External HD Reviews

llrickman · 02-12-2009, 04:56 PM

I know i have posted on this subject repeatedly but i am now ready to buy my ex. HD this weekend.

I have been reading some reviews and just dont know what to get. I know several people here have used the WD My Book essential but the reviews i have read are pretty bad it seems people either love it or hate it . Biggest problem ive seen is people say they just die out of the blue . But most other HD have bad reviews also

Here is what im doing. I have a MacBook, a HP laptop and a pc with a dead video card. I also have a Apple air port extreme base station.

I have never had a external HD before and just want to make the right purchase If possible i'll pick it up tonight or sometime tomorrow

I know i can format it for OS X and windows will be able to write to it at least that is my understanding .

Will my MacBook be able to access the partition that my HP is backing up to as i have Tons of photos on that machine and would like to be able to import them to iPhoto09

Sorry i keep posting on this subject i just want to make sure i make the right choise before dropping $100+ on a HD

Thanks

Larry

Ramesh · 02-12-2009, 06:35 PM

Just keep in mind if you format it for both, you're limited to FAT32 - so your file size limitation is 4GB.

Again though, I have a WD, and just about everyone I know has one. I like it. I actually have 2 WD externals, one usb powered, one AC powered.

acosmichippo · 02-12-2009, 08:38 PM

If he's using the AirDisk feature in Airport Utililties to share his HD, then it can be HFS+ (OSX formatted).

As to which hard drive to get... Performance is generally not an issue... anything from a reputable brand such as western digital, maxtor, seagate, etc should work just fine. here are the things i look for:

1) Warranty. Seagate and Maxtor (same company) all come with a 5-year warranty. Western Digital is 3.
2) Price. Pretty straightforward.
3) Appearance/build. Since this is going to be something sitting on your desk or near your router (ostensibly in a visible location), it's not such a trivial matter. I like the MyBooks because the stand vertically (take up less real-estate), and are pretty solid due their book-like design). They also fit flush with each other if you have more than one. They look pretty nice, and are silent when they are not being used.

The other day i bought a 1TB MyBook (with firewire and eSATA) for $130. You can get one for even less if you just need USB.