Best external drive for mac use and sometimes pc?
 

So i'm in the market for new external hard drive for my MBP but not sure which one is best in quality. Majority of the time I will be using it on are mac computers and once awhile PC's.

Got my eye on the WD passport one as of now..

If you could tell me where to grab it for cheap that would be great also.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/multimedia/Pro...7/10137865.jpg

Which drive format is best to read/write on both OS? Cause for this WD drive theres Mac and Windows version.

TIA

In order to use it on both a Mac and a PC you must format the hard drive to FAT32. So storing anything over 4 gigs is basically impossible.

I use this...smallest HD enclosure

http://cdn1.techbargains.com/icache/...24/090520.jpeg

To clarify the 4GB limit is for a single file. You can of course use any size drive for this purpose.

The fact that you are using it for a Mac and PC is irrelevant to the choice of which HDD is better. Decide how big you need it to be and how much you are willing to spend and go from there. I usually prefer to buy the HDD and enclosure seperately as it tends to be cheaper and better overall.

I wouldn't get one of those Western Digital HD's, personally. I now buy good HD's and put them in a decent enclosure, like WiebeTech's.

http://www.wiebetech.com/home.php

you can format the drive for ntfs and on the Mac there is a program that can read and write to ntfs drives

Nowadays most portable drives are able to be partitioned into 2 separate drives (1 ntfs, 1 fat32)

Keep in mind the build quality is very important... as these external hard drives are very easy to lose data on, and you cannot go over a certain volume size for the fat32 (used for transfer between mac and pc)

I use the Lacie grand 1TB btw, costed about $100 cad.

get something that supports USB 3.0 and Firewire 800

just make a separate partition for the 4gb+ files. problem solved. otherwise keep installation files for programs that let you read/write cross hfs+ and ntfs if you must. it's easier to do the fat32/ntfs partition scheme.

it's better to purchase an enclosure separately simply for warranty purposes of the hd, usually it's 3-5 yrs. some will have this as well but their enclosures are pretty shitty. The important thing to evaluate is how the enclosure dissipates heat, if you care about shock protection (a feature of some 2.5" drives, never really caught my eye), the enclosure's ruggedness, and usb3.0 if you want to future proof.

that wiebetech enclosure looks interesting as it advertises products for forensic applications, which is a field I'm currently involved with. imo, it's pretty plain and ugly. i'm just more skeptical about the 'toughmount strips'. any insights on how well it does? pretty outrageous prices.

the adata one looks sexy though

Who the fuck cares if a HD enclosure is plain & ugly? I prefer to call it an industrial design. :p

I have the Wiebe Tech Tough Tech Mini XE with a WD 500GB Scorpio Blue inside. I'm happy with it so far. I'm not sure how well the toughmount strips protect the drive as I haven't dropped the unit, but it is very quiet.

My biggest concern with buying a drive and putting it into an enclosure is that a lot of the cheaper enclosures have crap USB chipsets in them. Compound that with most drives requirements for more than 500mA of power and it's a recipe for data corruption on the drive.

Mind you, not all enclosures fall into that category. The Wiebetech ones look like they come with a power adapter which alleviates the power draw issue (but means one more item to carry around with the drive which may be an inconvenience) There's also other brands (I think Macally is one that is geared towards Macs in general) that are pretty decent as well.

Most manufacturers try to get around that by giving a Y cable that uses 2 USB ports to give you 1A of power. However, I frequently see people only plug in one of the connectors and wonder why the machine doesn't detect the drive. At least with the pre-packaged drive + enclosures (like the WD or Seagate), it's been engineered and tested to work flawlessly with the chipset and a single USB connection. With buying your own enclosure and drive, you'll need to do research into drives and enclosures first otherwise you'll end up with a drive that's unreliable and frustrating to use - not to mention possible data loss.

Just my 2c on buying external enclosures...

I've been using a Seagate 500GB external HDD for quite some time now. It's works great, it's slim and portable, and has a very elegant design. Good worldwide warranty too, though you wouldn't really need it. It's been pretty damn reliable so far for me.

http://www.dclstore.co.uk/images/pro...ad2e1-rk-l.jpg

http://www.rcsnet.com/www_site/pix/p...3FAA2E1-RK.jpg