External HD

[cyprus mac man]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good External HD. Of course, it has to have a FireWire and Mac compatible. Also, it should have like more than 100GB (500GB would be GREAT!)

Thanks!

[infinite-loop]

LaCie external FireWire HDs are great..I've used one for years without any problems whatsoever..mine is 120gb but they do much larger capacity drives in the sizes you specify..

[macworks]

Personally, I've never been satisfied with LaCie products. Furthermore, there are a lot more junk hard drives out there than quality ones. I prefer to buy the bare hard drive and stick it into an enclosure of my choosing. This gives me the ability to buy a good quality hard drive like Hitachi or Seagate and then pick an enclosure that I like: http://www.macally.com/

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Like macworks said, I'm all for building your own enclosure. I use big, clunky Bytecc enclosures (the 5.25" models) which are available in FireWire, USB 2.0, and combo (both FW & USB) models. Slap in your 3.5" hard drive of choice, and you're off to the races.

I like those enclosures because they've got fans in them, which is great when working off of the external for a while as heat buildup isn't a problem with these enclosures. I've always been wary of smaller enclosures that don't have fans, since hard drives get hot under duress.

I recently build one from a Bytecc ME-320F enclosure and a Western Digital 320GB "Caviar" Special Edition (8mb cache) ATA/100 hard drive. Runs beautifully, works great with Mac OS X. Total cost was around $150 ($50 for the case, $100 for the drive on sale).

[bluemack]

this might seem self explanatory but how does one build your own hard drive? for most of you that might sound stupid, like how does one screw in a light bulb?
Do I buy the hard drive and then the enclosure and put it together myself or does someone else do it?
EL D put one together for $150 for a 300 gb. How?

bluemack

[ElDiabloConCaca]

The hard drive was a retail 320GB Western Digital WD3200JB ATA/100 drive on sale for $100.

The enclosure was a Bytecc ME-320F puchased for about $50.

Then, it's a simple matter of jumpering the drive correctly as per the hard drive instructions, screwing the hard drive into the case as per the case's instructions, then plugging it in and turning it on. I'm sure you could pay someone an extra $30 or so to do it for you, but it's nearly impossible to mess up when you're careful.

Yes, it just involves purchasing a hard drive, then purchasing a case for the hard drive and assembling them.

[bluemack]

Can you post me the web site where your purchased the drive and the enclosure? Why that enclosure? Curious about what your process was EL when you made your choices. How about pictures of how this type of thing gets put together. Newbie here.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144392

The enclosure was purchased from a company called "Altex" here in San Antonio, and they no longer sell it... but it's available elsewhere for about the same price: just Google "Bytecc ME-320F". Although the enclosure got poor reviews, I find it suits my needs -- it has a cooling fan for extended use, it's actually a 5.25" form-factor so I can swap in an optical drive if need be, and it's FireWire. The downsides are that it's a little noisy and big.

I'll post some pictures, both open and closed, later tonight or tomorrow when I have the chance.

I can highly recommend http://www.owcomputing.com for some excellent pre-built, inexpensive external drives.