but an increase in expected lifespan.
.

Silent mode? Can you enlarge on this?

[silver]

5.
Harddrives can in many cases be switched to a "silent mode" depending on manufacturer.
I think Seagate doesn`t allow that (Maxtor neither since their takeover).
The result is noise reduction, a little bit slower performance but an increase in expected lifespan.

The problem is: You can only activate this silent mode if you connect the drive internally.
It doesn`t work for a drive in an external case connected via FW/USB.
I`m not sure if it works over eSATA. Of course there are no Macs with eSATA support.

Um, I have a MBP 17" and it supports eSATA. Just plug my external eSATA enclosure into a APIOTEK EXTREME Dual eSATAII Express Card Adapter w/ RAID and away I go with eSATA.

Now if you wrote that there is no external eSATA ports then I would agree. Are you basing your claims of "Of course there are no Macs with eSATA support" because there are no external eSATA ports?

Many folks here on the forums use external eSATA enclosures with there Macs for backup and work so how is it that Macs don't support eSATA?


Cheers

[anselm]

silver:

I was indeed only referring to the absence of eSATA ports (which are by definition always external) on Apple hardware.




Veltliner:

The manufacturers offer programs to enable the silent mode (if the feature is supported).
Those programs are traditionally available for PCs only (could have changed by now).

The correct name for the feature is "automatic acoustic management".

CT Magazin from Germany offers a freeware utility to activate the silent mode with Mac OS X but it`s still required that the drive is attached internally.

It is called Mac AAM.

download link:
ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/ctsi/macaam12.sit

I have no information if it works with Mac OS 10.5.



Here is a brief article on wikipedia:
Automatic Acoustic Management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What it does is to slow disk operation down a bit and make it more sparing for the drive.
I activated this feature for harddrives I used and didn`t really notice any slow down.

The wikipedia article does not explain this but it had a link to an article at macosxhints.com how to activate acoustic management on Macs with OpenFirmware:
macosxhints.com - Set Automatic Acoustic Management level on hard drives

The article from 2004 claims that MacAAM works with Mac OS 9 only.

That surprises me a bit because I had journalist from CT Magazin on the phone in 2007 who told me about their program.
I can`t guarantee that it works.

So here`s an Apple Script that might do the job:
macosxhints.com - Advanced hard drive power management via AppleScript

...and that one links back to here:
http://forums.macnn.com/69/powerbook...r-apm-tuner-x/





CharlesS:

No I`m not working for Onnto.

But I think the company is well known for best test results in Mac print magazines.

G-Tech products had very good results in german Macwelt and MacPower`s Pleiades cases had good results in another print mag.

The MacPower cases were not able to reduce the drive noises as well as the Onnto cases but I`m going to order a MacPower Pleiade case and an Onnto case tomorrow.

[CharlesS]

I've never heard of Onnto before. What chipset do they use for FireWire?

[naphtali]

The data loss bug was due to incompatibilities with a specific bridge chipset right?

[anselm]

I don`t know why exactly there where problems after OS X updates. I have no idea if this was a unique event or happened repeatedly.

The Onnto and MacPower Plejades cases that I ordered this monring both use Oxford bridge chips.

Redundancy is always worth a consideration to play it safe: Not one backup HDD but 2 or even 3 HDDs with daily, weekly, monthly backups.
Then a lot has to go wrong before you loose any data. More so if you let somebody keep your monthly-backup-drive for you.

[Woebgon]

Your recommendations sound interesting, but for many people like me, a "plug and play" type of drive is what we're looking for. I want to be able to walk into a store, grab a box off the shelf and plug it into my iMac at home. While to many here this may not sound like the "best" way to go and rather dull, personally that's what I want. If you have recommendations on a drive that seems to be the most reliable "off the shelf" I'd appreciate them. Thanks.

[anselm]

In your case I would probably buy the WD external drive that you mentioned you are considering. MyBook series I think.

I assumed that my approach wouldn`t be the same as yours when I wrote it but I chose to post it here so people who have not yet made up their minds how to prevent data loss have a starting point to think about what`s their personal way depending on their individual need for safety and the value of their data.

[silver]

Of course there are no Macs with eSATA support

That's the quote I was referring to, in which case your wrong because Macs do support eSATA.


Cheers

[ginoledesma]

1.
Generally agree, but the corruption was not unique to USB-driven HDDs. Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) had very serious corruption issues with Firewire as well.

My recommendations for getting Firewire over USB are primarily:
* ability boot on Macs that have a Firewire port (iMac DV circa 1997). Only the original iMacs and Macbook Air wouldn't be able to boot from one.

* Speed.

2.
More than the enclosure, I scrutinize the choice of chipset/bridge instead. When going for Firewire, I try to choose Oxford whenever possible. (This is particularly hard since not all manufacturers/vendors advertise what type of chipset they use).

3.
Regarding drive longevity, it's really a matter of "cost." For me, doing all the preventive measures of powering up the drive only when needed costs me more long-term. The drives will eventually fail, so if the backup is that important, it's more practical to keep a second back-up than to try and prolong one single drive. You can either do this using RAID and/or backups of backups.

4.
Regarding drive brands, this is the most tricky survey of them all. While there are known bombs (e.g. IBM Deskstar aka Deathstars), the choice of going for WD/Samsung/Seagate/Hitachi/Fujitsu is pretty much a free-for-all. As with #3, these drives will fail, and to trust them based solely on brand reputation isn't wise. Again, if the backups are that important, make other copies.

We can find anecdotal evidence about which brand/model performed well, but there could always be that one-in-a-million-lemon.

