is it can be geek tiem nao?

[hope]

Would anyone like to share their experience/suggestions with external hard drives? I am planning on buying possibly two (a desktop and a portable), here are my initial thoughts:

1) A desktop HD of between 350-500GB. Primarily I need something to back up my iMac, which has a hard drive of 300GB. So I will probably need to format it for Mac so it works properly and I can use Time Machine. I'm thinking of getting more than 350GB so that I can either: a) take into account any expansion of my own machine in future, or b) partition it and have about 200GB of archive space for things like movies or TV shows I've already watched, raw vids, etc; and 300GB+ in another partition for the backup.

Currently I have a WD Elements 500GB that I bought in the UK. It doesn't seem to be working properly, though - I've had difficulty formatting, unmounting, even just getting the computer to recognise it. Time Machine won't work on it, and backing up manually invariably hangs after a while.

So I am considering:
* a LaCie 320 or 500GB; I've found some recommendations for LaCie from Mac users, though they are expensive
* a Maxtor 500GB - some mixed reviews, but more affordable


2) I am also after a portable drive of between 150-200GB. I am after something light and cross-platform that I can use to tote around files to and from other people. I am pretty settled on a WD Passport 160GB; it has excellent reviews around the place and is reasonably affordable.


So, considering the above, if you have opinions or knowledge on the following, drop me a comment:

* Firewire. I'm not quite sure what it is, though I think I might have it on this machine, as it is very new and fancy. Should I be looking for this in an external HD?

* What brands can you rec or anti-rec? For Mac, or cross-platform, or in general?

* Any specific products you can recommend from your experience or otherwise?

* Any other considerations I'm missing?


Thank you in advance, o geeky ones, if you have the time/inclination to help me out here :)

Comments

[greenapricot.livejournal.com]

I have three LaCie externals (160, 320 and 500 GB) bought at various times over the last six years or so (the most recent the 500 I got a couple months ago). I have had nothing but great experiences with them and my Macs over the years and have recommended them to many people who have also had great experiences.

All three of mine are the d2 Quadra with triple interface (FireWire 400 and 800 and USB 2). The LaCies come already Mac formatted (though you can format them for a PC and then use them on both since the Mac recognized the PC formated drive). If you're only going to use it on a Mac, though, you literally just have to take it out of the box and plug it in and you're good to go.

FireWire is faster than USB and FireWire 800 is nearly as fast as accessing your internal hard drive. Macs have been shipping with FireWire ports for years so if yours is new I'd say you have both types. They look like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FireWire-46_Diagram.svg) (400 on the left and 800 on the right). One of the things I love about FireWire on the LaCie d2 Quadra is that it is daisychainable. I've got my drives plugged into each other via FireWire 800 cables so I only have to plug one cable into my laptop to make them all show up.

Anyway, I am a big fan of LaCie and Mac together so if you've got any specific questions about the drives or whatever just ask. :)

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I have ordered a 500GB d2 quadra! Hurray. Thank you for the advice, if I have any issues with it I'll be no doubt leaping to the flist! :D