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Maurice Allen
09-04-2008, 07:25 PM
Just got the new 24" iMac and now comes the add-ons. I am looking at the Iomega and LaCie drives, any personal experience is appreciated.

Thanks,

Maurice

Axel Hildebrandt
09-05-2008, 06:22 AM
I have the Western Digital 1TB My Book that supports Firewire 800. Works well with TimeMachine. Data transfer is much faster than with USB or Firewire 400: http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/m/50639599/search=WDH1Q10000N/st=product/sv=title/

Rocky Sharwell
09-05-2008, 06:23 AM
Congratulations on the new purchase.....

I have had several friends--including Artie-who were really unhappy with LaCie. I have been really happy with Western Digital MyBook drives. If the IMAC has FW800 get yourself a drive with FW800--it works well on the Mac.

I have also been really happy with a small drive from www.macsales.com. They are a really good source for mac gear.

Robert O'Toole
09-05-2008, 07:47 AM
Lacie drives are universally known as prone to failure. Not each and every time, only about 99% of the time.:D
Stay away you have been warned.

Artie had nightmare experiences with the company, some drives failed more than once and they would not give him a refund. Eventually the distributor not lacie offered a refund.

No matter the brand, plan for the worst, I would recommend a RAID 1 (mirror) capable drive at least.

Robert

Robert O'Toole
09-05-2008, 07:49 AM
from the Birds as Art Archives:

http://www.birdsasart.com/bn159.htm

" LaCIE WARNING

Less than nine months ago, for more than $3500, we purchased six LaCie Big Disk 500 gb drives from Zones ( a very reputable company) in hopes of simplifying the back-up system for our digital photographs. To date, five of the six drives have failed, an incredible three of them twice each. I asked the folks at LaCie if they would replace the units rather than repair them, but they refused, opting only to repair them. When I spoke to one of their reps, he told me that the product is a reliable one, that I just had "bad luck." (That was before two of the drives failed on the same day last week jeopardizing one-half of my digital image collection. I am now working with the nice folks at Zone in hopes of either having my money refunded in full or getting Zones credit for our purchase. We are planning on going to some sort of Raid 5 or Raid 10 system (with mirroring) quite soon. Had I not had a third back-up on a Maxtor 300gb external drive, I would have lost about 250 gbs of valuable digital images. Subscribers are warned against purchasing LaCie Big Disks. And considering the quality of that product, and the with the level of customer service that we have received, I would advise that you not purchase any LaCie products. Other who have had problems with any LaCie products are invited to e-mail us at birdsasart@verizon.net."

Robert

c.w. moynihan
09-05-2008, 09:51 AM
Western digital all the way. Cheap and reliable.

Maurice Allen
09-05-2008, 02:42 PM
I think that Western Digital My Book Studio 1TB is sounding good!!! Thanks for the help!

JP Bruce
09-05-2008, 04:03 PM
I just purchased a 1TB Western Digital so this thread makes me feel much better. Thanks to all.

Rocky Sharwell
09-05-2008, 04:05 PM
Keep your eye out for deals in the Sunday paper at Best Buy and Circuit City

Art Peslak
09-05-2008, 07:56 PM
Consider getting a Drobo. I have one with 4 500gb Western Digital hardrives. Its easy to setup and use and eliminates the problems with all the wires from external hard drives. I used to have 4 external hard drives and now have the same capacity with 1 connection to the computer.

Roger Clark
09-05-2008, 08:55 PM
Cheap and reliable.

Cheap, reliable, pick one!

Seriously, does anyone know of actual failure statistics on various disk drives?
Some USB drives come with 5-year warranties, which may not actually mean much, but it more than a 1-year warranty. I've never had a USB drive with 5-year warranties fail (home or work, involving dozens and dozens of drives).

In general, I do many backups, typically having at least 5 copies of all images.

1) Online on main computer (currently 1.75 terabytes)

2) 3 sets of backup USB disks, that get rotated, and 2 stored off site and not plugged into anything.

3) DVDs.

Never trust only one media type, nor any any one raid array (I have had raid arrays fail losing all data, but I had backups).

Roger

Christopher Hill
09-05-2008, 08:56 PM
I've heard a lot of good things about the Drobo. Personally, I have the WD MyBook Pro 2TB and it works very well (I use it in mirrored mode for redundancy). I will probably go with a Drobo as a secondary backup device as I like its flexibility and can use WD disks (or any other, for that matter) and let the Drobo manage everything else.

W T Lloyd
09-06-2008, 02:15 AM
Well, here's a vote for Seagate. I just built a new system, and while I used 2 150GB WD Velociraptor drives, one for OS/Programs and the other for Page File/Scratch disk, my main data drive is a 1T Seagate. The 1T Seagate will shortly migrate over into a RAID 5 with multiple 1T Seagate drives....key item being a internal caddy with a removable 3 1/2" hard drive as part of the RAID 5 array. Monthly backups, probably 2 months duration, will be kept at a different location. By using the internal caddy in a 5 1/4" drive bay I can easily swap the drives out without opening the case, and let them rebuild automaticly.

Gyorgy Szimuly
09-06-2008, 11:31 AM
Another vote for Western Digital which I have been using for a year now.

Szimi

Oscar Zangroniz
09-09-2008, 09:47 PM
Maurice:
Check out the Western Digital MY Book Mirror Edition. They have them in 500gb and 1 TB. Fairly inexpensive and easy to set up.
You can get info on their web page. www.westerndigital.com
Regards
Oscar

Giulio Zanni
09-10-2008, 05:36 AM
I use Time Capsule, it backs up your computer automatically and it connects wirelessly to your network

Giulio

Maurice Allen
09-12-2008, 04:07 PM
Just got my Western Digital My Book Studio hooked it up Firewire 800 backing up with Time Machine. Seems to be working great!! Thanks for all the good info!! Maurice

David Steele
09-14-2008, 12:35 PM
I must have been lucky with my Lacie externals and portables, have never had one fail on me.

Axel Hildebrandt
09-14-2008, 10:53 PM
Just got my Western Digital My Book Studio hooked it up Firewire 800 backing up with Time Machine. Seems to be working great!! Thanks for all the good info!! Maurice

Good to hear that you like it!

Bill Jobes
09-19-2008, 07:36 PM
Hi Maurice,
I run a MAC Pro, and after speaking at length with Apple Tech Support on this topic, I got the G-TECH Q Drive.

I've not regretted it for a nanosecond.

Here's a link.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TP490ZM/A?cid=AOS-US-SHOP-Froogle