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External HD for Mac
corrieboy2000
04-01-2008
Hi

I am after an external hard drive to hold my itunes music collection that is currently on my PC. I want to move it onto my mac and thought that to save on hard drive space I would use an external one.

I am looking for one that is PC and Mac compatible that would hold around 10Gb-20gB. Can anyone recommend one?
MaxBeta
04-01-2008
I got a Maxstor from PC World for less than £100, keep all my photos and iTunes library on it. Seems to work fine with my mac.
chrisbartley
04-01-2008
Proabaly have a job to get one that small nowadays

Being USB there should be no issue MAC vs PC other than bundled software

i.e. 250GB = £50
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...urce=1&DOY=4m1

or 120GB = £50
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...urce=1&DOY=4m1
jammers
04-01-2008
For sheer speed firewire 800 is quicker. The new firewire standard, which uses the same connection and port as FW800, is either 4 or 8 times faster (can't remember which lol) than USB 2.0
chrisbartley
04-01-2008
Twice as fast

Fw2 = 800Mbs

usb2 = 480Mbps
TheSoulBrother
04-01-2008
Amazon had the LaCie 500GB drives in their sale for £60. I picked up a couple. Great value.
chrisbartley
04-01-2008
Nice price.

I'm sure you were more interested in price but whats with the 'Porsche' styling thing.
Its a rectangular box for gods sake, how does that count as design/style

Seems FW2, commands something of a premium
369 for 500GB
jammers
05-01-2008
Originally Posted by chrisbartley:
“Twice as fast

Fw2 = 800Mbs

usb2 = 480Mbps”

Yes, but the newly agreed standard is even faster.
spenner999
05-01-2008
Originally Posted by corrieboy2000:
“Hi

I am after an external hard drive to hold my itunes music collection that is currently on my PC. I want to move it onto my mac and thought that to save on hard drive space I would use an external one.

I am looking for one that is PC and Mac compatible that would hold around 10Gb-20gB. Can anyone recommend one?”


I've got a Lacie 500gb USB2 hard drive, the "Porsche" one.

I paid around £65 for it from Staples and it's great for the kind of job you want it to perform.
sancheeez
05-01-2008
But surely, for an external HD to work on a mac, it'd need to be:

- white
- have "i" in front of it's name
- be available only from Apple
- cost about three times as much as the PC equivalent

no?
steveOooo
05-01-2008
any usb / fw drive will work with mac?
TheSoulBrother
05-01-2008
Originally Posted by sancheeez:
“But surely, for an external HD to work on a mac, it'd need to be:

- white
- have "i" in front of it's name
- be available only from Apple
- cost about three times as much as the PC equivalent

no?”

har har
chrisbartley
06-01-2008
Originally Posted by jammers:
“Yes, but the newly agreed standard is even faster.”

yes - I see now, wasn't aware of that. (400/800/3200)

Probably not worth the OP waiting for one of those though
jammers
06-01-2008
Originally Posted by chrisbartley:
“yes - I see now, wasn't aware of that. (400/800/3200)

Probably not worth the OP waiting for one of those though ”

I don't understand why Apple dropped support in its iPod range for firewire - it is such a better system than USB.
sancheeez
06-01-2008
Originally Posted by jammers:
“I don't understand why Apple dropped support in its iPod range for firewire - it is such a better system than USB.”

Because, much as I'm sure Apple hate to admit it, the majority of iPod buyers have a PC, not a Mac. Thus, most iPod users won't have firewire so why bother.
MadgeBishop
07-01-2008
Originally Posted by sancheeez:
“But surely, for an external HD to work on a mac, it'd need to be:

- white
- have "i" in front of it's name
- be available only from Apple
- cost about three times as much as the PC equivalent

no?”

Hilarious!

Incidentally, I love how macs really are plug & play, rather than PCs - which seem to be plug and never play or do after hours of trying to get it to work.

To the OP - don't bother with PC world, get onto amazon or go to Maplin. I picked up a good 500GB hard drive for my iMac on amazon dirt cheap.
steveOooo
07-01-2008
i bought a 750gb fw400 hdd off ebay for £90 (amazon at time 0 £190)

ive heard nothing but crap about lacies - i had a drive that needed a new power supply.
steveOooo
07-01-2008
Originally Posted by sancheeez:
“But surely, for an external HD to work on a mac, it'd need to be:

- white
- have "i" in front of it's name
- be available only from Apple
- cost about three times as much as the PC equivalent

no?”

sad isnt it
TheSoulBrother
07-01-2008
Originally Posted by steveOooo:
“i bought a 750gb fw400 hdd off ebay for £90 (amazon at time 0 £190)

ive heard nothing but crap about lacies - i had a drive that needed a new power supply.”


I can only speak for myself and have been using LaCie drives for years, no problems.
jammers
07-01-2008
Originally Posted by sancheeez:
“Because, much as I'm sure Apple hate to admit it, the majority of iPod buyers have a PC, not a Mac. Thus, most iPod users won't have firewire so why bother.”

Loads of PCs have Firewire - any decent PC should ship with it especially if you want to do anything decent on it like Video editing.
sancheeez
07-01-2008
Originally Posted by jammers:
“Loads of PCs have Firewire - any decent PC should ship with it especially if you want to do anything decent on it like Video editing.”

I don't think so.

First reference to numbers I found ...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...ce-status.html

... mentions 33% market share at peak. I doubt it's anywhere near that now. Not because firewire is bad .... simply that USB is too well established .... not just on computers but DVD players, car stereos, TV's .... it's everywhere! Firewire missed it's window. People with specialist needs will use it like you mention but's it's missed it's shot at mainstream I reckon.

It's done to it's 'niche' what the iPod has done to the DAP market!
TheSoulBrother
08-01-2008
Firewire didn't miss its window. It just had much more expensive licensing fees than USB. Its far superior but Apple and the other patent holders blew it.
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