HELP! External Hard Drive Advice Needed!

M

mr_mikes7

Registered
Ok, I have been wanting to add an external hard drive. I would like to get the WD My Book™ Premium ES Edition, a 500gb USB or eSATA drive. The problem is that I do not know what other things I need in particular to make it work. If you could provide a suggestion of the correct card and cable, and anything else I would need, I would really appreciate it.

My current setup is a Powerbook G4 Aluminum - 1.25 GHz, running 10.4.10

* I apologize in advance for any incorrect computer terminology I may have used. I am not a computer genius, just a college student needing more storage space.
 
You probably don't want the eSATA external hard drive, since your PowerBook G4 does NOT have an eSATA port. You could probably add a PCMCIA card with an eSATA port, but then that's just more stuff to lug around.

I would recommend a USB 2.0 external hard drive for use with your PowerBook. It's simple, built-in, and fast enough for standard use. The only thing you'd need to use that drive is the drive itself, something to power the drive with (more than likely the drive comes with the power cable), and a USB cable to connect it to your computer (more than likely the drive also comes with this cable -- if not, they're about 5 bucks at any computer store).

When and if you get the hard drive, it will come formatted in either FAT32 or NTFS format -- neither of which are optimal for use on a Mac. If you intend to solely use the hard drive with your Mac (ie, you won't need to take the drive to a Windows machine and access it), then the first thing you're going to want to do is reformat the drive in a more "native" Macintosh format like HFS+. It's a simple and quick procedure -- when you get your hard drive, come on back and we can walk you through the steps of reformatting it for the best use with your PowerBook.
 
You don't need anything special. The drive comes with AC adapter and
FW/USB cables. I believe your AlBook can handle FW400/800 and USB-2
connections. Choose a connection. If the drive has only FW400 ports,
connect via USB-2 (It's faster). Plug and play.

It'll probably show up on your desktop out of the box. If not, use
Disk Utility to format it. Let us know, and we can give you step-
by-step instructions on how to do that.
 
I understand with my current setup that firewire/usb would be the most practical, however, I want to make a backup of my DVD collection/photos/etc., and don't want to wait forever each time I transfer a 6-8gb movie...

I would like to get an e-sata connection via the pcmcia card. Even though it's more components, the hard drive and connections are just going to stay at my house, and I won't be "lugging" them around.
 
mr_mikes7 said:
I understand with my current setup that firewire/usb would be the most practical, however, I want to make a backup of my DVD collection/photos/etc., and don't want to wait forever each time I transfer a 6-8gb movie...

I would like to get an e-sata connection via the pcmcia card. Even though it's more components, the hard drive and connections are just going to stay at my house, and I won't be "lugging" them around.
Click to expand...

An external FireWire 800 drive would give as much throughput as your laptop hard drive could handle...

Why not just go all out and set up a RAID array with eighteen 1TB hard drives linked directly to your mobo via a fiber optic cable? Honestly, it's just a laptop, man.

If you absofreakinglutely want that eSATA setup, just research what will fit and do it.
 
Qion said:
If you absofreakinglutely want that eSATA setup, just research what will fit and do it.
Click to expand...

I would like to have the eSata. The good thing about the WD Hard Drive I want is that it is both USB/eSata, so I can start with the USB, and if I feel the need, upgrade to eSATA. I just want the faster transfer rates.

Is the only thing I am going to need the PCMCIA card w/ eSATA and an eSATA cable (besides the hd)? Any recommendations on which card/cable? Thanks
 
albloom said:
If the drive has only FW400 ports,
connect via USB-2 (It's faster).
Click to expand...
Exactly what information do you base this statement on?
It surely is NOT real world usage.
Sustained throughput of FW400 on an Apple computer is much faster then USB 2.0 on the same Apple computer.
The last time I tested my own hard drive, I cloned it in 6.3 min using FW400,
it took 9.7 min using USB 2.0.

jb.
 
Theoretically, USB 2.0 is faster... it has a maximum throughput of 480mbps, whereas FireWire is only 400mbps.

Real-world usage suggests that FireWire is slightly faster, though. I believe it has something to do with USB 2.0 using your computer processor for all/some of the processing it needs to do, whereas FireWire has its own dedicated processor... or something like that.
 
Plus Apple's USB 2.0 speeds simply aren't anything to write home about. At least nothing positive. (Apple gets slapped on their fingers again and again in heise.de's c't magazine.) Anyway: FW 400 is the way to go here. The internal drive won't do faster than that, anyway.
 
fryke said:
Plus Apple's USB 2.0 speeds simply aren't anything to write home about. At least nothing positive. (Apple gets slapped on their fingers again and again in heise.de's c't magazine.) Anyway: FW 400 is the way to go here. The internal drive won't do faster than that, anyway.
Click to expand...

...especially FireWire 800. My point exactly.
 
So are you suggesting firewire over eSATA, or are you just arguing amongst yourselves whether firewire is better over USB?
 
Why not just get a Lacie d2 extreme drive with the quad interface (sSATA, FW800, FW400, USB2)? The 320GB model is $189.95 and the 500GB model is $229.95. Both are at those prices on Apple's online store and qualify for free shipping.

FW400 will transfer large chunks of data faster than USB 2 will on a mac or pc. That's why its still included on a sizable portion of DV cameras even though USB 2 if theoretically faster. Its also the reason PROs rely on FW more heavily and why higher-end equipment is usually centered towards FW (large-format desktop printers [Epson R1800 — big difference printing with FW400 vs. USB 2], high-resolution scanners, etc.)

Burst Transfer Rates (max drive speed) [1]:
  • eSATA: up to 80-90MB/s
  • FireWire 800: up to 65-75MB/s
  • FireWire 400: up to 35-40MB/s
  • USB 2.0: up to 30-35MB/s

Interface Transfer Rates:
  • eSATA: up to 1.5Gbits/s (150MB/s)
  • FireWire 800: up to 800Mbits/s (100MB/s)
  • FireWire 400: up to 400Mbits/s (50MB/s)
  • USB 2.0: up to 480Mbits/s (60MB/s)

[1] Burst transfer rates vary from one computer to another and may vary slightly from one drive to another. Average speed is usually lower, depending on host configuration.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top