I take a lot of pics of my kids that I'm horrible about backing up. If my hard drive were to go down I'd be screwed. I'm thinking about finally getting an external hard drive for my Mac for the purpose of photo storage. Is there anything I should look for. I just received an email from MicroCenter for what they are calling a "hard drive blowout". Here's an example of some of the deals. Should I jump on any of these? And a dumb question: are external hard drives the same for PC and Mac? 250GB eSATA External Hard Drive • eSATA connector • Windows and Mac compatible $52.99 online - Save $57 $52.99 in-store after instant savings, $7 coupon and manufacturer mail-in rebates Reg. $109.99 / 620096 250GB USB SATA External Hard Drive • USB 2.0 connector $52.99 online - Save $67 $52.99 in-store after instant savings, $7 coupon and manufacturer mail-in rebates Reg. $119.99 / 617985 Western Digital Caviar 400GB SATA-300 Internal Hard Drive • 7,200 RPM • Serial ATA-300 • Up to 300MBps transfer $89.99 online - Save $40 $89.99 in-store after instant savings Reg. $129.99 / 724542 500GB IDE ATA/100 Internal Hard Drive • IDE Ultra ATA/100 • 8MB buffer • Up to 100MBps transfer $114.99 online - Save $35 $114.99 in-store after instant savings and $15 coupon Reg. $149.99 / 609750
i was thinking the same thing but for movies, if you look on new egg they have 500gb external hard drives for $94 without any mail in rebates
I don't think anyone needs a 500GB hard drive just to save photos. At most you will need 100-200GB. If you are saving music, videos or movies-you will need 500GB, but anything else is going overboard. I saw a deal from buy.com the other day- 320GB external HD for $30 after a $40 dollar rebate. But it sold out quickly before I was able to get one. The prices on these things have been dropping quickly over the past year.
yea i got a 500gb fantom drive from newegg.. it was like 112 after a 20 dollar rebate.. i have music, pictures, videos on it and it still isnt halfway full. the reason i got such a big drive was cuz im gonna use it to back everything up when i get a new computer.
Come to think of it, I guess I would need it for home movies edited with iMovie so maybe I need a larger one.
I have two LaCie 2TB - one at work one at home. They are, sadly, total pieces of crap, I highly recommend against them.
I have one of the slim line ones from WD for laptop and I absolutley love that thing. They are definitley worth it.
I just got an external hard drive. They generally work on both PCs and Macs. Some stuff I learned: - There's 4 main connection modes of external hds to the computer. slowest to fastest - USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, & eSATA (not regular SATA but eSATA). Firewire 400 hookup slots should already come on a Mac, and its reportedly faster and more efficient than USB (those are the two most commonly equipped on computers and the usual offering on external HDs). Check your computer to see what you have and the external HD to see if it can hook up to whats there. (For example this one has all the connections: http://www.clubmac.com/clubmac/shop...+FireWire+800/400+and+USB+2.0~mfg~301110U.asp) Not all of them have everything though so its good to check. I got mine hooked up by USB and havent seen much instances where I need to complain about the transfer speed anyways, even saving big files.... -Firewire 800 is not really equipped as much on comps. eSATA is the fastest of them all and is supposed to transfer data at close to the same speed of the internal hard drive but its RAAAARELY if at all equipped on computers, only on a few newer ones. And eSATA external drives are more expensive. Need a special eSATA expansion board or something to assemble on the computer if you dont have it. Same with Firewire 800. I'd say, unless you dont mind the added costs and luxury of it, its just more headache to deal with and totally not even necessary for saving just photos. - If you're wanting to back up your WHOLE computer's contents, there are a few programs out there for that. The one they kept recommending was Norton Ghost. It can take an image of your hard drive, then save that image onto your external hd. It costs money though, but there are free alternatives which I havent tried yet... - To further complicate even more there are portable external drives that don't need a power cord, only just get plugged into the USB (like an extra huge flash drive). But they are more expensive and offer less storage than regular types. For your needs, just seems any ordinary one will do. Hope you find a good one.
yeah, I'm looking for a 500gig external HD for storing documents and pictures as well. I already filled up my other 250 gig one with documents and pictures. Also need 5 boxes of tissue paper for a cold I have and one of those 12 inch bottles of lotion for chapped lips. I'm also looking for a large one way mirror (for brushing my teeth), a miniature digital movie camera that transmits recordings (for filming animals) and an automatic lockpicker (in case I get locked out).
FYI... Frys has 320GB Seagate FreeAgent External USB2.0 hard drive (5-year warranty) for $80 with no rebates and free shipping. Lowest on PriceGrabber is $108. Link is on slickdeals.net Check it!
my recommendation is to go big. Bigger than you think you need. You can actually just buy a hard drive and then get a case for it, but I don't really know if that is cheaper anymore. go terabyte