This applies to drive warranties as well. While I generally prefer getting drives with long warranties (e.g. Seagate/WD 3-5 year warranties), it doesn't make sense to get it if the data on it is "irreplaceable". Once the drive goes and you have no other copy of the data on the drive, the length of warranty is useless. Now if it were used in RAID setup, it's a different story. :-)

5.
Regarding "external harddrives" vs DIY-solutions, it's really a matter of cost and convenience, and at times aesthetics. Some people can't be bothered to get different components and assemble it, although it's definitely cheaper. I've done my share of building my own, as well as buying those sold by Iomega, Seagate, Western Digital, Lacie, and G-Drives. Most of them can have the innards replaced (doing it can range from easy to down-right bloody).

I personally like NewerTech's ministack line, although they are far from being the cheapest, they're very functional.

[anselm]

ginoledesma:

I agree with everything you wrote.

Brand names and specified expected average lifetime are only a prospective assumtptions.
These are indicators but no guarantee.

Every company can have a production problem with a specific product like Seagate recently had with some 2.5" drives.

The MacPower Pleiades and the Onnto enclosures use Oxford chips and I wouldn`t buy anything else.

The prices of ready to use external drives can be lower than case + HDD.

The tip of activating AAM (automatic acoustic management, or silent mode as I originally called it) might add a bit to data safety but doesn`t change the fact that there is wastage aslong the drive is running.

The only way to increase data safety is redundancy:
If you have 2 backups instead of 1 then the probability that you will eventually loose your data is pretty low.
With 3 harddrives it`s very low.


So the maximum solution is:

HDD1: daily backups

HDD2: weekly backups (incremental or complete, only attached to computer during backup process)

HDD3: monthly backups (complete, only attached to computer during backup process, kept in a safe place for example in the apartment of a person that you trust, you can use an encrypted drive to prevent that person browsing your files)


If you got an old harddrive that`s too small for complete backups but big enough to backup your most important data then you can use that one for an additional backup.

That`s what I do.

I don`t have 3 complete backups but I keep the data I create seperately (in a seperate folder in my user directory with subfolders for different types of data).
That makes it easy to create an extra backup job particualrly for this data (additionally to full backups).


Choosing the number of backups is an individual decision.

If most of your data is dispensable then you might be happy with one backup.
If you organize everything with the computer, keep your family photos/videos, holiday memories on your computer.

If you keep all your work data on a harddrive then this is invaluable.

Ask yourself what would it mean to me if all the data I have on my computer right now was lost.
Then choose how you want to handle backups.

[hart]

rather than start up a whole new thread I'll just jump on here. I was just looking at a Seagate at Costco and it says "read only" for Mac OS which doesn't make a lot of sense because, of course, you have to write something to it first in order to read it.

So I'm asking, do they actually mean that their proprietary backup software package won't work (which I don't need anyway)? Or do they literally mean you can't write to the disk in OSX?

[CharlesS]

They're probably talking about the backup software. There's no reason you couldn't format the drive as HFS+ and do whatever you wanted with it in OS X.

[silver]

@hart that's weird, what you can do is get the drive then reformat using Disk Utility. Partition to either HFS+ for OS X or FAT32 if your gonna use the drive with OS X and Windows.

Which model Seagate are you talking about?

Doh, CharlesS beat me to the answer.

Cheers

[hart]

Seagate
750GB FreeAgent™ Pro
External Hard Drive

price is very good coming out at $0.27 per GB even with shipping and tax, bought online but Seagate seems to be one of those brands with a high failure rate. It does have a 5 year warranty however "limited."

It's quite amazing how precipitous the fall of cost per GB has been over the last 3 or 4 years. Unfortunately, my photos and digital artwork has been expanding at a rate which keeps up.

I have a stack of Fantom external drives and haven't had any failures thus far even with carting them around on various trips and not treating them all that delicately.

[Guy Kuo]

The Seagate FreeAgent (despite my needing to update its firmware) gets a thumbs up as a backup drive. I've run one of the Seagate 750 GB Freeagen Pro's 24/7 for at least 8 months now. It has worked well and its vertical case position helps keep the drive cool. I know because I pulled the drive mechanism out of its case today. It was just a little bit warm. (BTW, it was pulled to go into a CFI Teratower drive enclosure.)

On the other hand, A Hitachi Easy Drive (1TB external USB 2.0) would get lower points from me as an external backup drive. I had one of those on 24/7 over last two weeks. When I pulled the drive mechanism out of its plastic enclosure today, it was literally too hot to hold in my hands! Even after the time I needed to get my IR thermometer, the drive temperature still read 145F. Externally, I only noticed the Hitachi enclosure was a little warmer than the Seagate FreeAgent. I would never have guessed the drive was sweltering. I would NOT use that Hitatchi external case for any extended period. Hitachi does have a heating system to keep the heads thermally stable and one might suspect that was the culprit, but that same Hitachi drive runs at 92F in a CFI Teratower enclosure despite having three other 1TB Hitachi's stacked as a RAID.

Incidentally, the CFI Teratower is a great SATA portmultiplier case which can hold 8 SATA drives, runs COOL, and is fairly quiet. Thumbs up on that if you need a "little" more storage capacity. The silver version looks like it belongs next to a Mac. Just make sure you get the right one for your needs. They have versions for SATA, PATA, with and without RAID controller cards, PCX vs PCE cards vs USB2 interfaced versions, etc. Drive installation is quick. Four screws hold your SATA drive in a tray. Then, you slide in the tray and close the tray latch.

[tycheung]

in terms of temperature, power draw and number of platters the new samsung spinpoint F1 is currently the market leader. they're just out so no real track record w/ them yet but i think they would have less wear and tear than WD's. I think they also are a larger HD company in terms of scale vs WD so can do a bit more R&D.

that being said, all HD's fail so double HD schemes or raids aren't a bad idea....